Mike Brennan appointed to Hat Pin Board as Director of Operations

Daren Kemp promoted to position of CEO, Akamai Financial Markets

Hat Pin plc, the international human resources group operating through market-leading brands Akamai Financial Markets, Executive Access, Saxton Bampfylde and The Talent Business, today announces the appointment of Mike Brennan (age 41) to its Board in the newly created position of Director of Operations. On taking this new role he will step down from his current position as Chief Executive Officer of Akamai. Succeeding him as CEO will be Daren Kemp, currently Managing Director of Akamaiís Asia-Pacific operations. Both appointments will be effective from 1 January 2008.

Mike Brennan
Reporting to Angela Campbell-No, Chief Executive of Hat Pin plc, the new position of Director of Operations will primarily focus on exploring the synergies and opportunities for collaboration between the Hat Pin businesses on a global scale and ensuring that each company has a high level of operating support. Additionally, and as a member of the plc Board, Mike will be involved in the formulation of strategy and in particular the operational review of acquisition targets and execution of subsequent integration strategies.

Michael John Brennan joined Stephens International in 1992 as an Executive Search consultant, before moving to Alexander Mann in 1994 as MD and Global Head of Financial Markets. He founded the UK and Asian operations and played a key role in the 6.9m sale of the business to Hat Pin in September 2006 and its re-branding as Akamai Financial Markets. Since joining Hat Pin, he has spearheaded Akamaiís global strategy of organic growth taking the number of offices it operates from two to five, doubling its headcount and this year personally leading the team which established Akamaiís Tokyo operations.

In the past five years, Mike has held the following directorships, all of which are current:

Akamai Financial Markets (Dubai) Limited
Akamai Financial Markets (Hong Kong) Limited
Akamai Financial Markets (Japan) Limited
Akamai Financial Markets (Singapore) Limited
Akamai Financial Markets (UK) Limited

There is no other information that is required to be disclosed under Schedule 2 paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules.

Daren Kemp
Daren Kemp will be appointed Chief Executive of Akamai Financial Markets with effect from 1 January 2008, reporting directly to Angela Campbell-No. Currently Managing Director of Akamaiís Asia-Pacific operations, he joined the company from Executive Access Asia in 2004. In his current role he is responsible for implementing Akamaiís growth strategy across the Asia-Pacific Region.

Commenting on the appointments, Angela Campbell-No, Chief Executive of Hat Pin plc, said:

ìI am delighted to both welcome someone of Mikeís capability and depth of international experience to the Board, in a new role where I know he will excel, and announce the promotion of Daren to succeed Mike in leading Akamai globally.î