Wisconsin Firm Sponsors Only U.S. Privateer Team in Desert Race

DE PERE, Wis., Oct. 6, 2005 -- When the competitors fire up their engines for the start of the toughest cross-country race in the world in January, employees at a Wisconsin company will be watching closely. PAi, headquartered in De Pere, Wisconsin (just outside Green Bay) is sponsoring a motorcycle team in the Dakar Rally, which will take racers from Lisbon, Portugal through the Sahara Desert to Dakar, Senegal.

But PAi's involvement goes beyond monetary support. "We're using participation in the Dakar Rally to help build management, planning and leadership skills within our company," said PAi President Michael Kiley. The PAi race team is the only privateer U.S. team; a team not supported directly by a factory that manufactures vehicles.

PAi provides payroll and retirement plan administration for small businesses across the United States. The company works with more than 2,500 financial advisors and institutions, servicing more than 5,500 retirement plans with more than 450,000 participants.

"The Dakar Rally is an opportunity to broaden our horizons and excel in strategic thinking, planning and management," Kiley said. "It provides our employees with an exciting and interesting learning experience."

Kiley says the behind the scenes work by PAi helps those involved to develop the same critical thinking skills that are used in servicing 401(K) clients. "This is a unique opportunity to exercise our project management and team building skills in a number of areas... logistics, planning, support, communications and more," Kiley said. "It helps us sharpen our skills, which helps us better serve our clients. It's also a way of attracting top-notch employee prospects that view PAi as a company that's willing to try something different in order to better the business."

While still relatively unknown in the U.S., the Dakar Rally is wildly popular in Europe and other parts of the world. The cross-country trek typically lasts 16-24 days, over thousands of miles of desert sand, rocks and mountain terrain.

The PAi-Dakar Rally team for 2006 will again be led by Charlie Rauseo, an experienced rally racer.

"While most companies would think of this effort as strictly a sports sponsorship, we've been able to leverage our participation into something more, something that is good for everyone involved," Kiley said.

For more information on PAi, visit www.pai.com.