Steve Norris was one of the co-founders of The Carlyle Group in Washington, D.C. serving as President of its management company from inception in 1987

Steve Norris was one of the co-founders of The Carlyle Group in Washington, D.C. serving as President of its management company from inception in 1987 to 1996. He will be Chairman of Stephen Norris & Co. Capital Partner's Investment Committee and will principally focus on sourcing of investment opportunities and investment strategy, as well as structuring and negotiating investments and exits from investments.

Mr. Norris was involved in the decision-making process in essentially every major Carlyle investment decision from its beginning as a $105 million fund that made investments of more than four times that amount through extensive use of co-investors and strategic partners. Those investments yielded an annual return on investment in excess of 40%. He also served on the boards of directors of major Carlyle portfolio companies. He was actively involved in recruiting all of Carlyle's current senior partners and played a major role in recruiting President George W. Bush to serve as a director of one of its portfolio companies and in enlisting former Secretary of State James Baker III and former Secretary of Defense Frank C. Carlucci to be senior partners of Carlyle.

Mr. Norris acted as a principal financial advisor to Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Al Saud of Kingdom Holding Company, in structuring and negotiating the re-capitalization of Citibank, which returned over $15 billion in profits on about $590 million of equity invested. He also advised or played a key role in other Kingdom Holding Company investments. He was appointed by former president George H.W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as one of five governing members of the $100 billion Federal Retirement System Thrift Investment Board.

Since 1997, Mr. Norris, and certain members of his team, have worked on a number of investments including real estate investments in Europe and the United States. They were involved in amongst others the privatization of Thompson CSF, the recapitalization of Suez, the acquisition of portions of Credit Foncier's real estate portfolio in Paris by the German firm of IVG, the formation of Nomura's (London) bid for a Dutch mortgage bank, the offer by a major Saudia Arabian investment firm for Lamborgini in Italy, and the formation of a bid by Leucadia International's for the Labouchere Bank in Holland. He also negotiated and structured investments in Synxis Corporation, which was backed by George Soros and Mr. Norris, and MARC Global Holdings.

Alex Bajan
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The Carlyle Group has added three senior pros for its Central and Eastern European

The Carlyle Group has added three senior pros for its Central and Eastern European private equity team, based in Warsaw. They are: Janusz Guy, managing director, formerly a managing director with Spectra Holding; Piotr Nocen, director, former partner with 3TS Capital Partners; and Aleksander Kacprzyk, director, formerly with McKinsey & Co.

PRESS RELEASE

Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group today announced that three senior private equity professionals have joined its Central and Eastern European team based in Warsaw, Poland. Janusz R. Guy, Managing Director, Aleksander Kacprzyk, Director and Piotr Nocen, Director, will join the team established by Managing Director, Ryszard Wojtkowski, in August 2007.

Janusz R. Guy, Managing Director, comes to Carlyle from a variety of Senior Executive assignments with global and international businesses. Most recently he was a Managing Director at Spectra Holding, a privately held holding company with majority interest in large pharmaceutical companies in Poland and CEE region. Prior to this Mr Guy was Vice President of IVAX Pharmaceuticals, the sole shareholder of Polfa Kutno, which Mr Guy led through a successful restructuring process as President and CEO. Mr Guy has also held General Director positions at Diageo, Benckiser N.V. and The Coca-Cola Company. Mr. Guy gained his MBA in International Business from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Aleksander Kacprzyk, Director, joins from a prominent investment firm in Poland where he was Investment Director. Prior to this Mr. Kacprzyk was with McKinsey & Co where he worked on projects in the manufacturing, consumer goods, financial institutions, transportation and pharmaceutical sectors. Mr. Kacprzyk has an MBA from Sloan School of Management at MIT.

Piotr Nocen, Director was previously an Investment Director and Partner at 3TS Capital Partners. Prior to 3TS, Mr. Nocen worked with the Financial Advisory Services team at PwC. Mr. Nocen has experience in the media, telecoms and technology sectors. He has an M.Sc. in Finance and Banking from Warsaw School of Economics (Poland) and is a CFA charterholder.

Ryszard Wojtkowski, Managing Director, The Carlyle Group, commenting on the team expansion, said: "Janusz, Aleksander and Piotr are three fantastic additions to Carlyle's Central and Eastern European team. They bring with them close to 50 years of experience in M&A and company management combined with deep local market knowledge. I am delighted that we have been able to attract such high caliber investment professionals so soon after opening the CEE office."

Daniel A. D'Aniello, Co-Founder and Managing Director, The Carlyle Group, added: "With this new injection of talent into the CEE team, we have created a strong platform for investment in this exciting region. The hiring of Janusz, Aleksander and Piotr fits right into our global strategy of creating regional teams staffed by local professionals, who bring to Carlyle their knowledge and networks in the countries in which we invest."

Alex Bajan
CEO
www.RAQport.com Inc.
2004 North Monroe Street
Arlington VA 22207
Alex@raqport.com
Tel1: 703 528-0114 or Tel2: 703 652-0993
Toll Free: 1800 695-6200
Fax:703 940-8300
Cell: 703 944-6937