HONG KONG, Jan. 23, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Hong Kong based Artificial Life, Inc. (Pink Sheets:ALIF), a leading provider of award winning mobile technology and applications today announced that it has established an independent advisory board of senior, high profile international advisors.
The new advisory board initially consists of six individuals: Ajmal Rahman (chairman of the advisory board), Christian Gloe, Michael March, Roxy Meade, Prof. Edouard Bannwart and Rolf Levenhagen. Further members may be appointed by the company in the coming months.
Ajmal Rahman, 42, is an independent strategic advisor and private investor based in London. He worked for Merrill Lynch in several senior positions for over 17 years from 1986 until 2003. From 2001 to 2003 he was the co-head of the Asia Investment Banking Group of Merrill Lynch based in Hong Kong. Between 1996 and 2001 he was managing director and regional head of Merrill Lynch's Asian Equity Capital Markets group. Prior to this appointment he worked in the ECM for Merrill Lynch in London and New York.
Ajmal has agreed to serve as the first assigned chairman of the Advisory Board.
Christian Gloe, 42, is President Publishing for Atari, one of the world's leading game publishers. At the beginning of his career he did a trainee program for L'Oreal and worked after that in sales and marketing for L'Oreal's luxury consumer division. In 1988 he joined the entertainment software industry and has held various senior international positions for Acclaim and Virgin before joining Atari.
Michael March, 49, is a lawyer, media executive and merchant banker with almost 20 years experience living and working in Asia. Based in Hong Kong, he is currently Managing Director of Asian Investment Partners LLC and an independent media consultant. Until 2004, he was Senior Vice President of Sony Pictures Television International where he had regional responsibility over Sony's cable and satellite networks in Asia. In addition Michael was Chairman of the Board of Super TV in Taiwan. Prior to joining Sony in 1998, Michael was the first Managing Director of the National Geographic Channel Asia, and also served as General Counsel for General Electric's NBC in Asia, where he spearheaded the merger of CNBC Asia with Dow Jones's Asia Business News Channel. From 1992 to 1996, Michael was Asia General Counsel for NYNEX Corporation (now Verizon Corp.) where he structured and negotiated complex telecom fixed line and mobile network infrastructure transactions in Southeast Asia, and was involved in the initial exploration of foreign investment projects in China's telecommunications industry. He practiced law from 1984 until 1992 at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in the firm's New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo offices.
Roxy Meade, 48, is an international publicist working out of London. Her client base, over her 20 plus year career, has included Whitney Houston (for nine years), Queen and Freddie Mercury (for 10 years), David Bowie, Channel 4, BMG Records and Arista Records. The development of her company, Lipsey Meade PR, launched in the late 80's, gave her a pre-eminent position in the music industry representing scores of American and UK artists in overseas territories.
Edouard Bannwart, 63, is a resident of Zurich, architect and urban planner. He is a virtual reality pioneer in the areas of 3D virtual cities (Cyber City Berlin 1988), interactive avatars (Virtual Head 1996) and mobile interaction design (Live Interface (Since 2003)). At the time, he developed a new live interface technology for business process management, a mixture between live pictures by webcams, phone cams and Web 2,0--applications. He was the founder and president of ART+COM 1987-94, echtzeit AG 1995-2001 and Reality-lab AG since 2002. He was a professor for urbanisation at the UdK Berlin, Media-Environments at the Bauhaus University, Weimar and Telecommunication -- Cities at the TU Darmstadt. Further activities: Cyber City, e-Berlin, Virtual Head, (Deutsche Telekom) Ars Electronica Center, Linz, Expo 2000, (Berliner Festspiele), Future Lab (Deutsche Telekom), Teleforum (BMW), Face to Face to Cyberspace (Fondation Beyeler, Basel), Live Interface (SAG).
Rolf Levenhagen, 58, is a German sales and marketing professional. At the beginning of his career he worked in different positions for IBM for 11 years and the last 6 years as global sales manager for IBM's banking information systems (S.W.I.F.T.). After he left IBM he became sales manager for Central Europe of Cincom Systems and thereafter director of AICORP GmbH, Bad Homburg. In 1989 he took over the management of SYSTEMS CENTER GmbH. His career as an entrepreneur started in 1992 when he founded ITEM -- Information Technology & Management GmbH. In 1994 he co-founded Qnet Systems, a distributor of leading CRM Technology. He was also director global sales and marketing for Artificial Life, Inc. He is currently located in Cape Town, South Africa where he is mainly involved in the transfer of leading mobile technology into the fast growing African markets. Rolf is a co-founder of the 'Elephants Club', a German business club for top level executives which provides an excellent basis for business related networking.
"We are very excited to be able to work with such distinguished senior business professionals. All members of the board are highly respected, well known and experienced executives with a broad international industry background and knowledge and a strong network of personal and business contacts. In the current global re-expansion phase of Artificial Life it is crucial for us to work with internationally experienced professionals and to listen to their advice and tap into their networks," said Eberhard Schoeneburg, Chairman and CEO of Artificial Life, Inc.
About Artificial Life
Artificial Life, Inc. (Pink Sheets:ALIF) is a public U.S. corporation headquartered in Hong Kong and a leading global provider of award winning mobile technology, content, games and applications (see also: www.artificial-life.com; www.v-girl.com; www.virtual-boys.com; www.v-disco.com; www.v-penguins.com; www.botme.com).
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Artificial Life, Inc.'s business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see the "Risk Factors" described in the Company's Annual Report or Forms 10-K, 10-K(SB) or 10-Q(SB) for the recent fiscal years. All information set forth in this press release is as of January 23, 2006 and Artificial Life, Inc. undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.