PRESS RELEASE

September 23, 2003

Commerce Department Appoints Stefanakis Permanent Board Member on Balkans Advisory Council

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced today that it has appointed Manuel Stefanakis as a permanent member of the Joint Science and Technology Cooperation Advisory Council of the U.S. Initiative for Technology Cooperation in the Balkans (ITCB).

The ITCB is a joint initiative with the Greek Ministry of National Economy to foster collaboration among public and private entities in the U.S. and Greece with public and private entities in the Balkan region. Its goal is to also enhance scientific and technological capabilities in the Balkan region, to enhance the relationship between U.S. and Greek public and private sector entities and to promote a stable, free market economies in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, and FYROM by forming three-way partnerships.

Manuel Stefanakis directs Sustainable Strategies International, a consultancy that promotes responsible economic development that is environmentally, socially, and economically balanced.

He has worked in more than 30 countries and throughout the southeastern Europe over a 25 year period for international development agencies like USAID, World Bank, EBRD, multinational corporations, and international NGOs. He served as the resident Director of a USAID funded program in the Czech and Slovak Republics to promote environmental quality through market based tools, as an advisor to the EBRD for programs throughout the former Soviet Union, as an expert to the UN in Bahrain.

He currently serves as the special advisor to the governor of the State of Oaxaca, Mexico in sustainable development. He also serves on the board of directors to the Global Institute at Tufts University, the City of Cambridge Climate Change Advisory Committee and the Cambridge Community Charter School. He has been an active member of the Orthodox Patriarchate s initiatives on religion and environment.

Mr. Stefanakis has earned professional degrees from Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.