Plaut Announces Appointment Of New Co-Chief Executive Officer

Munich, Germany/Salzburg, Austria (ots) - Plaut AG, theinternational management consulting group, is today announcingchanges in respect of the composition of its Executive Board:Gary DiOrio (39), currently CEO of Plaut Americas, has beenpromoted to Co-Chief Executive Officer of Plaut AG and will sharethe CEO responsibilities together with the incumbent CEO, ErichLebeiner (58). Gary DiOrio has been CEO of Plaut Americas since July 2000 andhas overseen Plaut's rapid expansion in the United States,Canada, Mexico and Brazil. He joined the company in January 1997when he started Plaut's consulting operations in the SouthernUnited States. Prior to joining Plaut, DiOrio was an AssociatePartner with Andersen Consulting and a Senior Manager with Ernst& Young. The decision to promote Gary DiOrio was driven by hisleadership capabilities and the increasing importance of theAmericas to Plaut's revenues, profits and strategy. In 2001, theAmericas are expected to account for over 50% of Plaut'srevenues, with most of that revenue coming from the US. Inaddition, the US is at the forefront of the development of growthmarkets, such as B2B e-commerce, supply chain management andcustomer relationship management, reflecting the technologicallead of the United States in software development. Dr. Götz Huttenlocher, Chairman of the Supervisory Board ofPlaut AG, stated: "Erich Lebeiner, who suggested this solution,has well prepared the future of the Plaut Group in this way. Weare confident that Gary DiOrio will build on his impressiverecord of delivering revenue and earnings growth in the Americasand, together with Erich Lebeiner, will lead Plaut through thenext important stage of its development. The year 2000 has seencontinued strong growth in our business, as described in our mostrecent nine-month report, which will be reflected in Plaut'sprofits, due to be announced at the end of March 2001. We lookforward with optimism to the year 2001 and beyond." Gary DiOrio added, "We will continue to strive for 'best-in-class' performance in all lines of business and employ a moreaggressive focus on the bottom line to deliver greater value toour shareholders. We will continue to look for acquisitions thatenable us to leverage our under-utilized assets and develophigher growth and higher margin business." Erich Lebeiner, commenting on the change, stressed: "For thelast three years I have worked with Gary to ensure that we buildup new, high growth lines of business in the Americas. I lookforward to leveraging this experience to drive further expansionin the Americas as well as in Europe." In addition, the Supervisory Board of Plaut AG announced thatDidier Moscatelli (41), currently CEO of Plaut France and incharge of the South Europe Area, has been promoted to become amember of the Executive Board, effective immediately. DidierMoscatelli was a Director with Oracle and Andersen Consultingbefore he joined Plaut France in the spring of 1998 to build up aprosperous operation with revenues of more than EUR 18 million in2000. In another change, Volker Knotz has resigned from theExecutive Board of Plaut for personal reasons. Having been itsmember for many years, he successfully led Plaut's e-businessactivities branded as EdgeWing, both, in concept andimplementation. About Plaut Plaut AG is an independent, and internationally operatingmanagement consulting group with a global presence of currently45 subsidiaries in 19 countries. As Full Solution Provider forstrategy, business and IT-consulting and with sales revenuesamounting to EUR 230 million (in 1999), it is one of the leadingmanagement consulting companies worldwide. Since November 9, 1999Plaut AG is listed on the "Neuer Markt" of the Frankfurt stockexchange (PUT; Securities Code Number 918 703). You can obtain any further information relating to Plaut underwww.plaut.com/ir or under the addresses below.

Plaut Aktiengesellschaft Monika Kretzschmar Moserstrasse 33AA-5020 Salzburg Tel. +43 (0)662 4092-60 Fax +43 (0)662 4092-15Monika.Kretzschmar@plaut.de

Kirchhoff Consult AG Frank Schwarz Savignystraße 18 D-60325Frankfurt Tel: +49 (0)69 7474 86 0 Fax: +49 (0)69 7474 86 20Frank.Schwarz@kirchhoff.de

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