Mark Lamarre Named Head of Wachovia Securities Technology and Services Group

CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Wachovia Securities announced today that Mark Lamarre, a managing director and head of Wachovia Securities Equity Private Placements Group, will also serve as head of the Technology and Services Group. Mark will continue to be based in Charlotte.

"Mark has done a great job building out Equity Private Placements, and he will be an excellent leader for our technology practice," said Jeff Armstrong, head of Wachovia Securities Corporate Finance Group. His experience covering technology and services companies for 14 years, managing growing businesses and developing meaningful client relationships makes him the right leader to take on added responsibilities."

As head of the Equity Private Placements Group, Lamarre will continue to report to Rob Engel, head of the M&A Group. As head of the Technology and Services Group, he will report to Armstrong and manage a team of bankers in San Francisco and Charlotte.

Lamarre joined Wachovia Securities in April 2004, as a managing director and the head of the Equity Private Placements Group. To date, he has over 17 years of experience as an investment banker serving growing companies in a variety of industries. Lamarre began his investment banking career in 1989 at Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York in the Technology / Emerging Growth Group. Before joining Wachovia Securities, he spent five years at Credit Suisse First Boston, where he ran a segment of the firm's global technology industry practice and managed the firm's Boston investment banking office. Prior to CSFB, Mark was a technology banking partner at Cowen & Company.

Wachovia Securities is the trade name for the corporate, investment banking, capital markets and securities research businesses of Wachovia Corporation and its subsidiaries, including Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC (WCM) and Wachovia Securities International Limited. Wachovia Securities is also the trade name for the retail brokerage businesses of WCM's affiliates, Wachovia Securities, LLC, Wachovia Securities Financial Networks, LLC, Wexford Clearing, LLC, and First Clearing, LLC.

Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC, is a U.S. broker-dealer registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a member of the New York Stock Exchange, the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc., and the Securities Investor Protection Corp. Wachovia Securities International Limited is a U.K. incorporated investment firm authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

About Wachovia

Wachovia Corporation is one of the nation's largest diversified financial services companies, providing 13.4 million household and business relationships with a broad range of banking, asset management, wealth management and corporate and investment banking products and services. Wachovia operates as Wachovia Bank through 3,159 offices in 16 states from Connecticut to Florida and west to Texas, and, until merger integration activity is completed, will continue to be known as Western Financial Bank in California. Two core businesses operate under the Wachovia Securities brand name: retail brokerage in 49 states and in Latin America, and corporate and investment banking in selected industries nationwide. Globally, Wachovia serves clients through more than 40 international offices. Online banking is available at wachovia.com; online brokerage products and services at wachoviasec.com, and investment products and services at evergreeninvestments.com. Wachovia had assets of $541.8 billion, market capitalization of $90.2 billion and stockholders' equity of $49.8 billion at March 31, 2006.