Catuity Names New CEO

The Board of Directors has named Mr. Racine, the founder and managing principal of Altamont Partners, as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Catuity Inc. to replace Michael V. Howe. Altamont Partners was retained in May to advise the board on merger alternatives. The board also announced that Clifford Chapman has been appointed an independent director. Both appointments bolster the depth of the companys team as it executes a turnaround of Catuity and brings the total number of Catuity directors to five. The board also affirmed its confidence in Jack Lowry, the chief financial officer and Company Secretary since 2000. The new team will provide a detailed briefing for all investors at the specially called shareholders meeting set for 9:30 a.m. in Sydney on Monday, November 1, 2004. The meeting will be hosted at the Wesley Conference Centre, 220 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW Australia 2000. Mr. Racine, 40, founded Altamont Partners in Charlottesville, Va. in 1997 and the firm has advised many of the leading payments organizations in North America and Europe about strategic and merger related issues. Prior to Altamont Partners, he was a principal at SNL Financial, also in Charlottesville, Va., the highly regarded merger and financial analytics provider for the financial services industry. From 1995-1997, Mr. Racine played a key role in SNLs emergence as a market leader in the face of larger, established competitors. Prior to that, he spent five years in a variety of operational and strategic roles in the financial services division at Thomson Financial. Before spending the last 14 years working in the financial services and payments industries, Mr. Racine worked in the media industry at leading companies including Ingersoll Publishing Co. and Capital Cities-ABC. He attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. The Board of Directors also announced the appointment today of Mr. Clifford Chapman, 35, to the board. Mr. Chapman is well regarded as a private investor who has solid credentials in technology-focused markets. In addition to working with Andersen Consulting and Booz Allen & Hamilton, Mr. Chapman has also played key leadership roles in two high profile successes. Most recently, he was the CEO and investor in the turnaround of mindSHIFT Technologies, a managed services provider focused on IT outsourcing for small and medium enterprises. From June 2002 through October 2003, he restructured the sales process, cut costs and acquired three companies to take mindSHIFT to profitability. He then raised $11 million in fresh capital from two highly respected U.S. venture capitalists before recruiting a new management team to drive the next stage of the companys growth. Prior to MindSHIFT, Mr. Chapman was the VP of Business Integration for AppNet, a full-service Internet professional service and managed hosting company that he helped take public in 1999 before being sold in a $2 billion transaction in late 2000. During his tenure, he was responsible for the integration of a dozen mergers. Prior to AppNet, Mr. Chapman co-founded NMP, a full-service consulting business and managed hosting company. He has also worked with numerous start-up businesses. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS in Computer Engineering from Lehigh University.