Business Editors

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 7, 2001

Demonstrating leadership in the statistical software industry, SPSS Inc. (Nasdaq: SPSS) announces the appointment of Leland Wilkinson, Ph.D. to chairperson of the American Statistical Association's (ASA) section on Statistical Computing. In this position, Wilkinson will be responsible for leading information technology-related initiatives for the ASA, including the application of computer software to statistical problems and the development of voluntary standards for statistical software. Wilkinson, elected by the balloting of ASA members, will assume this position on January 1, 2002 and will hold it for one calendar year.

"We are pleased to have Leland take on this important role in the ASA," said Jack Noonan, president and CEO of SPSS Inc. "This is recognition of Leland's accomplishments within and contributions to the statistics community. It is also an example of the thought leadership SPSS holds in this market."

Wilkinson is an SPSS senior vice president and an adjunct professor of statistics at Northwestern University. He wrote the SYSTAT statistical package and founded SYSTAT, Inc. in 1984. Wilkinson joined SPSS as a result of the 1994 acquisition of SYSTAT. He now focuses on research and development of graphical applications for data mining and statistics. Wilkinson is a fellow of the ASA and a former associate editor of The American Statistician.

About SPSS Inc.

SPSS Inc., (Nasdaq: SPSS) headquartered in Chicago, IL, USA, is a worldwide provider of analytical technology for business, government and higher education. The company's solutions and products enable customers to make better decisions by learning from the past, understanding the present and anticipating the future. With this insight, organizations gain a true competitive advantage: the ability to manage the future. SPSS analytical technology is brought to the market through five divisions: CustomerCentric Solutions (for integrated analytical CRM solutions); SPSS BI (for data mining and statistical products and services used to solve business problems); ShowCase (for analytical products operating on IBM iSeries/AS400 platform); SPSS MR (for analytical solutions in the market research industry); and SPSS Enabling Technologies (for integration of SPSS technologies in third party solutions through strategic partnerships). For more information, visit www.spss.com.

SPSS information is available on the World Wide Web through the SPSS Press Center at: http://www.spss.com/press