Webraska names Jamie Macdonald as Chief Operating Officer

Webraska names Jamie Macdonald as Chief Operating Officer

Poissy, January 16, 2001 - Webraska, the worldwide provider of wireless navigation services and technologies, announces the appointment of Mr Jamie Macdonald as Chief Operating Officer. Jamie will manage the day-to-day operations of Webraska in sales, marketing, production, customer support and business development. He will be contributing to the development of the overall strategy of Webraska.

Jamie brings with him over 28 years of Telecommunications Industry experience, the last 12 of which have been in a variety of senior roles in the Wireless sector. Formerly with Orange SA in Switzerland, as General Manager Marketing, Sales & Customer Care, and Deputy CEO, he actively contributed to Orange reaching second in a three player GSM market after 18 months of operation. Prior to Orange, he was with Bell Atlantic International Wireless on a 2.5 year assignment with EuroTel Praha in the Czech Republic, a joint venture with Media One and SPT Telecom. Mr Macdonald also held several positions at EuroTel including General Manager Sales & Marketing, Chief Operating Officer and interim Managing Director. Jamie's telecommunications career was originally established with Telecom New Zealand where he helped develop New Zealand's first cellular operator, Telecom Cellular, and also worked as General Manager of Telecom Paging. At Telecom New Zealand, Mr Macdonald held the position of General Manager Sales and Marketing of Telecom Mobile Communications. Educated in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, Jamie also studied at Stanford University, USA.

"Webraska is an extremely well positioned company and therefore an exciting opportunity", said Jamie Macdonald. "The convergence between the internet and mobile communications has enabled the development of personalised and localised services which provides mobile operators, portals service providers and developers with enormous potential in the field of personal navigation".

"Webraska is commited to helping telecom operators maximise their UMTS, wireless Internet and location technology investments, generating real revenues worldwide. I am delighted that Jamie has joined Webraska, bringing his considerable knowledge of the telecom industry", commented Jean-Michel Durocher, CEO and Founder of Webraska. "Jamie's international management experience is also welcomed at a time when Webraska is growing faster than ever, increasing its leadership in wireless navigation. Today with 120 employees and operating in 11 countries, Webraska plans to hire some 100 employees and open at least 4 new countries in 2001, and Jamie will greatly contribute to manage this growth effectively", added Mr Durocher.

About Webraska
Webraska is the worldwide provider of wireless navigation, mapping and traffic information services and technologies for telecom operators and car manufacturers. Turning mobile devices into worldwide personal navigation systems, Webraska's revolutionary IbDN™ (Internet-based Distributed Navigation) patented technology and its Personal Navigation Suite™ of valued-added services are solving mobile users needs everyday, increasing revenues, customer loyalty and brand recognition for leading service providers around the world, including SFR, Vizzavi, KPN, Belgacom, Airtel, Orange, ADAC and VoiceStream.

Helping carriers leverage their UMTS, Wireless Internet and Location-Technology assets, Webraska also offers the Personal Navigation API™ that allows application developers to launch, in a matter of hours, anywhere in most of Europe, North America and increasingly in the Asia-Pacific region, 'location & navigation-enabled' wireless applications (location-based services, m-commerce, games, city guides, fleet management, mobile Extranet, etc.). It is available directly to all developers via Webraska's ASP Centres, and via licensees of the Global Navigation Server platform and Global Navigation Database.

Webraska's technology has already been chosen by industry leaders, including Phone.Com (Openwave), Alcatel, Sagem, Schlumberger, SignalSoft, Wireless Car, PSA, Cellpoint, CT Motion, CPS, Blue Impact, Wapamente and In Fusio.

The company is headquartered in Poissy, France and has offices in London, Brussels, Madrid, Rotterdam, Milan, Stockholm, Tokyo, Singapore, Melbourne and Montreal.

For more information visit: www.webraska.com

Contact:

Birgitte Voilquin
Communications Manager
Webraska
Email: bvoilquin@webraska.com
Tel: +33 (0)1 39 22 63 04
Fax: +33 (0)1 39 22 63 44