``We are extremely pleased to fill our CFO position with someone of Larry's caliber,'' said Mr. Kurz. ``His experience with high-growth companies and mergers and acquisitions will be very valuable as we aggressively pursue the strategic growth initiatives disclosed earlier this year.''

Mr. Madden, 35, was most recently the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Atomic Pop, an online music company in Santa Monica, Calif. He was instrumental in formulating corporate strategy, structuring and evaluating mergers and acquisitions, securing financing, and managing the finance and administration functions.

Previously, he was the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for all of the recorded music and music publishing investments of Wasserstein & Co., Inc.

Before moving to the West Coast in 1997, Mr. Madden spent four years at PolyGram, a major entertainment company based in New York, serving first as the top audit officer for the corporation's North American operations and later as the Vice President, Finance and Administration for Def Jam Records, a PolyGram subsidiary. He began his career as an audit manager with Ernst & Young in New York, where he worked for eight years.

``I am joining Equity at the perfect time,'' said Mr. Madden. ``They have strong earnings momentum, a strong balance sheet and plans for rapid growth. I look forward to working with the existing team to help take Equity to the next level of success.''

Mr. Kurz added: ``Larry's background should be a perfect complement to the existing Equity finance team, where we have strong controller, treasury and financial planning groups. Teresa Covington, our vice president of finance, left last month to become CFO of a rapidly growing, privately held music engineering firm. She did an outstanding job for us and I wish her nothing but success in the future. I also would like to personally acknowledge Ed Boyd, senior vice president of corporate operations, who has been supervising the finance function. His leadership has been invaluable during the interim period, and he can now devote his full energies to run the worldwide operations and information service functions.''

Mr. Madden, a licensed certified public accountant, has a master of business administration in finance and strategic management from New York University, where he graduated with distinction, and a bachelor of science in accounting from Albany State University. He resides in Los Angeles.

Equity Marketing, Inc. is a leading marketing services company, providing a wide range of custom promotional programs that build sales and brand awareness for retailers, restaurant chains and consumer goods companies such as Burger King Corporation, The Coca-Cola Company, Exxon/Mobil, CVS/pharmacy and others. The company is also the developer and marketer of distinctive consumer products that complement its core promotions business. More information about the company may be found at www.equity-marketing.com.

SOURCE: Equity Marketing, Inc.

[Posted 10/17/2000]