NEWS RELEASE

January 29, 2009

Acorn International's Dean Slocum was asked to join the environmental program committee for the 2010 Society of Petroleum Engineers International Conference on Health, Safety and Environment in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.  He has been an active SPE member in 6 consecutive biennial conferences. For further details, visit the SPE Website

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.