Flanagan Takes on Newly Created Position to Meet Increasing Client Needs

Houston-October 1, 2001-Smith, Graham & Company today announced the promotion of Lydia Flanagan to the newly created position of Vice President - Manager, Client and Consultant Services.

Flanagan, 37, joined Smith Graham a decade ago, and has over 16 years of experience in the financial services industry. In her new role she will report to Gerald B. Smith, Chairman & CEO. She will play a key part in strengthening Smith Graham's customer oriented approach, including improving the effectiveness of the firm's customer relationship management (CRM) database system. In addition, Flanagan will play a proactive role in tailoring customer-service programs and measures to meet and exceed client objectives and consultants requirements.

"Lydia has a wealth of experience in the financial services industry and we are excited to recognize her many valuable contributions by naming her to this new post," said Jamie House, Chief Operating Officer, Smith Graham. "She has an intimate knowledge of our client and consultant constituency and will be able to parlay this experience and knowledge into value added contributions to the bottom line of our clients and Smith Graham."

Prior to joining Smith Graham, Flanagan was Assistant Operations Manager of Shearson, Lehman Brothers. She began her career in the financial services industry at the Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company (VALIC), an American General subsidiary.

Flanagan, originally from Beaumont, Texas, is married with three children.

Founded in 1990, Smith Graham was highlighted in Pensions & Investments' August 20, 2001 issue as the # 1 institutional manager for global fixed income and a top ten manager for international fixed income. The rankings are derived from P&I's PIPER (Pension and Investments Performance Evaluation Report) universe of over 500 managers in the United States. Smith Graham specializes in managing domestic and global fixed income assets for institutional clients, and has over $2 billion in assets under management. It is one of the nation's largest African-American owned institutional fixed income managers.