Philip will be a member of both the Remuneration Committee and the Audit Committee, and will be Chairman of the Audit Committee with effect from the Annual General Meeting on 26th April 2005.

Philip, aged 57, is an experienced Chartered Accountant who served 20 years as a partner in a major accounting firm in the UK (KPMG). As a partner he was responsible for leading teams providing audit, advisory and transaction due diligence services to a broad portfolio of clients across a variety of industry sectors. In addition to his client service responsibilities, Philip held over the years a number of managerial and leadership positions within the practice both in the UK and overseas. Philip served as a member of the CBI South East regional council for a number of years and has also held a number of other appointments in the business support sector in the South East.

In welcoming Philip to the Board, royalblue's chairman, John Hamer said: "Philip has a wide range of experience across a diverse set of business sectors and we are very pleased that he has agreed to join the royalblue Board. In particular, his financial and audit experience will be extremely valuable given the increasing complexity and demands of international financial reporting requirements and he is therefore ideally qualified to become chairman of the audit committee."