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Aricent Names Ex-Accenture CEO Joe Forehand as Chairman of the Board

AricentTM, a global innovation, technology and outsourcing company focused exclusively on the communications industry, named Joe Forehand Chairman of the Board. Mr. Forehand has been an Aricent board member since October 2006.

Mr. Forehand is currently a Senior Advisor at KKR, and prior to that served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Accenture, where he spent 34 years of his career. Mr. Forehand retired from Accenture in September of 2006.

“Joe’s success in navigating and evolving global companies through periods of significant change and growth are well documented,” said James H. Greene, member of KKR. “He’s been a tremendous force behind Aricent’s successful strategy to date and we look forward to his leadership ahead as the company continues to redefine the strategic supplier landscape for communications solutions.”

Mr. Forehand served as Accenture’s CEO from November 1999 through August 2004. He led Accenture through a period of significant change and growth – including launching the Accenture name – executing one of the largest global rebranding campaigns of its kind in record time. In July 2001 Mr. Forehand led the company in its IPO, one of the largest in US history. Mr. Forehand has also overseen the company’s strategic change initiative, moving Accenture from a conventional consulting model to a focus on business consulting, technology leadership and outsourcing.

During Mr. Forehand’s term as CEO, Accenture grew from $9.6 billion in revenue and 66,000 employees to $13.7 billion in revenue and 103,000 employees. As a public company under his leadership, Accenture’s total return to shareholders was 74 percent at a time when the S&P 100 Index decreased 14 percent. Accenture’s fiscal year 2004 return on invested capital would rank No. 1 relative to the S&P 100 companies.

Mr. Forehand has received many honors for his visionary leadership. Among them are the Carl S. Sloane Award for Excellence in Management Consulting and the Morgan Stanley Leadership Award for Global Commerce, sponsored by the Computerworld Honors Program.

Mr. Forehand also is a former member of the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with $4.5 trillion in annual revenues and nearly 10 million employees.

“Communications is a fundamental, strategic opportunity for competitive advantage across all industries. To innovate and thrive in this domain, companies must comprehend a fast changing, highly complex global environment of technologies, equipment, services, standards, and more,” said Joe Forehand, Chairman of the Board at Aricent. “Aricent was built to serve the fast growing need for communications expertise – from innovation to technology to services – in a highly scalable model. I’ve had the good fortune to be involved with Aricent from very early on when this idea was conceptualized and to be a part of the great success so far. I look forward to the future with the company well positioned to fulfill its mission of being the leading strategic partner for communications expertise in the world.”

Aricent’s investors include leading firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (“KKR”), Sequoia Capital, Flextronics International Ltd and The Family Office.

To learn more about Aricent, refer to http://www.aricent.com/about_us

Keywords & tags: communications, private company, silicon valley, kkr, sequoia, the family office, accenture

About Aricent

Aricent is a global innovation, technology and outsourcing company focused exclusively on communications. Aricent combines the leading innovation capabilities of frog design with unparalleled domain expertise in communications gained as a strategic supplier to the world's foremost infrastructure, application and service providers. The company is owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Sequoia Capital, The Family Office and Flextronics International Ltd. and has more than 550 clients worldwide. For more information, visit www.aricent.com.

Aricent and Celltop are trademarks of Aricent Inc., in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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