Rick Cowles is President of CyberServices, America, a New Jersey based technology consulting firm and is also a freelance Senior Consultant with the Cutter Consortium. He is a founding member of the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility’s Y2K Working Group and has been featured on NPR’s “Morning Edition”, “All Things Considered,” and Tony Keyes’ “Y2K Advisor” radio program. He has served as the Year 2000 Program Manager – Utilities for Digital Equipment Corporation (Albany, NY).

Rick has also testified on the Y2K problem in the electric industry before the U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee, Subcommittee on Technology.

Mr. Cowles began his career in the commercial electric utility industry with Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation after serving six years on nuclear submarines in the U.S. Navy. In 1983, he joined Public Service Electric and Gas’ Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station. Over the next 15 years, he worked in the power generation, regulatory and business ends of the electric industry.

He is the author of numerous articles on Year 2000, and the book Electric Utilities and Y2K. His web-site, www.euy2k.com provides authoritative discussions on Y2K in the electric industry.

Cory Hamasaki heads up HHResearch Co., a software engineering firm based in Alexandria, VA, specializing in Year 2000 remediation. He has been focused on Y2K since December 1, 1979, when he debugged the infamous 000197AF problem that took down 5 IBM mainframes. Cory's expansive career includes 30 years of hands-on experience.

He is the writer/editor of the informative, sometimes inflammatory, and always humorous Y2K newsletter, DC Y2K Weather Reports. Hamasaki's technical expertise, his first-hand experience with large organizations, along with his extensive network of brother and sister programmers provides him with a unique view of Y2K preparedness. In addition to tracking the organizations' Y2K budgets and programmer salaries, he has expanded his coverage to offer practical information on how we, as citizens, can cope with the potential Y2K disruptions.

His web-site can be accessed at www.kiyoinc.com/HHResCo.html.

Michael S. Hyatt is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Millennium Bug: How to Survive the Coming Chaos, which sold out thirteen printings in the first three months following publication. His new book, The Y2K Personal Survival Guide: Everything You Need to Know to Get from This Side of the Crisis to the Other, is scheduled for release in March, 1999.

He has appeared on all three major television networks, CNN, and C-SPAN. He has also been a guest on more than 350 radio shows. In September, 1998, Hyatt testified before Congress concerning the year 2000 problem.

Professionally, Hyatt has worked in the publishing industry for nearly 20 years. Currently, he serves as Senior V.P. and Associate Publisher of Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Hyatt has been heavily involved with personal computers since 1982. Self-taught, he is fluent in Pascal and three dialects of BASIC. As a part-time programming enthusiast, he has written custom applications for himself and other companies. He is an active beta-tester for several large software publishers.

Mr. Hyatt’s web-site can be reached at www.y2kprep.com.

Tony Keyes has been sounding the Y2K alarm since 1995. He has personally funded a radio program, “The Y2K Advisor,” which broadcasts twice weekly from Washington, D.C. Tony and his co-host, Ed Meagher, have interviewed over 200 of the most influential people in the Y2K arena, including Peter de Jager, Leon Kappelman, Senator Robert Bennett, and John Koskinen. His web-site at www.y2kinvestor.com was launched in 1996.

Mr. Keyes has testified before a Congressional Subcommittee concerned with Y2K, and was asked by UN Ambassador Ahmad Kamal of Pakistan to assist in promoting international cooperation to fix the Year 2000 problem. UN Resolution 98뢁 was adopted by consensus in June 1998. Mr. Keyes was also instrumental in launching the non-profit internet web-site www.y2ktoday.com sponsored by major corporations and private foundations, which works to increase global awareness, understanding, and cooperation on the Year 2000 problem.

Tony’s book, The Year 2000 Computer Crisis, is written to help the “little guy” deal with the potential devastation of Y2K. Over 30,000 books have been sold, and the book is now going into its 3^rd printing. Mr. Keyes has been quoted in USA Today, Mutual Funds Magazine, Your Money, and CIO. He also appeared on radio and TV, including “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

Mr. Keyes spent 18 years in the Information Technology industry, holding executive positions with GTE, StrataCom, and Cisco Systems.

Jim Lord is a retired Naval Officer with 24 years active service who came up through the enlisted ranks, spending the major part of his career in the electronics field.

Following his military career, Mr. Lord was involved in shipbuilding, communication systems design, satellite systems, software engineering, training and marketing, nine years of which was spent in the software industry. For two and a half years, he taught business courses at a community college in southern Maryland. He currently holds the position of Research Associate at The George Washington University and is also an advisor to the Center for Security Policy.

Mr. Lord is the author of A Survival Guide For The Year 2000 Problem, a consumer’s guide to preparation for the Year 2000 Computer Crisis. It describes the effects of Y2K on virtually all aspects of society and the economy. He is also the publisher of Y2K Reality Watch, a newsletter that provides continuing monthly updates on the progress of the Year 2000 Crisis.

His web-site address is www.survivey2k.com.

Victor Porlier heads The Center for Civic Renewal, Inc., in Manhattan. The Center is focused primarily on supporting renewal of America’s culture, institutions, and communities from the roots up. He writes a weekly Wednesday column, Digital States & Associations on Westergaard Year 2000 (www.y2ktimebomb.com). He is the author of the book, Y2K: An Action Plan for January 1, 2000, published in January by Harper Collins.

During the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, he worked in the State Department, and ultimately serving as Chief of Information Systems Development for the U.S. foreign aid program (Agency for International Development).

In the late eighties, Mr. Porlier began a management consulting practice which served family owned firms and foundations addressing their strategic planning, asset management, marketing, and systems issues. More recently, he has been working with a variety of organizations focused on public policy issues. For this reason, Mr. Porlier is devoting a portion of his time helping to build awareness of the need for action on the Year 2000 Problem at all levels of civil government and in the national associations – public, private, and professional.

Mr. Porlier can be reached via e-mail at: ccrenewal@aol.com.

Stuart A. Umpleby is a professor in the Department of Management Science at The George Washington University. He represents the School of Business and Public Management on the University’s Y2K Committee. He has lectured on Y2K in the U.S. and several European countries.

Dr. Umpleby has published articles in Science, Policy Sciences, Population and Environment, The Futurist, The Journal of Aesthetic Education, Simulation and Games, Business and Society Review, Telecommunications Policy, Systems Practice, and Cybernetics and Systems. He is past president of the American Society for Cybernetics. He is Associate Editor of the journal Cybernetics and Systems.

Between 1981 and 1988, Umpleby was the American coordinator of a series of meetings between American and Russian scientists to discuss the foundations of cybernetics and systems theory. His interest in the transitions in the post-communist countries has resulted in his presenting lectures at various institutes of the Academies of Science of Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria.

Dr. Umpleby’s home page is www.gwu.edu/~umpleby See also www.gwu.edu/~y2k.

Bruce F. Webster is an internationally recognized authority on the Year 2000 crisis. He organized the corporate-wide Y2K contingency planning effort for a Fortune 50 company with over half a trillion dollars in assets. He has provided analysis and documents on the Y2K issue to several Senate and House committees, the US intelligence community, the World Bank, and foreign governments and corporations. He has testified twice before Congress. He has been cited in Newsweek, Barron’s, National Journal, Datamation, American Banker, and the Chicago Tribune, interviewed for NBC and CBS News, and televised on C-SPAN and The 700 Club.

Mr. Webster is founder (under Fannie Mae’s sponsorship) and co-chair of the Washington, D.C. Year 2000 Group, (www.wdcy2k.org) the largest – over 1500 members – and most active Y2K organization in the world.

Mr. Webster has authored numerous books, including his latest, The Y2K Survival Guide: Getting To, Getting Through, and Getting Past the Year 2000 Problem. His web-site can be reached at www.bfwa.com.