Local Matters Announces Executive Team Expansion and Transition

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Local Matters, Inc. founder and Chief Executive Officer Perry Evans has been elected Chairman of the company’s board of directors. He will also assume the position of President of the Media Publishing Division. Evans is succeeded as Chief Executive Officer by Mat Stover, current board member and former CEO of several local media companies.

With this transition, the company will organize into three operating divisions allowing each to better focus on customer needs and profitability.

• Media Technology Solutions Enables local publishers to expand their traditional service offerings and capitalize on emerging opportunities in the local search and online advertising arenas.
• Media Publishing Manages and owns branded local web destinations as well as online advertising placement and search optimization.
• Voice and Wireless Services Provides directory assistance services to landline and wireless communications carriers.

“This transition will accelerate growth and value for our customers, employees and investors with the caliber of scaled executive experience we need,” said Evans. “Mat brings continuity in his knowledge of the company as well as deep leadership experience in local media and scaled information services businesses. I’m excited to see the company through this critical growth transition, and to personally drive growth in the area of my greatest passion and industry experience.”

“Perry and the Local Matters team have established a unique franchise, and this is the perfect time to leverage the company’s foundation to help additional customers profit from the growth in online local information and advertising,” said Stover. “Excellence in product and service delivery, as well as continued leadership in local media knowledge and product innovation will be our priorities with our global client base as it grows and expands.”

As Evans becomes Chairman of the Board of Directors, David Moore, the current chairman, becomes Vice Chairman. Moore is Founder and Chairman of 24/7 Real Media, Inc., a WPP Company.

As part of the company’s transition, Curtis Fletcher, its Chief Financial Officer, has announced that he will be leaving after six years as a key financial executive helping to establish Local Matters and oversee its evolution. “Curtis has been a key partner from the formative days of Local Matters,” noted Evans. “He has our thanks, best wishes and expectations for future success.”

Fletcher is succeeded as Chief Financial Officer by Marty Katz. Over his thirty-year career, Katz has served as chief financial officer for a number of public and private companies. He began his career as a senior auditor at Deloitte and Touche. He is a Certified Public Accountant, and earned an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

About Local Matters

Local Matters, Inc. is a media technology solutions provider and specialized online media publisher, focused on the local search industry. It offers solutions that enable consumers to search for local content on the Internet and through voice-based directory assistance. It also owns and operates a network of thousands of locally oriented websites with content directed at consumers seeking extensive information about specific local shopping or planning activities. Local Matters delivers its media technology solutions to 22 Yellow Pages publishers in 14 countries, and 26 directory assistance service providers in 12 countries. For further information please go to: www.localmatters.com.

Matthew J. Stover
Chief Executive Officer
Local Matters, Inc.

Mat Stover is Chief Executive Officer of Local Matters, Inc., a media technology solutions provider and online media publisher, focused on the local search industry. Over the past 25 years, he has served as a senior executive with global corporations and growth companies in the fields of communications and information and marketing services across traditional and online media. He has been a director and adviser for public and private companies, as well as not-for-profit organizations and associations.

Since 2000, Stover has headed LKM Ventures, LLC, a firm that invests in, advises and participates in the management of growing businesses. From November 2005 until March 2008, he also served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ypOne Publishing, LP, a closely held company that provides print and online yellow pages directories to 50 communities in the United States and Canada. He is a director of Local Matters, Inc. and Telmetrics, Inc., as well as on the advisory boards of several private businesses. He is vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of Chester College of New England, a trustee of the Committee for Economic Development and an elected member of the Chester, New Hampshire School Board and a trustee of the Town’s Trust Funds.

Stover served from 1994 to 1999 as group president of Bell Atlantic Directory Group and president and CEO of its predecessor companies, Bell Atlantic Information Services Group and NYNEX Information Resources Company, where he oversaw the $2.4 billion domestic print white and yellow pages publishing business, created the first national yellow pages on the Internet, BigYellow^sm, as well as the successful web@once suite of website creation, copywriting and hosting products; established BellAtlantic.net as a major Internet Service Provider; and created Global Directory Services, Inc., which provided print and online shopping directory services in China, Greece, Poland and the Czech and Slovak Republics. He is a past director and chairman of the board of the Yellow Pages Publishers Association.

Earlier in his career, Stover was chairman, president and CEO of AGS Computers, Inc., vice president - Public Affairs & Corporate Communications for NYNEX Corporation, and senior vice president – Communications for American Express Company. He also was a director of Infoseek Corporation (SEEK), Ace Communications (ACEC) and i3 Mobile, Inc. (IIIM).

Stover is a graduate of Yale University and the Executive Program of the Colgate Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.