With the consent of the Board of Directors of Upland, Dr Stephen Staley, Chief Executive Officer, has made a charitable
donation, for nil consideration, of one million ordinary shares in Upland to the Arctic Research Group ("ARG"), a UK
charity with registered charity number 1167722. Prior to the donation Dr Staley held 17,287,564 shares, representing
approximately 8.1% of the shares in issue; after the donation he will hold 16,287,564 shares, representing some 7.6%
of shares in issue.
The ARG (http://arcticresearchgroup.org) is an organisation whose object is the advancement of knowledge about the
High Arctic through scientific research and the dissemination of the results of this research for the benefit of the public.
Upland CEO, Stephen Staley commented:
“The Arctic Research Group is a charity that carries out important scientific and educational work on one of our
planet’s most fragile environments. Over the nearly three decades that it has been operating, it has organised, financed
and staffed nine expeditions to some of the most remote and demanding parts of the Svalbard archipelago. Svalbard's
landscape is a harsh one of glaciers, fjords and tundra, the islands lying between northern Norway and the North Pole,
but it also hosts the world’s most northerly coal mines.
Amongst the numerous projects it has carried out, it has developed and run a novel, satellite-linked system for
monitoring glacier ice movement, winning a Rolex Award through the Royal Geographical Society in the same year. It
has also carried out studies ranging from the impact of coal waste on the local ecology and of climate change on glacier
systems to the effects of personality traits on the ability of individuals to cope with prolonged exposure to a hostile
environment.
Perhaps its greatest achievement is in passing on enthusiasm for the High Arctic to the next generation of explorers
and scientists. Each expedition is a conscious mix of the young and the not so young. I now fall firmly in the latter
category, but at the age of 23, my first season in the Arctic was one of the most positive and formative periods of my
life. The ARG allows other young scientists to travel to the otherwise inaccessible High Arctic, opens up new
opportunities to them and makes them aware of the problems the area faces. Through this donation, I am pleased to
be able to give something back.
The shares are now for the ARG to use as it sees fit, with the objective being that it will one day be able to use the
proceeds of any sale to help young academics to collaborate on invaluable research and to continue to develop
the new techniques and ideas promoted by the ARG.
The shares will be held with our house broker, Optiva Securities, and should the ARG wish to realise their value at
an appropriate time, then the ARG has agreed to an orderly market of the shares through our brokers"