Black Box
NextiraOne Appoints Bob Buhay Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

HOUSTON - Aug. 20, 2003 - NextiraOne, LLC, a Platinum Equity company, has announced the appointment of Bob Buhay to the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. As CFO, Buhay maintains responsibility for all of the company's financial operations. His prior experience includes mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, as well as capital raising and the management of key and strategic relationships.

Buhay has a wealth of experience in technology and services industries, which brings tremendous value to NextiraOne. He most recently served as a Senior Vice President with MedQuist Inc., a leading healthcare technology and services provider. Prior to joining MedQuist, Buhay was the CFO at Lanier Healthcare, LLC, which sells, implements, and services integrated medical document management systems to health care providers nationally. In that capacity, he was responsible for successfully directing a series of financial and operational initiatives that dramatically improved the company's business processes and profitability. Buhay has also served as CFO and COO for ExecuTrain Enterprises and spent several years as a senior manager at Deloitte & Touche, LLP in their audit practice.

"I'm delighted that Bob has joined the NextiraOne management team," said President and CEO Michael Ruley. "His financial leadership and expertise are valuable assets to this management team, and Bob's ability to help us grow our business profitably will be integral to our future success."

About NextiraOne
Headquartered in Houston and Paris, NextiraOne is a client-focused provider of communications solutions and managed services. With nearly $2 billion in revenues and over 9,000 employees worldwide, NextiraOne plans, implements and manages voice, data and converged communications solutions for enterprise and general business clients. NextiraOne offers an extensive portfolio of technical and product expertise, including focus on key client segments, and provides best-in-class technologies from strategic partners. For more information, please visit www.NextiraOne.com. NextiraOne is owned by Platinum Equity (www.platinumequity.com), a global acquisition firm specializing in the strategic operation of mission-critical services and solutions businesses according to a unique M&A&OSM model of value creation.

About Platinum Equity
Platinum Equity (www.platinumequity.com) is a global acquisition firm specializing in the strategic operation of mission-critical services and solutions businesses according to a unique M&A&OSM model of value creation. Since its founding in 1995, Platinum has completed over 40 privately funded transactions, leveraging a multi-billion dollar revenue base derived from the continued growth of its portfolio. With an established global infrastructure, Platinum employs a workforce of more than 18,000 serving over 600,000 customer sites worldwide.

Contact:

Melissa Yarbrough
M/C/C for NextiraOne
972-480-8383 x224
Melissa_Yarbrough@mccom.com

For NextiraOne:
Shannon DeYoung
Director, Marketing
713-307-4743
Shannon.DeYoung@NextiraOne.com