INDUSTRY VETERANS JOIN COURION EXECUTIVE TEAM(email this article)

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — August 6, 2003 — Courion (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies)Corporation, a leading provider of self-service identity management solutions, today announced that former RSA Security Vice President of Finance John Sprague has joined the company as chief financial officer (CFO) responsible for the company’s finance and accounting operations.  Sprague brings more than 22 years of experience to the position, most recently helping RSA Security grow from a $50 million U.S. company with 200 employees to a $300 million worldwide company with over 1,000 employees.  

Courion also names industry veteran Deborah Pappas as vice president of marketing.  With more than 20 years of marketing experience in the high technology industry for companies ranging from early stage VC-backed start-ups to publicly held global leaders, Pappas is responsible for Courion’s worldwide marketing initiatives, including corporate and product marketing programs and strategy.  She previously served as the senior marketing executive at Lightbridge, Inc., a $176 million provider of customer provisioning software and services to the wireless communications industry.  During her tenure at Lightbridge, she led the company’s global marketing expansion and new product and service launches that resulted in 400% revenue growth.

Courion has already doubled its number of new customers to date this year.  As more and more organizations turn to the Courion Identity Management SuiteÔ to automate the resolution of common operational challenges and increase security while providing measurable cost-savings, greater operational efficiencies and significant productivity improvements, Courion President and CEO Chris Zannetos is charging Sprague and Pappas with driving the company’s finance and marketing departments to continue to scale its business globally.  He explains, “With over 2.5 million users of our self-service identity management solutions and 160 customers and growing, we are excited to have John and Deb on board to help lead us along this aggressive growth path and ensure that our marketing programs and financial practices also deliver value to our customers.”

Prior to his six years with RSA, Sprague managed U.S. financial operations including a great deal of merger and acquisition activities at Genzyme Corporation, a $1 billion leading biotechnology company.  Sprague also oversaw financial operations at Pyramid Communications until it was sold to Evergreen Media for $300 million – a 155% shareholder return.  He has also held senior financial management positions with Versyss Inc. and Deloitte & Touche.  He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Boston College.

Deborah Pappas previously drove the marketing effort for Global Access Telecommunications to increase revenue by 50% from $25 million to $38 million within a year, resulting in its acquisition by Williams.  Her marketing management experience also includes senior positions with a number of technology firms including Logica and Inceptor.  She also held various account management and business development positions at direct marketing and advertising agency Bombaci + Mitchell Associates, working for such clients as Lotus, Marcam and Chase.  Pappas holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Colby College and a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business, Babson College.

About Courion
Courion Corporation is a leading provider of self-service identity management solutions that help enterprises manage the access rights and credentials of employees, business partners and customers with more speed, more security and less cost.  Courion’s Identity Management Suite, anchored by its AccountCourier® user provisioning and PasswordCourier® password management product lines, securely automates the resolution of common operational challenges such as user account setup and deletion and password reset and synchronization.  Courion’s non-invasive, self-service architecture enforces security policies, while providing measurable cost-savings, operational efficiencies and productivity improvements.

Courion’s customers include industry leaders such as American Electric Power, The Boeing Company, Children’s Hospital Boston, Fannie Mae, GE, Office Depot, SunTrust Banks, government institutions such as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Census Bureau, and large not-for-profit organizations such as Kaiser Permanente.  Courion is funded by QuestMark Partners, JMI Equity and other private investors.  For more information, contact Courion’s headquarters in Framingham, MA, USA at  508-879-8400 or visit www.courion.com.  

Courion, PasswordCourier and AccountCourier are registered trademarks of Courion Corporation. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.