AUTOMOTIVE

Under Fraher's direction, Visual Numerics expanded its consulting business to focus on providing new analytic solutions for mainstream business users. Recent customer applications include forecasting, portfolio optimization, compensation modeling and predictive cost analytics. In addition, the company formed strategic channel partnerships in Japan and Australia to provide an even stronger foothold in those regions and further solidify the company's worldwide distribution. In 2004, Fraher was invited to serve on the Industry Advisory Committee (IAC) of the Supercomputing conference for high performance computing, networking and storage, one of the most highly regarded international conferences in the industry. Fraher represents the only independent software vendor and has led in Visual Numerics' support of a new SC¦05 committee, HPC Analytics, which promotes the convergence of high-end analytics and visualization techniques in the high performance computing arena. Additionally, under Fraher's leadership, Visual Numerics has had eight product releases in the past two years. These launches include a first-of-its-kind numerical library for Microsoft .NET users and a highly advanced neural network forecasting package, written in 100% Java™, for predictive analytics in data mining applications. These product enhancements and new releases underscore the company's commitment to providing the most advanced analytic capabilities for business and scientific use and has helped provide key revenue growth for Visual Numerics in new and emerging markets. "Phil has been a driving force in the company's success over the past several years, and I am very pleased to announce his promotion," said Charles Johnson, founder and chairman of the board of Visual Numerics. "Visual Numerics has served the scientific computing market since its inception in 1970, and I am happy to see the company's expertise carryover into the emerging business analytics space. Phil has played a major role in positioning an already strong suite of products and an outstanding management team for even greater market expansion. I look forward to great things for Visual Numerics in the coming months." "I am extremely excited to have the opportunity to influence the direction of Visual Numerics and to keep it at the forefront of the growing market for advanced analytics," said Phil Fraher, president and chief executive officer of Visual Numerics. "This company has been leading the field of high performance computing for 35 years and is now making a major impact on the mainstream business sector. With highly scalable products in all major programming languages and an unmatched level of technical expertise, Visual Numerics is well positioned for significant growth." Phil Fraher Prior to joining Visual Numerics, Fraher was COO and CFO at Brightmail, Inc., a successful venture-backed Bay Area start-up company, where he played a key role in raising $35M in venture capital for the company during one of the most difficult economic environments experienced in decades. He was responsible for leading Brightmail's expansion efforts into Europe and Asia Pacific. Fraher also served as CFO at Cahners Business Information Electronic Media Division, where he developed a sophisticated Web portal strategy to grow that company's business. Earlier in his career, he also held financial management positions at Pilot Software, a developer of online analytical processing (OLAP) tools, and Exxon Production Research Co., which develops oil exploration software, among other products. Fraher earned an MBA from the University of Rochester William E. Simon School of Business Administration and completed his undergraduate studies in Computing Engineering at Auburn University. Background: Visual Numerics has provided technical software solutions for numerical analysis and visualization for more than three decades. The company's software products help users understand complex data from a variety of sources and build business-critical applications. Visual Numerics offers two product lines: the IMSL Numerical Libraries for powerful mathematical and statistical analysis and the PV-WAVE® visual data analysis development environment. Visual Numerics also offers customized consulting services for applications that involve mathematical, statistical, or visual data analysis to meet today's business analytical needs. Visual Numerics' software tools are used by major corporations, academic institutions, and research laboratories worldwide, including such high profile companies as: Bear, Stearns & Company; Barclays Global Investors; Priceline.com; The Dow Chemical Company; Humana, Sandia National Laboratories; and Boeing Company. This large and diverse customer base is supported through a direct sales force, wholly owned international subsidiaries, and international distributors. For more information about Visual Numerics, please visit www.visualnumerics.com.