St. Louis, Missouri, February 17, 2000. Data Research Associates, Inc. (DRA) (NASDAQ: DRAI) today announced that its board of directors has elected three new officers.
Michael A. Casale, Vice President, has been DRA's Customer Service Manager since April 1999. Mike has almost a decade's experience in library automation, joining Inlex, Inc. ("Inlex") in 1989 as a customer support technician and eventually becoming its third-party relationships manager. After completing his MBA studies in 1994, he rejoined Inlex, which had recently been acquired by DRA. He was promoted to branch manager of DRA's Monterey, California, office in 1995 and in that role demonstrated excellent skills in all phases of managing an independent, remote operation within DRA. His broad understanding and excellent implementation of customer service has been recognized by users of the Inlex system, who last year rated their customer service the highest of all DRA's legacy products.
A 10-year employee of DRA, Berit C. Nelson, Vice President, is responsible for software development, including increasing responsibility for the company's Taos development as a product librarian, team leader and manager. Berit joined DRA as a trainer and her extensive experience in a number of departments including sales support and sales account management, has given her important sensitivity to customer needs. Additionally, with her election, DRA once again has a professional librarian as a member of its executive management team.
Stephen P. Newman, Vice President, joined DRA in 1997 as the company's Director of Worldwide Sales with responsibility for managing a team of account managers and sales support staff. Prior to joining DRA, he had 20 years of direct sales and sales management experience. Steve has been an effective team leader in the launching of the Taos product. He recently assumed the additional responsibility of DRA's overall marketing and corporate communications functions, resulting in a highly coordinated and efficient sales and marketing organization.
DRA President and CEO Michael J. Mellinger commented: "These three individuals all have extensive leadership experience in their areas of responsibility, as well as with our customer base. With these promotions, our board recognizes each person's valuable contributions to DRA. We now have a strong executive group in place to build the acceptance and implementation of our new Taos product and the future of DRA."
Data Research Associates, Inc., headquartered in St. Louis, is a leading systems integrator for libraries and other information providers, offering its own proprietary information services software; third-party software and hardware; Internet, World Wide Web and other networking services; and other related support services.
