Verio Announces Appointment of Greg Conley As CEO; Former IBM Veteran Takes Over Reins at Web Hosting and Network Solutions Leader To Continue Upward [February 2, 2004]

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Feb 2, 2004 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Verio, a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Communications and leader in global IP solutions, today announced that its Board of Directors has named Gregory A. Conley as chief executive officer.

Conley succeeds Justin Jaschke, who founded the company in 1996 and led Verio to become one of the largest domain-based Web hosting providers in the world. Jaschke subsequently presided over Verio's successful public offering, and a strategic acquisition by NTT Communications in September 2000 to establish one of the world's leading IP services companies. He will remain with the company in an advisory capacity, working with Conley, who takes over as CEO effective Feb. 9.

"Greg Conley is an outstanding business leader with extensive experience at high-profile services and solutions organizations such as IBM and Galileo, where he served some of the world's largest companies and leading brands," said Masanobu Suzuki, president and CEO, NTT Communications. "He has the perfect credentials to ensure that the impressive resurgence of Verio continues, and to continue to accelerate the global growth of this business as we increasingly expand within the enterprise market. We are delighted to announce Greg as the new CEO of Verio."

Conley, 48, was most recently president and chief executive officer of Tanning Technology Corporation, a global systems integrator and IT solutions provider that was acquired by Platinum Equity in June 2003. During his tenure, Conley helped transform the company into a high-performance solutions provider serving complex enterprise needs.

Prior to Tanning, Conley served as global general manager of e-Markets at IBM, with worldwide responsibility for all IBM activities in the highly-visible business-to-business e-Business sector. Conley was also a member of IBM's Senior Leadership Group.

"I look forward to working closely with NTT Communications and the Verio team to achieve continued financial and market results as we ensure ongoing investments in our solutions development and delivery, and excellent service to our customers," said Conley. "Verio is poised to capture an even larger share of the market and capitalize on its leadership position. I'm certainly excited about the opportunities."

Previously, Conley served as global general manager of IBM's Travel and Transportation Industry business, and worked at Galileo International, reaching the position of president and CEO. He started his career in IT in 1977 with IBM where he served as an engineer and scientist in the Federal Systems Division. In addition to his wide-ranging industry experience, Mr. Conley holds a J.D. degree from Georgetown University and a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University.

"Greg is taking the reins at an exciting time in Verio's evolution," said Jaschke. "In the past two years, Verio has strengthened its leadership position in SME hosting services, emerged as a global leader in enterprise level hosting services, ushered in the next generation of the Internet with the first commercial IPv6 offering, and developed a partner channel that is a leader in our industry segment. All of this has been accomplished while returning the business to financial health in the face of a massive industry downturn.

"Verio's financial strength combined with its broad arsenal of services makes for a powerful customer proposition," Jaschke added, "positioning the company for solid growth as the market continues its recovery. Greg's tremendous track record of building and growing large scale global operations and his expertise in networking, outsourcing and IT services uniquely qualify him to lead the company in this next phase of growth."

"Justin has built a strong and stable company that is well positioned for the future, of which he can be proud," said Suzuki. "As we move into 2004, Verio has reached a new level of operating and financial performance, preparing the way for continued growth as the business evolves. The acquisition of Verio was a vital step in NTT Communications' global Internet solutions strategy and Justin's leadership ensured we built a company that can deliver a broad range of IP solutions to meet customers' business needs. His vision and commitment to the company have been instrumental to the successful growth path we are on today."

About Verio

Verio Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Communications (NTT Com), which provides long distance and international telecommunications reaching over 200 countries worldwide. Verio is the world's largest operator of Web sites for businesses and a leading provider of global IP solutions. NTT Com and Verio market their global IP solutions under the NTT/VERIO brand. The company offers businesses a broad range of Internet services, including Web hosting, dedicated access, virtual private networks, and managed service offerings, among other enhanced services. Verio supports its operations with highly reliable and scalable global infrastructure and systems including the NTT/VERIO Global IP Network, and provides Web hosting services to customers in more than 146 countries. The combination of Verio and NTT Com offers services to meet the growing and diverse needs of all businesses, including small to medium businesses, large global enterprises and multi-national corporations. More information can be found at www.verio.com and www.ntt.com.

SOURCE: Verio

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