Michael R. Higgins Joins LexisNexis as Chief Security Officer; Information Security Executive & Consultant Has Extensive Experience in Corporate, Government Organizations

Higgins will report to Kurt Sanford, chief executive officer,Corporate and Federal Markets, who made the announcement. Higginsassumes his position on October 3.

Higgins has been vice president and chief security officer ofTekmark Global Solutions LLC, in Woodbridge, Va., since 2002.

"As an industry leader in data security policies and practices andcompliance, LexisNexis is fortunate to have Michael Higgins step intothis important role. He will serve as a chief advisor for securityefforts across the company and consult with executive management andgovernment affairs on legislative and regulatory initiatives," saidSanford.

Higgins previously was chief executive officer, chairman andpresident of Para-Protect Services Inc., of Centreville, Va., aninformation security consulting company that he founded in 1998. Therehe advised numerous industries, such as financial and government, thatrely heavily on advanced security policy and practices.

Prior to that, Higgins was an executive with Science ApplicationsInternational Corp. (SAIC) of McLean, Va.

In 1995, he left the U.S. Department of Defense, Center forInformation Systems Security as its deputy director following severalpromotions over a 13-year period. He established the first DOD-widecomputer emergency response team that handled more than 200 securityincidents.

He has been interviewed and has authored articles on informationsecurity for media organizations including National Public Radio,Washington Post, NBC Nightly News, USA Today, Fortune, Forbes,Computerworld, CFO, Information Weekly, Network Computing and Reuters.

Higgins will be based at the LexisNexis Dayton, Ohio offices.

About LexisNexis

LexisNexis(R) (www.lexisnexis.com) is a leader in comprehensiveand authoritative legal, news and business information and tailoredapplications. A member of Reed Elsevier Group plc (NYSE: ENL; NYSE:RUK) (www.reedelsevier.com), the company does business in 100countries with 13,000 employees worldwide. In addition to its flagshipWeb-based Lexis(R) and Nexis(R) research services, the companyincludes some of the world's most respected legal publishers such asMartindale-Hubbell, Matthew Bender, Butterworths, JurisClasseur,Abeledo-Perrot and Orac.