The Cobalt Group Adds Strength and Depth to Its Management Team
2 May 2000
The Cobalt Group Adds Strength and Depth to Its Management Team by Appointing Four Executives to Key Positions
SEATTLE--May 2, 2000--The Cobalt Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:CBLT), a leading provider of Internet-based business-to-business services for the automotive industry, today announced four executive appointments that will enhance the company's management structure and position it for continued growth.
Joining the company are David Snyder, executive vice president and chief financial officer; Terry Smail, executive vice president of sales and account services; and Julia Pizzi, vice president of human resources. Kevin Distelhorst, who leads Cobalt's IntegraLink data collection and reporting subsidiary joins the executive team as vice president. The new executives report directly to Cobalt's President and Chief Executive Officer John Holt.
"We identified these top senior executives to deepen our management team and strengthen Cobalt's position as the leading provider of Internet-based products and services to the automotive industry," said John Holt, president and CEO of The Cobalt Group. "I am pleased that four deeply experienced professionals are joining Cobalt's executive team. They will lead major initiatives that will help revolutionize the way dealers interact with customers, manufacturers, other dealers and vendors."
David Snyder
David Snyder, the company's executive vice president and chief financial officer, brings more than 15 years of financial and managerial experience to his new position. Immediately prior to joining The Cobalt Group, Snyder was senior vice president and chief financial officer for Strategic Hotel Capital, LLC (SHCI). Over the past two and a half years, SHCI has invested $2.7 billion in 31 luxury and upscale hotels. Initial equity sponsorship of SHCI came from Goldman Sachs Whitehall Funds and The Prudential Insurance Company of America. Snyder led the SHCI team that completed a $600 million private placement of common stock and convertible debentures. He additionally helped raise nearly $1.5 billion of debt including a $422 million CMBS financing, a $675 million bank facility, and a variety of international and domestic non-recourse financings.
"David Snyder has a proven track record in successfully executing complex financings, negotiating public and private mergers and acquisitions, and managing Wall Street relationships," said Holt. "Importantly, David earned this experience within a variety of public and private growth companies where he also had the opportunity to build and manage the financial and strategic infrastructure while joining operating executives in policy and strategic decision making."
Snyder replaces David Douglass who served as the company's chief financial officer since July 1998. Holt noted, "We owe sincere thanks to David Douglass for his dedication and help building Cobalt into an industry powerhouse with 5,600 dealer Web site clients. David played a key role at an important time in Cobalt's history, and our company is stronger today as a result of his service."
Terry Smail
Terry Smail brings over 20 years of experience in technology and content markets to his new position as executive vice president of sales and account services. Smail is responsible for overseeing Cobalt's sales, account services, training and consulting, and customer care departments. Before joining The Cobalt Group, Smail was senior vice president for Etak, Inc., a leading publisher of digital maps and developer of location-based technology. Prior to Etak, Smail held a variety of senior management positions with leading companies including IBM Corporation, OptImage/Xaos Tools, Inc., and Ashton-Tate.
"Terry's extensive sales and account management experience and historic focus on customer satisfaction will be invaluable to Cobalt as he leads our sales and account services teams," said Holt. "His vision will help Cobalt better serve our dealer and manufacturer customers as we continue to expand our product and service offerings and increase our focus on client training and consulting programs."
Julia Pizzi
Julia Pizzi brings nearly 25 years of human resources and organizational management experience to Cobalt. In her new position as vice president of human resources, Pizzi is responsible for building Cobalt's employee recruiting and retention programs. Prior to joining The Cobalt Group, Pizzi held several executive level human resources positions in both high-tech and wireless companies. Most recently, Pizzi was the executive director of human resources at Lucent/Mosaix, a software company that specializes in e-customer relationship management applications. At Lucent/Mosaix, Pizzi managed a worldwide workforce and created programs that aligned the company's strategy with growth initiatives.
"Recruiting top talent at all levels is a major initiative for Cobalt. Julia brings a strong background in building recruitment, employee development and retention programs," said Holt. "The current job market is extremely competitive and Cobalt is committed to attracting, hiring and keeping the best in the business as we expand our operations and open new field offices across the nation."
Kevin Distelhorst
Kevin Distelhorst, who co-founded IntegraLink and remained as director after its purchase by Cobalt in January 2000, has more than 15 years of experience with technology based products and services for the automotive industry with firms such as The Reynolds and Reynolds Company. In his new position as vice president and general manager of Cobalt's data collection and reporting division, Distelhorst is responsible for building on Cobalt's industry leading data collection system which currently extracts data from approximately 13,000 franchised automobile dealerships' dealer management systems nationwide.
"Kevin is one of several senior industry leaders we are recruiting to run Cobalt's major business verticals. Kevin will lead our data collection unit, which will soon unify all of Cobalt's vehicle and parts inventory and service data collection on the sophisticated and flexible IntegraLink platform," said Holt. "Kevin brings substantial data collection and automotive industry expertise to the table and he is an enormous asset to Cobalt's executive team."
About the Cobalt Group
The Cobalt Group(TM) (Nasdaq:CBLT), based in Seattle, is a leading provider of Internet-based products and services for the automotive industry. Cobalt helps dealers, dealer groups and automobile manufacturers harness the power of the Internet to realize new efficiencies, win new prospects and better serve their customers.
With approximately 5,600 dealer Web site clients, over 10,000 dealers using its parts locating system, and relationships with 16 automotive manufacturers and more than 50 of the 100 largest dealer groups in the United States, Cobalt is one of the leading technology companies serving the automotive industry. Cobalt operates MotorPlace.com(TM) (www.MotorPlace.com), a business-to-business vertical portal for the automotive industry; DealerNet(R) (www.dealernet.com), one of the best-known automotive destination sites on the Web; and PartsVoice(R) (www.partsvoice.com), a leading OEM auto parts locating and data management service. The Cobalt Group also owns IntegraLink Corporation, a leading provider of advanced data collection and reporting services to the automotive industry.
Cobalt offers Web site services that are endorsed by the National Automobile Dealers Association.
For more information, please visit The Cobalt Group at www.cobaltgroup.com.