TORONTO, July 20, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Menē Inc. (TSX-V:MENE) (US:MENEF) ("Menē" or the "Company"), an online 24 karat jewelry brand, today announced that Gavin Johnson has been appointed Chief Financial Officer of the Company in place of Adil Sheikh, effective immediately, following Mr. Sheikh's resignation as CFO, a position he has held since 2020, in order to pursue a new opportunity.

The Company thanks Mr. Sheikh for his years of dedicated service and wishes him very well in his future endeavours and would like to further extend a warm welcome to Mr. Johnson.

Mr. Johnson attended the University of Cape Town where he obtained his Bachelor of Commerce Degree in Financial Accounting and Post-Graduate Diploma in Accounting and holds the designations of Chartered Accountant South Africa and Canadian Chartered Professional Accountant. He has held senior and managerial positions at Grant Thornton Cape Incorporated (the South African member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd.), Polyoak Packaging (Pty) Ltd., Deloitte LLP (United Kingdom and Canada) and Altus Group (Canada). Much of his client engagement and industry experience includes working with large manufacturing, engineering consultancy, construction, and SaaS entities.

Statement from Adil Sheikh:

It has been a privilege to have worked alongside our leadership team and the many talented individuals within the Company. With Menē well positioned for ongoing success, I feel confident that now is the right time for me to move on to new challenges. Over the past few weeks, I have been working to ensure there is a seamless transition for the incoming CFO. I wish my successor the very best of luck as he focuses on the next phase of the company's development.

Statement from Gavin Johnson:

Menē is providing a unique and exceptional value proposition to the market. It has grown rapidly from its infancy in a competitive industry and is positioned to continue its upward trajectory. I am delighted to be joining a vibrant and energetic team that has a passion for delivering top-quality products and customer service. From a finance perspective, my top priority is to holistically prepare Menē for future growth.

Statement from founder and Chief Executive Officer, Roy Sebag:

As previously disclosed to shareholders in our annual results press release, Menē is preparing for an important transition. In the first years since founding the company, we focused on developing our business model, testing our thesis about the potential demand for our disruptive concept, and, perhaps more importantly, confirming that our economic model was viable. Adil Sheikh has been an integral part of this initial journey serving as our CFO during those critical years. I would like to thank Adil for his years of service as Menē Inc.'s CFO and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.

A few months ago, Adil notified me of his plan to leave the company due to personal reasons. At that point, the Board of Directors initiated a search for his replacement. The board collectively saw this development as an opportunity to reflect on where we would like to see Menē in five years and to put in place the right corporate infrastructure that would allow us to pursue an ambitious long-term plan that would allow us to scale our business. We therefore initiated a search for a CFO that could steer Menē into its next phase of growth.

After carefully considering a series of candidates, we decided to hire Gavin Johnson for the role. Gavin has tremendous experience in financial reporting, having worked for Deloitte LLP in the UK and Canada where he oversaw the audits of leading listed companies. Most recently, he worked in the financial reporting group at Altus Group, a TSX listed software company. I am excited about Gavin's appointment and believe he will be the first of a series of incoming senior executives we will be hiring to help us in realizing our long-term goals.

About Menē Inc.

Menē crafts pure 24 karat gold and platinum jewelry that is transparently sold by gram weight. Through mene.com, customers may buy jewelry, monitor the value of their collection over time, and sell or exchange their pieces by gram weight at prevailing market prices. Menē was founded by Roy Sebag and Diana Widmaier-Picasso with a mission to restore the relationship between jewelry and savings. Menē empowers consumers by marrying innovative technology, timeless design, and pure precious metals to create pieces which endure as a store of value.

For more information about Menē, visit mene.com.

Media and Investor Relations Inquiries:

Gavin Johnson
Chief Financial Officer
Menē Inc.
ir@mene.com
+1 289 748 3702

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws that are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statements that involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking information and are intended to identify forward-looking information. In particular, but without limiting the foregoing, this news release contains forward-looking information pertaining to its business plans and goals of the Company for the current financial year, the hiring of new management, estimated potential year over year growth, marketing plans and the announcement of future plans and milestones.

This forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time it was made, and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others: the inability to successfully acquire and/or develop jewelry manufacturing facilities; an inability to predict and counteract the effects of COVID-19 or other pandemics on the business of the Company, including but not limited to the effects of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases presenting as major health issues and impacting the price of precious metals, capital market conditions, restriction on labour and international travel and supply chains; failure to comply with environmental and health and safety laws and regulations; operating or technical difficulties in connection with the manufacture, sale and distribution of jewelry; actual audited results differing from reported unaudited results; global economic climate; dilution of the Company's shares; the Company's limited operating history; future capital needs and uncertainty of raising capital; the competitive nature of the jewelry industry; currency exchange risks; the need for the Company to manage its planned growth and expansion; the effects of product development and need for continued technology and manufacturing change; protection of proprietary rights; the effect of government regulation and compliance on the Company and the industry; network security risks; the ability of the Company to maintain properly working systems; theft and risk of physical harm to personnel; reliance and availability of key personnel; global economic and financial market deterioration impeding access to capital or increasing the cost of capital; and volatile securities markets impacting security pricing unrelated to operating performance. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking information other than as required by law.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.