Founded in 1984, The Center for Professional Education, INC. is the industry leader in providing high quality, unique and cutting-edge continuing professional education programs for financial, accounting and legal professionals nationwide. CPE INC.'s reputation for combining superior instruction, relevant topics, in-depth and current coverage has grown steadily, establishing CPE INC. as "America's Leader in Continuing Professional Education."

Annually, the company conducts more than 2,500 programs in 40 cities on over 150 topics in such categories as accounting, auditing, controllership, strategic planning, business valuation, mergers and acquisitions, sales and use taxes, securities reporting and individual and corporate taxation.

In the accounting world, CPE INC. is known for creating the most programs serving the complex needs of corporate financial executives and managers. Many of these specialized programs are not available from any other source, drawing attendees from all industry sectors and company sizes.

CPE INC. is known for advancing into new fields and presenting innovative thinking in established areas. The company consistently introduces seminars on cutting-edge topics and new directions in financial management and accounting practices.

New courses for 2006 include: Section 199: The Production Activities Deduction, Schedule M-3 Adjustments: Tax vs. Book Income, and Tax Compliance & SOX 404.

Courses introduced in 2005 included: Assets, Liabilities, Equity & Procurement in a SOX Environment, Accounting Failures Series 3: What Went Wrong—Case Studies, COSO & Creating Anti-Fraud Programs Under SOX, External Audit Procedures for SOX 404 Compliance, Fixed Asset Management & Accounting: Value & Benefits, Multistate Taxation: An Update of Recent Changes, Partnerships—Advanced Tax Workshop: Special Allocation Rules, and SOX 404: How to Streamline & Sustain the Process.

In 2000, CPE INC. entered into a new arena of continuing education, successfully producing its first two multi-day conferences: our SEC Conference: An Accounting & Reporting Update for Public Companies and our Financial Leadership Conference: Impact of the Electronic Revolution on Best Practices. Both meetings proved so successful that they have become regular events hosted by CPE INC.

CPE INC. has made a corporate commitment to develop and expand its conference division, with a focus on the highest quality programs, speakers and facilities. In keeping with that decision, our conference division went international in 2005 with our first-ever SEC Conference on Sarbanes-Oxley 404 in London, UK. This conference was designed specifically for companies located outside the U.S. that must meet 404 reporting requirements. Additional SOX 404 conferences were held in Shanghai, China in 2005 and in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in 2005 and 2006. We continue to host a highly popular annual SEC conference and, for the first time in 2005, we held a successful SEC/FASB Update Conference. In addition to hosting programs at locations throughout the country, CPE INC. provides custom in-house seminars for a variety of clients including Fortune 100 companies and Big 4 firms, as well as newer companies in emerging fields. CPE INC. instructors have conducted on-site programs for such companies as Motorola, Verizon, Panasonic, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Campbell Soup, American Express, AT&T, Pepsi, Cigna, Dow Chemical, McNeil Pharmaceuticals, Comcast, The Gap, TIAA-CREF and Freemarkets, Inc.

The distinguished CPE INC. faculty of more than 200 active instructors reads like a "Who's Who" of premier tax, financial and accounting professionals. These practitioners bring experience from Big 4 firms, major accounting and law firms, Fortune 500 corporations, government and banking institutions. Many of these popular instructors have been associated with CPE INC. since its inception.

The CPE INC. in-house editorial department works closely with instructors to develop, produce and maintain unique, comprehensive and up-to-date course materials, case studies and reference papers to supplement the seminars. CPE INC. also offers the industry's highest quality self-study courses for continuing education CPE credits. In addition, CPE INC. serves the legal community with seminars that enable lawyers to earn mandatory CLE credits.

CPE INC.'s one-to-one direct marketing program is extremely successful and responsive. The company has built an in-house client database of over 100,000 attendees, each with a detailed individual profile that makes it simple to target specific audiences.

CPE INC. has 50 full-time employees in its main office in Broomall, Pennsylvania, in the Philadelphia suburbs, including highly skilled and professional customer service representatives and seminar administration personnel. CPE INC. is committed to a comprehensive policy of customer satisfaction that fosters strong repeat attendance.