New Growth Leads To Hires For Huntington Learning Center

(Tuesday, February 06, 2007) - Following a year of unprecedented growth, and coinciding with its 30 th anniversary as the nation's longest running provider of supplemental education services, Huntington Learning Center has welcomed two new professionals to its franchise development team. Mark W. Mele, who has more than 21 years of experience in building and guiding top franchise brands, will serve as Vice President, Franchise Development. Jeffrey L. Bura, with nine years of experience in both sales and franchise management, will serve as Director of Development.

Mele joins Huntington with extensive supplemental education experience while at Oxford Learning Centers and Kumon North America, Inc. At Oxford, he focused on expanding and maintaining the brand, which was a start-up operation in the U.S. and was established in Canada in 1984. At Kumon, his leadership as Vice President of Franchise Development resulted in the opening of over 500 new franchised Kumon learning centers in four years.

Bura began his career in October, 1999 as Regional Sales Manager of AAMCO Transmissions, where he soon became a District Manager and served most recently as the Regional Manager for Franchise Development. His successful track record includes full P & L responsibility for 105 franchise locations with sales in excess of $65 million.

"Huntington's success has always been driven by the entrepreneurial spirit of a team committed to capitalizing on our pioneering of the supplemental education industry, and our 30 years of experience as the nation's longest running provider of education services in a learning center environment. We're thrilled to have Mark and Jeffrey contributing to our strategies and helping us achieve our goals for the future," said Huntington Learning Center Chief Executive Officer J.J. Sorrenti.

Mele and Bura join the Huntington team during a period of unprecedented growth for the company, highlighted by the awarding of 66 new franchise locations during 2006, a record for Huntington. While the growth has been fueled largely by the desire of entrepreneurs to create a stable, community-based education business, it has also been driven by the rising number of parents and families seeking tutoring for students facing difficulties in meeting increasingly rigorous academic standards. Since 1998, the supplemental education services industry as a whole has grown at a compounded annual rate of nearly 12 percent, reaching $6 billion in 2004.

The need for supplemental education services is driven further by the rising number of students enrolled in K-12 public and private schools. According to the U.S. Department of Education, enrollment in elementary and secondary schools rose 20 percent, to more than 53 million students, between 1985 and 2005. The pool of school-age children is expected to grow by an additional two million over the next 10 years.

New franchisees have also been encouraged by independent third party evaluations of Huntington's particular attributes in the industry. During 2006, Huntington Learning Center was selected for inclusion in Bond's Top 100 Franchises. Published annually, Bond's Top 100 Franchises chose the Huntington concept based on historical performance, brand identification, market dynamics, operator satisfaction, the level of initial training and on-going support, financial stability and other key factors. More than 500 franchises were evaluated for the rankings.

Also in 2006, Huntington was named by The Wall Street Journal's StartUpJournal.com as one of the top 25 high-performing brands. As the only supplemental education services organization included on the list, Huntington Learning Center was lauded for criteria that include well-experienced leadership, strong financial health and a proven record of franchising success.

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