July 17^th, 2002

(Seattle) Crisis Consultants Group, Worldwide, Inc., ("CCG") a Seattle-based consulting firm focused on crisis preparedness for companies and organizations, announced today the successful launch of the world's first e-learning course for crisis preparedness. The web-based course, entitled "Crisis Preparedness," is designed to allow crisis team members to quickly acquire an advanced understanding of the nature of crisis and begin the process of developing an effective crisis response plan for their organization. In the post 9-11 atmosphere of heightened awareness of the need for crisis preparedness, the course is highly relevant to organizational requirements.

The course can be used on a stand-alone basis by companies that simply wish to create a sharper awareness of crisis preparedness issues and also as a prelude to customized on-site crisis simulation training. After one year of research and development, the 4-module course has now recently been successfully tested by a crisis team from Shoreline Community College, one of Washington State's leading community colleges. Course contents were also been fine-tuned in response to feedback from senior executives of several major corporations.

According to David Chard, CCG president and author of the course, "This represents a real breakthrough in the field of crisis preparedness. We created the course in a web-based format in response to clients' requests for faster, more cost-effective ways to train cross-functional crisis teams. By putting the course on the web, busy executives in multiple locations can take the course wherever they are located at times which fit their schedules. The highly interactive nature of the course is a vast improvement over the previous 'death by PowerPoint' training delivery which requires everyone to be in the same place at the same time. This reduces on-site training time significantly," Chard stated.

Dr. Holly Moore, president of Shoreline Community College in Seattle stated, "We are so pleased with our experience of CCG's e-learning course for crisis preparedness. Our executive team is incredibly busy and this tool enabled each of us to experience the challenges of crisis preparedness even before we ran a simulation. The data extracted from our interactions with the on-line course proved critical in making the actual simulation highly realistic and effective as a learning experience. The whole process has jump-started our crisis planning process at Shoreline," Moore said.

CCG's e-learning course is fully customizable to meet the special needs of any organization from any industry.

About Crisis Consultants Group Worldwide, Inc. (CCG)

Crisis Consultants Group Worldwide, Inc., was founded by public relations and crisis management veteran David Chard in 2000, with a mission of helping companies and organizations to develop high performance crisis teams. CCG uses a unique combination of web-based technology and on-site training to expedite the development of crisis teams that can respond effectively to crises in real time. CCG's training methods are grounded in the principles of Action Learning a state-of-the-art coaching model for developing high performance teams.

CCG employs top trainers, crisis consultants and legal experts to train crisis teams and lead them a high state of crisis readiness. CCG is based in Seattle, Washington and is a member of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce and the American Society of Training and Development. CCG works in partnership with E-Change Solutions, a developer of e-learning solutions for Fortune 500 corporations.

DAVID CHARD

President,

Crisis Consultants Group WORLDWIDE, Inc.

David Chard is President of Crisis Consultants Group Worldwide, Inc., (CCG.) After a 24-year career in professional public relations in Asia, Chard launched CCG in 2000 to create the world's first global web-based crisis preparedness training capability, with operational headquarters in Seattle, Washington. CCG uses a unique combination of web-based technology and on-site training to expedite the development of crisis teams that can respond effectively to crises in real time. CCG's training methods are grounded in the principles of Action Learning a state-of-the-art coaching model for developing high performance teams.

Before launching CCG, Chard served as president, Asia Pacific for Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, the world's largest independent public relations company. In this role he supervised a pan-Asian network of nine Edelman offices and 26 affiliates. During this time he also served as Asia Pacific sector head for crisis management and in this role led the development of crisis preparation and response programs for key clients in the region.

Beginning in 1976, Chard lived and worked professionally in Asia Pacific with a communication focus, grounded in the hands-on development of advertising, public relations and corporate reputation programs for multinational firms. His career experience spans three successful entrepreneurial start-ups, including branch offices for J.Walter Thompson and Hill and Knowlton, and most recently, his own firm, Profiles Corporate Communications, which was acquired by Edelman Public Relations in 1997.

Chard is recognized for his deep experience in strategic crisis counsel and corporate reputation management. In addition to his work for corporate clients, Chard has served as a crisis advisor for the American Chamber of Commerce and has authored numerous articles on public relations and crisis communication. Chard is a member of the American Chamber of Commerce, the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and the American Society of Training and Development. He is a veteran media trainer, group facilitator and a certified Learning Coach.

Chard is the recipient of both the PIRAF and KASPAR awards from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, the two most prestigious communication awards offered by the Netherlands flag carrier. The awards are for global excellence in advertising and public relations, respectively.

Chard graduated from Kansas University with a dual major in East Asian Studies and Chinese Language. Pursuing a graduate program at National Taiwan University, he studied both classical and modern Chinese literature at the Stanford IUP Center. Chard is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, including reading, writing and speaking. While in Taiwan he hosted his own television program entirely in Mandarin.

Chard is married with one son, and lives in Hansville, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, trout fishing, hiking and writing.

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