Former JetBlue CFO Brings Decades of Financial Management Experience and Valuable Airline Industry Insight to Weather Risk Firm

NEW YORK (Business Wire EON/PRWEB ) May 27, 2008 -- Storm Exchange, Inc., a market leader in weather-risk management services, today announced the appointment of John Owen to its board of directors. Owen has extensive airline industry experience in the low cost airline sector as a senior finance executive at both JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines. He will be a key financial advisor to Storm Exchange as it grows its business in weather-sensitive industries, such as travel, agriculture, energy, retail, construction and outdoor entertainment.

John has proven himself as both a visionary and a master of the tactical details

Owen will also play a pivotal role in helping the company tailor and further develop its weather-based financial risk management solutions for the unique needs of the airline industry. The company's current airline industry offerings include benchmark weather indices, such as the Storm Exchange Flight Delay Index^SM, a variety of weather hedging analytics and WeatherProtected® consumer programs, which allow airlines to offer customer rebates in the event of a weather-related delay or cancellation.

“John has proven himself as both a visionary and a master of the tactical details,” said David Riker, President & CEO of Storm Exchange. “His counsel will be invaluable as we continue to advance the ability of financial executives to identify, quantify and control weather risk.”

Owen was a member of the team that founded JetBlue Airways where he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at JetBlue Airways from 1999 through spring 2006. He subsequently served as JetBlue's Executive Vice President of Supply Chain and Information Technology until March of 2007. Prior to joining JetBlue, Owen was Treasurer and then Vice President for Operations Planning and Analysis for Southwest Airlines.

“A key part of any financial executive's role is managing risk,” said Owen. “Every company operating in a weather-sensitive industry knows that some portion of its revenues, and often of its expenses, is going to be adversely affected by Mother Nature, but very few have ever attempted to quantify that exposure, let alone hedge it in the financial markets. Storm Exchange is on the cusp of a revolution in corporate financial management; I look forward to helping drive this change.”

About Storm Exchange, Inc.

Storm Exchange is a leading provider of weather-related financial and information services. The company helps corporations improve performance by identifying, quantifying and controlling the impact of weather on their income and expenses. The company also serves investors and other financial services providers with solutions that create an investment advantage through insight into how weather will impact earnings. Storm Exchange solutions include industry-specific weather indices, data/analytics, forecasts and hedging programs that address the fundamental drivers of performance that result from business exposures to precipitation, wind, temperature and other climate variables. Storm Exchange is headquartered in New York, and maintains a weather research center in State College, PA.

Keyword Tags:

chief financial officer, earnings, flight delay, jetblue, john owen, risk management, southwest airlines, storm exchange, weather hedging, weather risk

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