Jay Roth Appointed President of NewTek's 3D Product Division

New leadership and restructuring provides path to expanded product offerings and technological innovation for the 3D graphics market

Las Vegas , NV , NAB, Booth SL1949 – April 18, 2005 -- NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, announced today that Jay Roth has been named president of the 3D graphics division of the company. Roth, co-founder and former CEO of Electric Image, Inc., has 25 years experience in the 3D visual effects and graphics industry. In his role as president of NewTek’s 3D graphics division, Roth will oversee the expansion of the 3D product line, the advancement of technical innovation in LightWave 3D®, along with sales and marketing efforts relating to NewTek’s 3D graphics offerings.

Under Roth’s guidance as CEO of Electric Image, Inc., the company achieved numerous milestones including: development of the market-leading professional 3D application for the Macintosh; creation of the world’s fastest renderer, authored by one of Roth’s co-founders, Mark Granger; and stunning visual effects for the destruction of downtown L.A. in James Cameron’s Terminator 2.

In addition to his role as co-founder and CEO of Electric Image, Inc., Roth has vast experience in the visual effects industry beginning in 1980 working at Roger Corman’s New World Pictures, with Academy Award winners James Cameron and Robert and Dennis Skotak. Roth has over 40 feature film, television and commercial credits, including CGI effects for Mattel HotWheelsOctoblast, MacGyver, Entertainment Tonight, Bandai Power Rangers Dino Thunder, The Stepford Wives, X Files and SBC DSL, and main title design for A Minute with Stan Hooper.

Roth’s product management expertise extended beyond his role at Electric Image, Inc., when Sony appointed Roth to design and supervise the 3D compositing environment for Socratto, an unreleased film compositing product.

"You can count the number of people with Jay's background in visual effects production, his skills in 3D and compositing software development, and his experience running a business, on one hand", said Jim Plant, President and CEO of NewTek. "We're very pleased to add his strong leadership and his exciting vision for the future of LightWave®."

“The innovation and advancement of 3D graphics tools that truly meet the needs of visual effects and 3D artists has been the foundation of my entire career,” said Roth. “I look forward to leading the development and expansion of a 3D graphics division with a proven record and supporting community as rich as LightWave’s. There are tremendous opportunities to build upon the extraordinary foundation that NewTek has built with LightWave, and I am anxious to begin delivering new products and innovations to the market.”

Pricing and Availability
LightWave [8] is available now for Windows and Mac platforms for $1595US full-version and $495US upgrade. For a limited time a LightWave 3D® Electronic Full Competitive Upgrade is available for $495US, for registered owners of Maya™, Softimage™ XSI, 3ds max®, Electric Image™, Strata Studio Pro, Cinema 4D™, Truespace™, Hash Animation Master™, Autocad®, Pro/Engineer® and SolidWorks®. Proof of ownership required to qualify. Registered LightWave® owners will also be able to purchase an additional seat of LightWave® at the $495 price. This special offer is available through April 30, 2005, from any Authorized NewTek Reseller, from NewTek's web site at http://www.newtek.com/buynow or by calling 1-800-843-8934, overseas callers dial +1-210-370-8000. Find a local NewTek Authorized Reseller at www.newtek.com/dealers. Visit NewTek at NAB, Booth #SL1949, Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV.

About NewTek
With headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, NewTek is a leading provider of full-featured video editing, live production, presentation, animation and special effects tools including LightWave 3D®, winner of the 2003 Primetime Emmy® Engineering Award, TriCaster™ and VT[4] TM. NewTek launched the desktop video revolution in 1990 with the release of the legendary Video Toaster®. The company's products are used worldwide on projects ranging from home video to feature film. Recent television and film projects using NewTek production tools include Sin City, The Aviator, Flight of the Phoenix, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Aliens of the Deep, "I, Robot", Spiderman 2, The Last Samurai, Battlestar: Galactica, Firefly, Smallville, Star Trek: Enterprise, Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight, Recent game titles include Doom III, Unreal Tournament, Serious Sam for XBox, Age of Mythology, Civilization III, Dead to Rights, Baldur's Gate II, EverQuest and Escape From Monkey Island. Website: http://www.newtek.com

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