He comes to Wombat from Reuters America (RTRS: Nasdaq), where, as marketing director in their enterprise information division, he led channel sales, business strategy and communication initiatives for Reuters direct data feed product line and managed tactical marketing activities for their DataScope reference data product.

Reporting to Danny Moore, COO, Mr. Barnes will be assuming responsibility for global marketing and communications, competitor and market analysis, sales process management and channel development and management. He will also manage several tier one accounts in the US from their New York office.

"We've grown our European business considerably in 2005 and have a number of pilots running in Asia, so Wombat is now a global enterprise solutions provider," said Moore. "Ken Barnes is the first of a number of strategic management hires we'll be announcing in the next few months. We've been impressed with his work with Reuters Direct and he is very highly regarded by US customers. We are excited to have him on board."

Mr. Barnes spent five years at Reuters America, Inc., most recently as marketing director, enterprise information division; director, Reuters Innovation Program, where he led growth initiatives sponsored by business unit executives; and managing alliances with strategic technical partners such as Microsoft and Intel.

Prior to Reuters, he served as business development manager at NextSet Software, Inc., where he spearheaded their Capacity Trading Systems business providing trading automation systems for the exchange of bandwidth and emerging commodities. Before NextSet, he was at Bridge Information Systems, where he held the title of marketing manager, then global marketing manager, for real-time data feeds, data integration software and consulting services through Bridge Professional Services. From 1995 to 1998, he held sales and sales support positions at Reuters America, joining Reuters from Salomon Brothers' private investments group. He earned a Bachelors degree in international marketing from the University of Vermont, attended the University of Grenoble and holds an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business.