ROUND ONE OF MADNESS AGAINST MALARIA ENDS IN 30 DAYS

NEW YORK; January 30, 2007 — Madness Against Malaria (MAM), a unique international online fundraising and awareness-raising initiative modeled after the NCAA March Madness college basketball tournament, will complete its first round of competitive fundraising on February 28 (see: madnessagainstmalaria.com). First Lady Laura Bush hailed MAM’s efforts and creativity at the White House summit on malaria in December.

Beginning March 1, the 64 teams that have raised the most money will enter phase two and will be paired off to compete “knock-out style” against each other for one week. The team that raises the most money that week will move on to the next round. This continues until April 16, when the winning team will be determined. Of course, all participants win the satisfaction of helping to save lives, and the real winners are those in the impoverished villages plagued by malaria that will benefit from these efforts.

Of the millions of people killed by the entirely preventable and treatable disease each year, 70 percent are children under five. All of the funds raised through MAM will be used to purchase long-lasting insecticidal bed nets, which cost just $5 apiece and are extremely effective at preventing malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes.

Currently there are more than 95 teams, including groups from Merrill Lynch, Emory University, George Washington University, Notre Dame University, and various hedge funds, as well as teams from more than 30 countries. Anybody or any group can start a team.

As of Jan. 29, one of the top two teams is “Six Degrees of Tilson,” led by Whitney Tilson, a hedge fund manager and founder and Managing Partner of T2 Partners LLC and Tilson Mutual Funds, a family of value-oriented mutual funds. Tilson’s parents were the first couple to meet and marry in the Peace Corps, and now live permanently in Kenya. Their dedication to the region sparked his passion for stopping malaria related deaths, 90 percent of which occur in Africa.

“Madness Against Malaria is about more than raising money,” said hedge fund manager and philanthropist Lance Laifer, who co-founded MAM along with Rob Mather of the World Swim For Malaria Foundation (WSMF). “Raising awareness about this deadly disease, which kills one to three million people a year, is vitally important. By sensitizing people to malaria and its deadly consequences we can hopefully encourage them to support governments, elected officials, organizations such as the World Health Organization, and others who are working to bring an end to malaria.”

Laifer, who attended the White House summit on malaria last December, is also the co-founder of Hedge Funds vs. Malaria, a group of hedge fund managers working together to come up with innovative ideas to raise money and awareness within the hedge fund community about malaria.