BOSTON, October 4, 2006 - Pyramis Global Advisors, a Fidelity Investments company, today announced the appointment of Mark A. Friebel as head of Asset Allocation, reporting to Young D. Chin, chief investment officer.  In this newly created position, Friebel will develop and oversee the management of asset allocation strategies and products for Pyramis.

Prior to joining Pyramis, Friebel was head of the asset allocation and product strategy group at Barclays Global Investors, N.A., (BGI) San Francisco.  As BGI's principal asset allocation strategist, he led development of a broad range of new asset allocation products employing commodity, currency, overlay and custom alpha/beta strategies, including the firm's first lifecycle product which he designed in the mid‐1990s. Friebel also led all information technology development for global asset allocation operations and managed the asset allocation group. 

"Mark's appointment is the latest in a series of key additions to our team as we build a world class investment organization," said Peter J. Smail, president, Pyramis Global Advisors. "His experience and recognized expertise will be enormously helpful in addressing the growing interest among our clients for Pyramis to build investment capabilities that utilize the full breadth of our products." 

A respected writer on investment topics, Friebel's published works include a chapter entitled, "Fixed Income Benchmarks" in the book Active Index Investing: Maximizing Portfolio Performance and Minimizing Risk through Global Index Strategies (Wiley Finance, 2004). He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from Santa Clara University and a Master's degree in Business Administration with a concentration in international management from Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management.

"Mark's arrival adds to the momentum we have generated in attracting highly accomplished investment professionals from outside our organization to complement the already strong portfolio management and research teams that we established at our launch," said Chin. "Our goal is to continue to build and maintain a leading edge investment platform.  As a noted investment professional in asset allocation, Mark will be instrumental both in expanding our capabilities and working closely with key clients."

Pyramis Global Advisors, a Fidelity Investments company, is an investment management firm focused on serving corporate and public retirement funds, endowments, foundations, other institutions, and non- U.S. investors.  Pyramis offers active and risk-controlled domestic equity, international equity, fixed income, real estate, and alternative disciplines.  As of June 30, 2006, assets under management total approximately $129 billion. 

Fidelity Investments is one of the world's largest providers of financial services, with custodied assets of $2.4 trillion, including managed assets of $1.2 trillion as of December 31, 2005. Fidelity offers investment management, retirement planning, brokerage, human resources and benefits outsourcing services to 21 million individuals and institutions as well as through 5,500 financial intermediaries. The firm is the largest mutual fund company in the United States, the No. 1 provider of workplace retirement savings plans, one of the largest mutual fund supermarkets and a leading online brokerage firm. For more information about Fidelity Investments, visit www.fidelity.com.

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