PINGAR appoints new Chairman

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PINGAR appoints new Chairman on eve of global launch in Las Vegas

Next generation search engine company prepares to take on major international competitors

Auckland, Wednesday 16 September, 2009 – Pingar, the Tauranga-based company that has developed the next generation ‘intelligent’ search engine, has announced that leading venture capitalist and former investment banker Chris de Boer has been appointed as non-Executive chairman.

Chris has extensive experience in investment banking, business consulting, stockbroking, regulation, private equity, venture capital and consulting in London, Hong Kong and Australasia.

“I’m delighted to be joining Pingar at such an exciting stage of their development. They really are poised to take on the search engine world.”

Pingar goes inside sites, finds the content the user is seeking and then places it into dynamically generated PDF or XPS document, rather than just presenting a list of links like traditional search engines. It also sorts the search into categories to minimise reading times. In short, it changes the face of mainstream internet search and “takes the browsing out of browsing”, says Pingar’s co-founder and Managing Director Peter Wren-Hilton.

Wren-Hilton says he is delighted that de Boer accepted the role, as his credibility with high tech growth companies would give the company a real boost.

Pingar already has a London-based sales and marketing office, and a UK Advisory Board, chaired by The Earl of Erroll. It also has an international research capacity with a development division in Swansea and development partners in Hong Kong and Bangalore.

The company has also been identified by Microsoft as having high-growth potential, being accepted into the Microsoft Start-up Accelerator Programme last year. Wren Hilton says that Pingar’s global launch at the 2009 Microsoft’s SharePoint conference in Las Vegas in October would signal a number of significant announcements.

de Boer is currently a director of Macquarie Media Group, a director of Mobilis Limited, Chairman of Sonar6 and Chairman of AngelLink. He has also previously been Chairman of the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund, Chairman of Phitek Systems, an adviser to the Cable and Wireless Group in Asia/Pacific between 1987 and 2001, director of Optus Communications, Chairman of the Hong Kong Takeovers Panel and an Investment Committee Member of GEMS Oriental & General Fund.

“Pingar stands out to me as a high growth company,” de Boer says. “It has the potential to revolutionise searching on the internet, which could transform so many industry sectors including publishing and monetizing online content. I’m really excited to see the company expanding into the UK, European and US markets.

“I expect big things.”

ENDS

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