News Releases

NEW YORK, March 17, 2011 – BMO Capital Markets, the investment and corporate banking arm of BMO Financial Group (TSX, NYSE: BMO), today announced the appointments of Dirk Leasure and Les Gorman as Co-Heads of the Financial Sponsors Group.

“As the financial markets continue to recover, financial sponsor clients are becoming an increasingly active and important client group,” said Mr. Hoffmeister. “Bringing more resources and capabilities to our existing team allows us to continue our strategy of growing our overall capital markets businesses in the United States.”

Mr. Leasure has led BMO's Financial Sponsors Group since 2009. Prior to joining BMO Capital Markets in 2002, he spent eight years with Goldman Sachs working with financial sponsors in their Leveraged Finance Group, including two years leading that group's efforts with financial sponsors in London. Mr. Leasure is a graduate of the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia.

“Les and I have worked closely together for the last year and I'm delighted he is joining the team to help us maximize the significant opportunity in the mid-cap sector, which is a key sector for us,” said Mr. Leasure.

Since joining BMO Capital Markets in 2010, Mr. Gorman has actively covered some of BMO Capital Markets' largest and most important sponsor relationships.

“Last year, financial sponsors accounted for over 20 percent of the investment banking fees in North America,” said Mr. Gorman. “Dirk and his colleagues have created a powerful financial sponsor franchise and I look forward to building the group even further in partnership with Dirk.”

Mr. Gorman previously worked for 12 years at Lehman Brothers where he was a Managing Director. During his tenure at Lehman Brothers, Mr. Gorman worked in the Office of the Chairman, in the firm's M&A department and had responsibilities for covering selected clients in the Media and Communications sectors. Mr. Gorman holds a J.D. from Cornell Law School, an M.B.A. with distinction from Cornell Business School and a B.S. from Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

About BMO Capital Markets
BMO Capital Markets is a leading, full-service North American financial services provider, with over 2,000 employees operating in 26 offices worldwide including 14 in North American and, offering corporate, institutional and government clients access to a complete range of investment and corporate banking products and services. BMO Capital Markets is a member of BMO Financial Group (NYSE, TSX: BMO), one of the largest diversified financial services providers in North America with US$413 billion total assets and 38,000 employees as at January 31, 2011.

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Media Contact:

Beja Rodeck, Toronto, beja.rodeck@bmo.com, (416)867-3996

Holly Holt, New York, holly.holt@bmo.com, (212)885-4153

Ron Monet, Montreal, ron.monet@bmo.com (514)877-1873

Website: http://www.bmocom.com

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