META Group Picks a President

IT research and consulting firm META Group Inc., which lost its president at
the time of a restructuring last spring, has named a top SAP America
executive as its new president.

The Stamford, Conn.-based company named Mike B. Levine,
45, to the post after a search that began last April.

That was when the company let go about 15 percent of its employees
(approximately 100 people) and announced the resignations of Larry R.
DeBoever, president, and Peter Burris, co-research director and president and
CEO of metagroup.com.

Most recently, Levine was vice president of field operations for SAP America,
where he was instrumental in developing an improved field operations
infrastructure and worked with IBM, SAP’s largest technology partner, as the
single point of contact on all sales issues for the Americas. He also has
worked at ADP Credit Corp. and Harris/3M.

“We’ve worked diligently over the past six months to weather the economic
storm and to continue improving our liquidity position,” said Dale Kutnick,
META Group chairman, CEO, and co-research director. “I’m pleased with the
results to date, and look forward to working with Mike to accelerate our
growth and return us to profitability.”

Levine is a graduate of the University of Miami and the executive program in
finance and accounting at Columbia University.

META Group stock was trading at $2, down from a 52-week high of more than
$17, before all the exchanges were halted after the terrorist attacks in New
York and Washington, DC.

META, which focuses on information technology and business transformation
strategies for clients, was making money up until the middle of last year,
when it ran head-on into the tech decline.