ANN ARBOR, Mich., February 23, 2006 - ProQuest Information and Learning announced today the appointment of Simon Beale as Senior Vice President, Global Sales. Beale will be responsible for worldwide sales of all published and distributed electronic, print and microform products to academic, public, government, medical and corporate libraries, including corporate licensing and development.. Beale will report to David "Skip" Prichard, President, ProQuest Information and Learning.

"Simon brings more than 15 years of successful global sales and marketing experience in our industry," said Prichard. "His leadership and deep knowledge of the market has been instrumental in our consistent double-digit growth internationally. I am confident that Simon's energy, customer focus, and business acumen will insure continued and even greater success."

"I am excited to take on this new role of Senior Vice President of Global Sales," said Beale. "I look forward to working closely with the Sales organization and building on the momentum of a successful 2005 to develop new opportunities for ProQuest."

Beale joined ProQuest Information and Learning in June 2002 as Vice President of International Sales and Marketing.   In 2004 Beale also was given responsibility for driving international business development initiatives.

Before joining ProQuest, Beale was Executive Director of Sales at Elsevier Health Sciences, EMEA division; Director of Sales at Harcourt Publishers Europe; Director of Sales at Prentice Hall Europe, and International Sales and Marketing Manager at Pitman/FT Publishing, Pearson. He also held various sales and marketing positions in Addison Wesley and Simon and Schuster.

Beale holds a bachelor's degree from Loughborough University, UK, has studied extensively in the United States, and is an active member of the UK Publishers Association.

He and his family will be relocating to the Ann Arbor, Michigan area in the coming months, and he will be based out of the ProQuest global headquarters there.

About ProQuest
ProQuest creates specialized information resources and technologies that propel successful research, discovery, and lifelong learning. A global leader in serving libraries of all types, ProQuest offers the expertise of such respected brands as Chadwyck-Healey™, UMI®, SIRS®, and eLibrary®. With Serials Solutions®, Ulrich's™, RefWorks®, COS™, Dialog® and now Bowker® part of the ProQuest brand family, the company supports the breadth of the information community with innovative discovery solutions that power the business of books and the best in research experience.

More than a content provider or aggregator, ProQuest is an information partner, creating indispensable research solutions that connect people and information. Through innovative, user-centered discovery technology, ProQuest offers billions of pages of global content that includes historical newspapers, dissertations, and uniquely relevant resources for researchers of any age and sophistication—including content not likely to be digitized by others. Inspired by its customers and their end users, ProQuest is working toward a future that blends information accessibility with community to further enhance learning and encourage lifelong enrichment.

For more information, visit www.proquest.com or the ProQuest parent company website, www.cig.com.