Highly Sought-After CEO Lee Barba Joins Telescan to Lead Internet Company'sGlobal Expansion
New CEO Cites Aggressive Growth Potential, Strong Financials, Premier Internet
Services, World Class Technology, Customers and Partners
HOUSTON, Feb. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Telescan, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSCN) today announced that Lee Barba, a highly sought-after corporate leader and former Chief Executive Officer of Open Link Financial, has joined Telescan as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Barba, 49, who will be headquartered in New York and will serve on the Board of Directors, was recruited by the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, David Brown, who will continue as Chairman.
Telescan announced in December 1999 that it planned to designate a successor to Brown, 60, as part of its five year strategic plan to aggressively expand the company's operations through global expansion, acquisitions and continued success in winning client mandates for its Internet services. Current clients include America Online, American Express, Forbes, Time Inc. New Media (Fortune) and CNBC.com whose parent GE/NBC holds an equity interest in Telescan.
"We are delighted Lee chose Telescan over a number of other major offers," said Brown. "There is no doubt why he received so many offers to lead other companies. With his proven leadership abilities and track record, he brings to Telescan a unique combination of experiences, ranging from Internet business development to two decades of Wall Street experience in the global capital markets. In today's rapidly changing marketplace it is imperative that a company's leadership understand the Internet, and also have the financial and operational background to make its Internet endeavors successful. He has all the qualities to drive our aggressive five-year global growth strategy."
Barba is well known for fostering innovative global growth strategies among companies he has managed. He implemented the European expansion of Open Link and doubled the company's revenues in one year by forming strategic partnerships with several Fortune 500 companies. Barba joined Open Link after 22 years on Wall Street, where most recently, he was responsible for managing global trading businesses for Bankers Trust Company. While based in London he was responsible for managing their European offices, as well as the Global Risk Management Advisory practice which had offices in Asia and Latin America. Upon returning to New York, Barba was the senior executive of the bank responsible for managing and consolidating the firm's technology and operations functions for the global capital markets businesses, which included over 2,100 in staff operating throughout Asia, Europe and North America.
Barba was attracted to Telescan due to "... the premier clients, partners and Internet services, as well as the excellent management team and Board of Directors which Telescan has developed over the past decade, positioning the company to grow in an aggressive, but disciplined, manner to fulfill its five year goals. With the demand for financial services delivered through the Internet growing exponentially, Telescan's track record of success in meeting the design, hosting and operational standards for its world-class clients is unsurpassed. Its strong financials put it in a very small group among Internet companies. I am looking forward to increasing the market's awareness of this record and aggressively expanding on it."
Earlier in his career Mr. Barba served as a co-head of the Fixed Income Division at PaineWebber and as a Vice President of Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb. He earned his MBA from Columbia University and his BA from the University of North Carolina.
About Telescan
Houston-based Telescan (http://www.telescan.com) is an industry leader in providing Internet services, innovative solutions for online technology and data retrieval tools for the financial and publishing industries, and also provides proprietary analytics and content to individual investors. Telescan's Internet supersite, Wall Street City(R) (http://www.wallstreetcity.com), provides a powerful suite of search tools, technical analysis and financial data. Telescan's wholly owned subsidiary, INVESTools Inc., operates the leading investment advisory subscription website (http://www.investools.com), featuring portfolio advice from proven money managers.
Telescan provides Internet services via private-label versions of its proprietary Internet technology to many of the nation's leading financial services and media companies, including America Online, American Express, Fidelity Investments, Forbes, GlobalNetFinancial, NBC, Time Inc. New Media (Fortune) and Playboy Enterprises.
"Safe Harbor" statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this news release that may be considered forward-looking statements could be subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those projected. These include uncertainties in the market, competition, legal, success of marketing efforts and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's SEC reports. The company assumes no obligation to update the information in this release.
SOURCE Telescan, Inc.
CO: Telescan, Inc.
ST: Texas
IN: CPR
SU: PER
02/29/2000 08:02 EST prnewswire.com |
