For Immediate Release
November 16, 2009

Rosetta Stone's Tom Adams Named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year(R) 2009 Overall National Winner

PALM SPRINGS, Calif., Nov. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Tom Adams, president and CEO of Rosetta Stone Inc. (NYSE: RST - News) was today named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2009 overall national winner. He was also named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2009 national winner in the Retail and Consumer Products category. Now in its 23rd year, the awards recognize leaders and visionaries who demonstrate innovation, financial success and personal commitment as they create and build world-class businesses.

Adams was recognized for growing Rosetta Stone into one of the world's leading providers of technology-based language learning solutions. "Tom Adams' efforts at Rosetta Stone have helped change the way the world learns languages, a critical skill in today's global economy," said James S. Turley, chairman and CEO, Ernst & Young LLP. "For 23 years, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® awards have recognized the entrepreneurial passion that defines great leaders, and we are proud to add Tom Adams' name to this distinguished list of business leaders."Adams was honored at the Entrepreneur Of The Year® gala in Palm Springs - the culminating event of the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum, the nation's most prestigious gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies. Awards were given in nine additional categories. All Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® winners were selected by an independent panel of judges from approximately 400 regional award recipients.

Making Language Learning Fun
Born in Sweden and educated in the UK, Tom Adams started his career as a commodity merchant. In his travels, he saw first-hand how people struggled with a lack of language skills, and how it hindered business transactions and every other aspect of life in the growing global community.A chance meeting led to his accepting the position as CEO of a small family-owned business, Fairfield Language Technologies in 2003. Adams reorganized the sales force, developed a scalable business model and rebuilt the research and development team. Moving the company to Washington DC, it was renamed Rosetta Stone after the 19th century archeological find that enabled scholars to finally decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics.The name was a good fit given the challenge most people face in learning new languages. Rosetta Stone's answer for that is to throw out traditional language learning methods. Their software allows clients to learn and practice their new language through direct, interactive immersion like a child learns a first language at home. Learning takes place through real life visual and audio scenarios, not vocabulary and sentence structure lessons.

Changing the World Through Language
The company's novel approach to learning through technology is quickly gaining ground and the business continues to expand, even in a tough economy. The company has doubled in size since 2007 and had a successful IPO earlier this year. Rosetta Stone's offerings include 31 languages, with headquarters in four countries. Some 10,000 schools in the US have adopted the program, and global expansion plans include clients in government, the military, education and business.Adams attributes this success to the product and their corporate culture. One of their key values is they want to change the world. Rosetta Stone is doing that through language learning that breaks the mold and breaks down barriers. The company has a unique marketing strategy, which includes infomercials and kiosks at airports and train stations to introduce consumers to the product, as well as sales in traditional retail outlets. Adams himself is fluent in Swedish, English and French with a basic knowledge of Chinese. He's currently learning Russian.

SOURCE Ernst & Young