Joan Sills, Former CEO and President of Westech, to Lead BrassRing, A B2B Hiring Management and Recruitment Company

New York, February 15, 2000 -- BrassRing Inc., a business-to-business hiring management and recruitment company, has named Joan Sills, former CEO of Westech ExpoCorp, as its new CEO. Jonathan Grayer, chairman of BrassRing, made the announcement. Sills will assume her new role upon the completion of BrassRing's acquisition of Westech.

Sills and the BrassRing team will build a vertically integrated portfolio of recruiting and hiring management services. Together with Deborah Besemer, president and CEO of BrassRing's HireSystems unit, and Gregory Osberg, president of BrassRing Online, she will ensure that BrassRing becomes a premier business-to-business hiring, management and recruitment company. HireSystems offers companies Web-based hiring management services. BrassRing Online provides recruiting and career development services for consumers.

Mr. Osberg was the former president of Kaplan Professional, a division of Kaplan Inc., and prior to that he was president of sales and marketing for CNET. During his tenure at CNET, revenue grew by 68%, and the company's first year net income increased to $2.6 million in 1998 compared to a net loss of $24.7 million in 1997. Ms. Besemer spent more than a decade at Lotus, most recently as executive vice president of worldwide field operations. At Lotus, she generated more than $1.3 billion in revenue. She managed more than 4,000 employees in 46 countries, and was credited with helping to build the Lotus Notes business.

In addition, BrassRing announced that Sills and Besemer will become members of the board.

"We now have a world-class executive team in place," said Jonathan Grayer, Chairman of BrassRing. "Together this executive team will expand our Internet recruitment offerings, and introduce highly targeted products and services to help employers find and hire the right candidates faster."

Last week BrassRing announced the pending acquisition of Westech, a fast-growing provider of career events and Internet recruitment services in the high-tech industry. As CEO of Westech, Sills successfully unified the Santa Clara, CA, company's online and offline divisions and raised its brand awareness. More specifically, she launched incpad by Westech (www.incpad.com), the groundbreaking technology information and career portal, supported by a nationwide advertising campaign. She also oversaw record booth sales for Westech Career Expo, with the February 7-8 event in Santa Clara becoming the company's biggest job fair ever.

Before joining Westech, Sills was a pioneering executive in the hospitality industry, with a forte for building brands. She spent 13 years with the Marriott Corporation and was president of a $150 million division of Carlson Companies.

Sills was also president of Pacific Marine Yachts, an entrepreneurial Bay Area company. At Pacific Marine, she led the organization in a turnaround, spurring same-unit sales to increase by 27% and profits to soar by more than 600% in a single year.

In addition to branding, Sills' strengths include strategic business planning, sales, and marketing, skills she intends to leverage at BrassRing.

"BrassRing plans to grow as a leader in business-to-business recruitment services while capitalizing on Westech's expertise in the technology market," says Sills. "The major competitive edge our clients have is their ability to attract the best talent. BrassRing will help companies hire the best candidates quickly and easily."

About BrassRing Inc.
BrassRing offers employers a vertically integrated suite of online and offline recruitment and hiring management solutions. It is a leading provider of career events in North America and Europe, and offers a wealth of online recruiting services through thepavement.com, a career/lifestyle site for college graduates, and kaplancareers.com, a site devoted to technical professionals.

In addition, BrassRing offers state-of-the-art hiring management solutions through its HireSystems unit. Incorporated in 1997, HireSystems provides hiring management services to more than 100 companies including Time Warner, Inktomi, 3Com, Bose and Phone.com.

Created in September 1999, BrassRing was formed through the combination of Kaplan Career Services, Terra-Starr, Crimson & Brown Associates, thepavement.com and HireSystems, some of the most respected names in traditional recruitment, assessment, training and online hiring management.

Following the acquisition of Westech, which is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2000, BrassRing will be 42% owned by Kaplan, Inc., a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO), 27% owned by Tribune Company (NYSE: TRB) and 23% owned by Central Newspapers (NYSE: ECP) with the remaining 8% owned by Accel Partners.

Press Contact: pubrel@kaplan.com, (212) 492-5965

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