ITE Group plc ("ITE"), the international exhibitions group specialising in emerging and developing markets, announced today that Mr Neil England will join the Group as a non-executive director with immediate effect. This appointment follows the announcement made in the AGM Statement on 6 March 2008, confirming the retirement of Sir Jeremy Hanley from the Board following the Group’s AGM.  On his appointment, Neil will be a member of the Audit, Remuneration and Nomination committees of ITE.

Mr England (53) has a breadth of experience in Sales & Marketing and an extensive knowledge of Eastern Europe and the CIS countries. He was formerly Vice President for Mars Incorporated, responsible for the CIS and lived in Moscow during this period.  Mars built a market leading and profitable business there during his tenure.

For the past five years he has been Group Commercial Director for Gallaher Group Plc, a main board position with P&L responsibility for Gallaher’s business across Europe.  Gallaher was consistently one of the top performing companies in the FTSE during this period and key growth markets included the EU accession countries and Turkey. Neil left the group in August 2007 following the sale of Gallaher to Japan Tobacco.

Neil is currently a non-executive director of The Eastern European Trust plc, a successful emerging market trust investing in Eastern Europe, with particular focus on the Russian Federation, CIS countries and Turkey. He is also a non-executive director of Silverstone Holdings Limited. 

Commenting on the appointment, Iain Paterson, ITE’s Chairman, said:

"Neil has enjoyed a successful career managing world-wide brands across Europe; in particular Russia, the Central Asian countries and Eastern Europe.  He brings to ITE a wealth of experience of the Group’s key geographic markets, as well as senior board level experience and extensive knowledge of sales and marketing.  We are delighted to welcome him to the Board and look forward to drawing on his experience and working with him as we continue to grow the business."

There are no further disclosures required under rule 9.6 of the listing rules of the UK Listing Authority.

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