Sir Allen Stanford

Archived March 24, 2006

Houston-based Company Agrees to Multi-year Partnership

Houston, TX (March 24, 2006) - Houston-based Stanford Private Wealth Management has agreed to a multi-year venue sponsorship at the Toyota Center with the Houston Rockets. The sponsorship’s signature element provides Stanford with category-exclusive branding rights for logo signage on the pole pads that are part of the basketball goals. Pole pad signage is a premium sponsorship property within the NBA, and Stanford is the first to claim the property with the Rockets. In addition, Stanford has secured a prime signage position on Toyota Center’s suite entrance level.

The sponsorship agreement also provides Stanford with hospitality elements and the opportunity to partner with the Rockets on several of the organization’s local charitable community initiatives. According to Jay Comeaux, Executive Director of Stanford, the partnership offers Stanford multi-tiered marketing and public relations benefits. “We’re delighted to partner with the Houston Rockets,” said Comeaux. “Sports marketing is a key component of our company’s strategic brand-building efforts. We look to partner with national and international sports organizations that offer a consistently high-quality event experience and premium branding opportunities. In addition to the marketing power of the sponsorship, we’re proud to support the community investment initiatives that help strengthen our city,” he said.

Tad Brown, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing with the Rockets, said Stanford is a great addition to the organization’s list of corporate partners. “To develop an integrated partnership with a Houston-based company of Stanford’s caliber is terrific. We’re both fully committed to this city, not only in terms of offering a world class experience through the excitement of the Rockets, but just as important, in giving back to the community in a meaningful way. Stanford understands the power of community investment and in leveraging this sponsorship beyond mere signage and game tickets. We’re proud to have them on board as a member of the Rockets team,” he said.

Stanford Private Wealth Management is a global network of financial and affiliated companies rooted firmly on an enduring commitment to strengthen every community it serves. Stanford provides a wide range of coordinated wealth management and investment advisory services, trust administration, and commercial management services including international private banking, investment banking, insurance and real estate development. Stanford employs approximately 4,000 professionals who serve over 70,000 clients in 102 countries in North and South America, the Caribbean and Europe. More information on the company can be found at www.stanfordgroup.com

Archived March 16, 2006

St. George’s, Grenada - (March 16, 2006) - A community development project, sponsored by Stanford Financial Group and designed to assist local farmers in Grenada with the recovery and rebuilding of the region’s agricultural industry, has exceeded its goals and changed the lives of hundreds of families throughout the country. The Agricultural Livelihoods Recovery Project is a model example of how a public-private partnership can work successfully to build long-term productivity and self-reliance. The project is the first-ever collaboration among the Agency for Reconstruction and Development (ARD), the Ministry of Agriculture and the international humanitarian agency Oxfam, with funding from the private sector provided by Stanford. With the help of a $1,000,000 (EC) unrestricted financial grant from Stanford, the program has helped revive operations for approximately 500 farms.

Grenada’s Minister of Agriculture, Lands, Forestry and Fisheries, The Hon. Gregory Bowen, said, “The benefits of this project are multiple. Not only has it helped to revive some 500 farms, thereby contributing to our national Food Security Program, the project has served to alleviate poverty and set these farming operations on a path of sustainable production.”

The Parishes of St. Andrew and St. Patrick were selected due to the extensive damage caused to farms by Hurricane Ivan, which destroyed 90 percent of Grenada’s agricultural crops in September 2004. In July 2005, Emily brought heavy rains, wiping out much of the recovery made by farmers in the two parishes. As a result, land clearing, replenishing planting materials and rebuilding farming operations were major challenges.

“These farmers and their families - indeed, the community as a whole - will reap benefits of this project for years to come,” said Stanford Financial Group Chairman and CEO Allen Stanford. “It’s how public-private partnerships are meant to work, and we are glad to have been a part of this success story. Whether it is ensuring the health of children or providing for economic security for entire families and regions, we are honored to participate in any program that improves the lives of our Caribbean neighbors in such tangible and lasting ways. The entire global Stanford family continues to extend our hearts and thoughts to the citizens of Grenada, and we hope this support offers true inspiration for a brighter future.”

Technically, the project ran from September 26, 2005 to January 11, 2006; however, the benefits continue, as the participating farmers endeavour to maintain production and provide fresh fruits, vegetables, chicken and pork at the village level and through the country’s Marketing and National Importing Board.

Minister Bowen said the project reflects the many benefits that can be derived when farmers have the correct inputs and effective support services following such a major setback as two hurricanes within a ten-month period.

“As we continue with the revival of the agricultural sector, I see a degree of continuity emerging from this project with respect to our newly introduced

Agricultural Enterprise Development Program, which has a credit facility and a grant component. There may well be beneficiaries of the Agricultural Livelihoods Recovery Project who are eligible to access a loan or a grant through the Agricultural Enterprise Development Program,” Minister Bowen said.

Barbados-based Oxfam Coordinator Margaret Harris noted that the project says a lot about the emphasis of the Government of Grenada and the ARD in working with civil society organizations.

“We work across a wide range of areas both on the political level and at the level of the field where implementation is concerned. So, for us this represents a first initiative, a first step in the direction where we think that certainly many more governments in the Caribbean should be considering; that is engaging more closely, more intimately if you will, in partnerships with civil society organizations that are really there at the base, operating at the community level,” she said.

Background Information

Mr. Dylan Mathews, Oxfam Programme Manager, along with two Field Officers, a Livestock Officer, a Logistics Officer, a Finance Officer and 16 local Community Coordinators worked diligently on the project. In total, the project provided:

• assistance with land clearance of 280 acres for 432 farmers;
• cash for work opportunities for 237 agricultural workers;
• chickens, coops, feed and training for 51 female farmers;
• pigs, pens, feed and training for 21 farm families; and
• distribution of 912 bags of fertiliser.

A total of 504 farmers received a variety of inputs. These included:

• 20,700 banana plants;
• 11,770 dasheen plants;
• 1,253 trays of seedlings;
• 1,142 packets of vegetables seeds;
• 1,000 guava saplings;
• 175 cashew nut saplings;
• 966 agricultural crates.

Local Oxfam coordinators visited farmers on a weekly basis to monitor progress and to ensure farmers received adequate support and guidance. This included training sessions by Ministry of Agriculture Extension Officers. Additionally, the services of the Grenada Red Cross were utilized so that farmers and field workers received First Aid Training.

Archived March 14, 2006

Washington, DC (March 14, 2006) - Gregory Valliere, Chief Strategist with the Stanford Washington Research Group, was the featured speaker at the 2006 Washington Economic Policy Conference of the National Association for Business Economics, held March 13 and 14. The focus of the conference was: Policies to Boost Economic Growth and Security - What’s Needed? Subject matter experts and business leaders from across the country gathered to explore the issues of mounting deficits, a burdensome tax code, growing health care costs, intensifying foreign competition, uncertain trade strategies and high energy prices and what policies are required to address these issues and maximize economic growth and security for the nation and for the business community.

Valliere joined leading economic thinkers, business analysts, and government policy-makers to explore the policy solutions central to these issues. Specific sessions included:

• The White House policy agenda
• Wall Street’s views about what policies will work
• The mood and tilt of Congress
• Balanced solutions for restoring fiscal sanity
• Health care: value-based purchasing and consumer-directed
• The Bernanke Fed
• Problems of public company pensions in distressed industries
• Telecommunications at a crossroads
• Oil, gas, and policy options for energy security
• China’s policy mix and implications for the global economy
• Health information technology-a progress update
• Extending tax cuts set against rising budget deficits
• Tax reform on the agenda
• International economic development: IMF prescriptions
• Structural adjustments in response to offshore competition
• Diversification-protecting states from sectoral decline
• Skills session: comparing price measures-PPI/CPI/PCE
• Economic contribution of immigration

Valliere addressed politics, federal monetary and tax policy. He began his career at The Washington Post and later became Chief Congressional Correspondent and then News Editor of “F-D-C” Reports, a trade publication that monitors the drug and cosmetic industries. He is a frequent guest on CNBC’s “Market Wrap,” CNN’s “Business Day” and “Nightly Business Report,” which appears on most PBS stations.

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