Russell Hires Head of Global Commission Management (Russell.com)

Russell Hires Head of Global Commission Management

Tacoma, WA — November 1, 2006 — Russell Investment Group announced that Ian Toner joined the firm as head of the global commission management program.

Earlier this year, Russell's commission management program surpassed $1 billion in total savings for its institutional clients. Russell's commission management team currently works in over 85 countries with more than 415 plan sponsors and sub advised clients, including the largest and most sophisticated plan sponsors in the world.

"To have an industry expert such as Ian join our growing firm is pivotal at a time when we are leading the industry in helping clients recapture savings," said David Rothenberg, director of Russell Implementation Services. "There have been major changes in the commission management business over the past two years as the effects of increasing unbundling and greater transparency in the equity business have worked their way through the industry. We are confident that Ian will continue to help our plan sponsor clients understand and benefit from these changes."

In his new role, Toner will be responsible for the business growth and development of Russell's commission management efforts around the globe. With more than 15 years of industry experience, Toner joined Russell from UBS Investment Bank where he was and executive director in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) management office. There, he was most recently involved in the development of new approaches to transparency and unbundling in the equity market, and the effect of regulatory change on client business.

"I am very excited to join Russell, the premier firm in commission management," said Toner. "Our goal is to ensure that clients benefit wherever possible from the recent improvements in transparency and flexibility in the industry. We see the commission management business as a key to this, providing an independent voice on the plan sponsors' behalf, and ensuring that they attain maximum value from the firms acting on their behalf."

In addition to commission management, Russell offers its clients other implementation tools to help improve net investment returns, including transition management, policy implementation, portable alpha and agency currency execution. For three decades, Russell researched the discovery and implementation of techniques designed to minimize the cost of strategic portfolio changes by its clients. Russell's global implementation services team currently includes 105 specialists who handle implementation issues for clients representing more than $4 trillion in assets.

For more information, go to www.russell.com/cr.

About Russell
Russell Investment Group, a global leader in multi-manager investing, provides investment products and services in 44 countries. Russell manages more than $180 billion in assets as of 9/30/06 and advises clients worldwide representing more than $2.4 trillion. Founded in 1936, Russell is a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual and is headquartered in Tacoma, Wash., with additional offices in New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Sydney, Singapore, Auckland and Tokyo.

Contact:
Jennifer Tice, 253-439-1858
Matt Burkhard, 718-875-2122

Russell Investment Group, a Washington, USA corporation, operates through subsidiaries worldwide.

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