THE GENERAL INVESTMENT AND DEVELOPMENT COMPANIES ANNOUNCES THE HIRING OF KENNETH A. MUNKACY AS SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL GROUP

Boston - (November 1, 2007) - The General Investment and Development Companies (“GID”) has successfully completed the search for the Senior Managing Director of its International Group. Kenneth A. Munkacy has joined GID to lead GID's international real estate investment activities. He will be responsible for formulating, implementing and guiding GID's investment strategy in emerging markets, including identifying targeted asset types, acquisition strategies, local partner joint ventures, financing and exit strategies. He will immediately assume responsibility for managing GID's relationship with BHI, a start-up Indian merchant banking firm based in Gurgaon, India in which GID has made a venture investment. His responsibilities include evaluating and ultimately managing two real estate joint venture development opportunities that GID has been pursuing in Faridabad, a suburb of New Delhi, and Bangalore, India.

Ken comes to GID with impressive international real estate investment credentials. He has broad and deep leadership experience and new business start-up experience in overseas markets. From 2002 through 2005, Ken lived in Prague, Czech Republic, where he was responsible for managing GE Capital Golub Europe, a 6-country regional real estate platform owned 65% by GE Real Estate and 35% by Golub & Co. GE Capital Golub Europe had 145 people and 17 assets with over 3 million square feet, and was the developer of over 2,000 multifamily condominium units.

Prior to his Czech Republic stint, Ken spent almost ten years in Asia building and managing real estate investment programs. From 1993 through 1997, Ken established Koll Asia Pacific Development and served as President of the company, which was owned 50% by the then publicly listed Koll Real Estate Group and 50% by the then privately held Koll Management Services. He opened and staffed offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Taiwan. In 1997, Ken was hired as Managing Director by TrizecHahn to run TrizecHahn Asia Pacific based in Tokyo and Hong Kong and in 2000 he was hired by the Starwood Capital Group as their Managing Director/Asia to be responsible for all their real estate investment activities in Asia. Ken and his family lived in Tokyo and Hong Kong for nearly ten years while he served in the senior management positions at Koll, TrizecHahn and Starwood.

Anxious to return to the US, Ken has spent the last two years as the Chief Operating Officer of the New Boston Fund based here in Boston, where he oversaw the day-to-day operations of the $1 billion private equity fund management company.

Ken graduated with a BA in Economics - Government from Franklin and Marshall College in 1976 and earned his Masters of City Planning at the University of Pennsylvania with a concentration in real estate development/finance in 1981. He's married with two children and currently lives in the Boston area.