NEWS RELEASE

June 1, 2009

Acorn International is pleased to announce the hiring of Stephanie Ayers .

Stephanie Ayers (Consultant) –Stephanie Ayers is a seasoned environmental professional with over 12 years of broad environmental consulting experience.  Stephanie’s experience includes a seconded position with ExxonMobil, where she worked as an internal SHE team member for over six years to support environmental compliance and EIA for the Sakhalin-1 Project in Russia.  This work included reviewing and helping to coordinate the work of 52 local and international consultants contracted to perform the work required by ExxonMobil’s and the Russian government’s environmental requirements.  Stephanie has also performed environmental audits, environmental site assessments, groundwater and remediation monitoring, spill prevention plans and oil spill response program support.  The latter includes a fast-response assignment to serve as site consultant and coordinator for a major pipeline spill in Algeria.  Stephanie is based in Houston.

Acorn International now offers our clients the experience and capabilities of:
· Dean Slocum
· Heather Boyd
· Atma Khalsa
· Stephanie Ayers
· John Black, PG
· Administrative Support Staff, and
· Partners in over 40 countries worldwide

Acorn International, LLC is a professional consulting services company dedicated to delivering world-class, affordable EHSS assurance and straight-forward results for overseas development projects.  The company operates not through a traditional consulting services model but by providing structured tools and guidance to qualified host-country teams, maintaining a link with international clients and building capacity in the host-country team. Acorn delivers:

1.       Established teams of local country experts partnered with and directed by an expert in assuring world-class EHSS assessment and management performance standards are met

2.       Advice to international industry needing to build world-class EHSS programs

3.       Recruitment and oversight/management of partners and service providers (EHSS and other) overseas

Working with Acorn allows international industries to better manage the increasingly delicate balance between meeting corporate requirements for reliable, simplified service while satisfying host-country demands for maximum local content.