The American Kennel Club announced today that effective January 1, 2004, Charles Kneifel will officially be named Chief Information Officer. Kneifel, who has extensive experience in information technology, has been a consultant at the AKC for the past 6 months.

Charley has been instrumental in the re-engineering of our registration system which is now completed, and in the development of the new online litter registration service, said Dennis B. Sprung, AKC's Chief Operating Officer. Our goal is to maintain and expand the technological services we offer to our customers and to do this we need an experienced professional and strong leadership skills. We have found all these qualities in Charles Kneifel.

For the past 12 years Kneifel has been responsible for the design, implementation and support of computing and networking infrastructures within sizable information technology organizations. His senior management experience at North Carolina State University, Interpath Communications and MCNC focused on improving communication, customer satisfaction and service delivery.

Kneifel lives in Cary, North Carolina with his wife Amy and daughter Maggie.