BACKGROUND AND CAREER OF RONALD N. EDWARDS, B. Com., F.C.A.

Born 1937 in Birmingham, England, Ron Edwards obtained a Degree in Business Economics at the University of Birmingham and in 1961 qualified as a Chartered Accountant. After 3 years as senior auditor and tax consultant in the Munich, Germany, office of Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. (now KPMG), one of the major international accounting firms, he organized and became the first Manager of the firm’s International Tax Division in Europe.

In 1968 he left PMM&Co to become Director of Taxation, International Operations, at the newly-established international headquarters of Gulf+ Western Industries Inc. in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where he was responsible for the international operations of Paramount Pictures Corporation, then a Gulf+Western subsidiary.

Two years later, Paramount formed Cinema International Corporation N.V. in Amsterdam, together with Universal Films, to take over all international film distribution activities for the two companies, and subsequently for MGM. Ron Edwards was appointed Managing Director and Vice President, Finance and Administration, of the new operations.

This position included in particular responsibility for international tax planning and for the establishment of subsidiaries and branch operations of the new corporation in countries around the world. When he left CIC in 1976 to become an independent tax consultant, the corporation’s $200 million business in film distribution, production, exhibition and television was being conducted through 84 subsidiaries in more than 40 countries.

From 1977 to 1979 Ron Edwards practiced as an independent tax consultant from his base in Monte Carlo, as well as through his position as Director of International Tax Services for a Swiss consulting firm. In 1980 he moved to Switzerland and established Edwards & Partner AG in Lucerne, as a consulting firm practicing solely in the field of international taxation.

During the following years his work for various European investment funds brought him considerable experience in the US oil & gas and film industries. In recent years he has consulted for companies in many different forms of activity, but with an emphasis on clients closely involved in high-tech and leisure time industries, including the international development of golf and country clubs.

From 1990 through 1995 Ron Edwards was an international tax consultant to the Wines & Spirits Division of the Allied-Domecq Group (formerly Allied-Lyons) and director of a number of international finance companies of the Group in Switzerland.

Until 1995 he was for many years also active as the international tax consultant for one of the largest law firms in Germany (name supplied on request) and in the course of this work advised many major corporations and financial institutions.

His professional activities included membership of the Advisory Board of The American Tax Institute and of the Management Committee of the Eu- Lex International Practice Group, an international association of lawyers, tax consultants and accountants, where he held the honorary position of Chairman in 1993/94.

During his more than 30 years experience in the field of international tax consulting, Ron Edwards has dealt in depth with the tax laws of the U.K., the USA, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland and has had first- hand experience of tax planning in almost all the developed countries of the world. He has authored numerous articles on tax subjects, acted as assistant editor on one of the first commentaries on corporate taxation in Europe and was a speaker at various seminars in Europe and the USA on international tax planning subjects. He is well known in professional circles and has built up in the course of his work an extensive network of professional contacts around the world.

He is fluent in German and has a reading knowledge of French, Dutch and Spanish.