Dreman Value Management Promotes F. James Hutchinson to President and Names Mark Harrell Managing Director of Separately Managed Account Business

JERSEY CITY, N.J., Dec. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Dreman Value Management, a leading contrarian value asset management firm, today announced the promotion of F. James Hutchinson to President, effective immediately. Hutchinson is Executive Vice President, Managing Director and Co-Portfolio Manager of the DWS Dreman High Return Equity Fund, the DWS Dreman Concentrated Value Fund, and other portfolios. He also works closely with Deutsche Bank and other clients of DVM.

In his new role, Hutchinson will focus on growing the company by continuing to expand relationships with current clients, developing new products, increasing its distribution network and entering new markets. In recent months, Dreman has been rapidly building its research and investment management capabilities. The firm recently hired Cliff Hoover as Managing Director and Co-Chief Investment Officer of its Large Cap Value Strategy, and added a number of analysts and two well-regarded Portfolio Managers in November: Mark Roach was named Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of Mid- Cap and Small-Cap products and Peter Andersen joined the firm as a Director and High-Yield Portfolio Manager.

"Jim brings extensive marketing, client relationship management, and portfolio management experience to his new role," said David Dreman, Chairman and Founder of the firm. "We are experiencing extraordinary growth as our assets under management have increased over 20% a year on average during this decade. And we expect Jim to help us continue that success by leading our long-term growth strategy, strengthening our operations and creating innovative products. With Jim's elevation and the terrific additions we've made to our investment management and sales teams, I'm excited about our future. I believe the company is poised to achieve strong growth in the years to come."

"I'm delighted to have this opportunity to help our clients continue to build their assets," said Hutchinson. "We will pursue our double-digit growth targets by focusing on our key markets, our contrarian value discipline, and a time tested philosophy of maximizing value for our clients. We will achieve our goals by using the competitive advantages of our size, people, distribution network and commitment to delivering superior client service."

Hutchinson, who has more than 30 years of experience in finance and investment management, joined Dreman in 2000. Prior to joining the company, Jim was President of The Bank of New York's Delaware operations in 1987 and President of the bank's New Jersey operations in 1995. In his previous role for Dreman, Hutchinson was a portfolio manager and was responsible for client relationship management and marketing oversight.

Dreman Value Management also announced the addition of Mark Harrell as Managing Director of its Separately Managed Accounts business. Dreman manages more than $2.5 billion in separately managed accounts in over 24 wrap programs, one of the firm's fastest growing segments. Overall, the firm manages nearly $21 billion in institutional, sub-advisory, wrap accounts, and high net-worth individual accounts.

Harrell joins Dreman from ING Investment Management in New York, where he was a Senior Vice President and National Sales Manager, leading a team dedicated to servicing financial intermediary and middle market institutional channels. Harrell, who started his career as a Senior Sales Representative at Nuveen Investments, is charged with increasing the firm's Separately Managed Accounts business, also known as wrap products, and building market share.

"Mark has developed a terrific track record building a wrap business at ING and we are extremely pleased to have him onboard," said David Dreman. "Working alongside Jim Hutchinson and Cliff Hoover, who recently joined us from NFJ Investment Group where he was instrumental in building a $14 billion wrap business, Mark will help us become one of the premier providers of separately managed accounts in the industry."

"I couldn't be more excited to have the opportunity to work with David Dreman and the Dreman 'dream team'," said Harrell. "I have been impressed with David's reputation for many years. He has been building an incredible team of industry leaders and I am delighted to join the organization. I see a lot of potential in the Dreman product, not only in the SMA space, but also in institutional and retail, as was clearly demonstrated by the success of the DWS Dreman Income Edge Closed End Fund (DHG). I look forward to helping David, Jim and his team of professionals continue to build this firm in the years ahead."

About Dreman Value Management

Dreman Value Management is one of the pioneers of contrarian-value investing, an investment philosophy based on a disciplined approach of selecting stocks with a low price-to-earnings ratio. The company invests in undervalued companies that exhibit strong fundamentals, above-market dividend yields and historic earnings growth, managing nearly $21 billion in assets for a wide variety of institutional, sub-advisory, separately managed and high- net-worth clients.

For more information visit: http://www.dreman.com/ Media Contact: Michael Sherman Hill & Knowlton 212-885-0365 michael.sherman@hillandknowlton.com