30 March 2026

Connecting Excellence Group Plc

("Connecting Excellence Group", "XCE", the "Group" or the "Company")

Appointment of Chief Performance & Growth Officer

Carlos Benito-Garcia joins as XCE looks to accelerate growth of flagship recruiter Spencer Riley

Connecting Excellence Group Plc (AQSE: XCE / OTCQB: XCELF), the international executive recruitment group with a long-term, ambitious and disciplined Bitcoin (BTC) treasury strategy, is pleased to announce the appointment of Carlos Benito-Garcia as Chief Performance & Growth Officer to strengthen the senior management team (non-board).

Carlos brings more than 30 years of leadership experience across the executive recruitment industry and global pharmaceutical sector, with a proven track record in driving commercial performance, organisational development and business scaling.

Prior to the most recent 10 years in executive recruitment, Carlos spent 20 years in senior commercial roles at leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including GSK, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and IQVIA. At IQVIA, he built a high-performance culture across a 2,500-employee organisation, driving improvements in commercial and operational effectiveness.

Over the past decade, Carlos has held senior leadership roles within executive search, advising businesses and leadership teams on performance optimisation, talent strategy and growth execution. His executive recruitment track record includes:

·   Key member of the strategic leadership team that scaled a Leeds-based executive search firm from inception to over 70 office heads and consultants within three years, instrumental in the building and development of a high-performance recruitment operation from the ground up; and

·  Held an international leadership role at Antal International, driving expansion, revenue growth and profitability across a multi-disciplinary franchise network of over 120 satellite offices spanning 30 countries, with global recruiters operating under a proven franchise model.

At XCE, Carlos will play a central role in driving Spencer Riley's next phase of growth, leading a talent attraction and hiring strategy, while shaping the Group's acquisition strategy to identify and integrate complementary bolt-on businesses. Alongside this, Carlos will spearhead performance and growth initiatives at Spencer Riley, ensuring it is optimised for sustained success, while also leading the development and commercial scaling of new operating subsidiaries and diversified revenue streams across the Group. Through his multifaceted remit, Carlos will support the continued growth of XCE's platform, strengthening its market position and supporting its long-term growth ambitions.

Carlos has also been active in Bitcoin since 2017, with a particular interest in companies adopting a Bitcoin treasury strategy since 2020. His appointment reflects XCE's commitment to combining executive search expertise with innovative Bitcoin-backed growth.

Carlos Benito-Garcia, Chief Performance & Growth Officer of Connecting Excellence Group, said: "I am delighted to join XCE at such an exciting stage of its development. The opportunity to combine executive search excellence with an innovative Bitcoin treasury strategy represents a compelling and differentiated market proposition. Having spent my career building high-performance cultures and scaling ambitious organisations, I recognise the opportunity XCE has to capitalise on what remains a highly fragmented recruitment market and attract the right talent for expansion."

Scott Ellam, Chief Executive Officer of Connecting Excellence Group, commented: "We are building Connecting Excellence Group to be a high-performance, globally scalable talent platform, differentiated by both execution and strategy. Carlos brings a powerful combination of deep commercial leadership, operational discipline, and a proven ability to scale recruitment businesses at pace.

"His appointment continues to strengthen our ability to accelerate the growth of Spencer Riley while also developing new revenue platforms across the Group. Crucially, Carlos is closely aligned with our long-term thinking, including our Bitcoin treasury strategy and focus on disciplined capital allocation. We believe the opportunity in front of us is significant, and with the right leadership in place, we are increasingly well-positioned to execute at speed and deliver compounding shareholder value."

About Connecting Excellence Group Plc ("XCE"):

XCE is an international executive recruitment group with a long term, ambitious and disciplined Bitcoin treasury strategy. The flagship recruitment company, Spencer Riley, places senior executives with clients globally across a number of high growth markets including professional services, business advisory and consultancy, engineering, logistics, life sciences, automation and AI intelligent data solutions.  

The Bitcoin treasury strategy sets the foundation for the Company's scalable recruitment business to attract and retain high performing talent with individual performance linked share option incentives to increase revenue, profit and cashflows. In the future, XCE can also expand market share through strategic acquisitions, at very little cash cost, using performance-based equity incentives to provide immediate and ongoing shareholder value. XCE is also building a dedicated Bitcoin executive recruitment division, enabling executives to find their role within either Bitcoin businesses or traditional businesses looking for Bitcoin talent worldwide and accelerating corporate education, integration and adoption of Bitcoin.

Website: xce.io

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The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

Important Notice: 

Connecting Excellence Group PLC holds treasury reserves and surplus cash in Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a type of digital asset. Whilst the Board of Directors of the Company considers holding Bitcoin to be in the best interests of the Company, the Board remains aware that the financial regulator in the UK (the Financial Conduct Authority or FCA) considers investment in Bitcoin to be high risk.

At the outset, it is important to note that an investment in the Company is not an investment in Bitcoin, either directly or by proxy. However, the Board of Directors of the Company consider Bitcoin to be an appropriate store of value and growth for the Company's reserves and, accordingly, the Company is materially exposed to Bitcoin. Such an approach is innovative, and the Board of Directors of the Company wish to be clear and transparent with prospective and actual investors in the Company on the Company's position in this regard.

The Company is neither authorised nor regulated by the FCA. And Bitcoin is unregulated in the UK. As with most other investments, the value of Bitcoin can go down as well as up, and therefore the value of the Company's Bitcoin holdings can fluctuate. The Company may not be able to realise its Bitcoin exposure for the same value as it paid in the first place or even for the value the Company ascribes to its Bitcoin positions due to these market movements. And because Bitcoin is unregulated, the Company is not protected by the UK's Financial Ombudsman Service or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

However, Bitcoin is formally recognised as personal property in the UK under the new Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on December 2, 2025. This legislation has removed previous legal uncertainty by establishing a new, third category of personal property to accommodate digital assets that do not fit traditional definitions.

The Board of Directors of the Company with a history of a Bitcoin treasury prior to becoming a public company, has taken the decision to invest in Bitcoin, and in doing so is mindful of the special risks Bitcoin presents to the Company's financial position. These risks include (but are not limited to): (i) the value of Bitcoin can be highly volatile, with value dropping as quickly as it can rise; (ii) the Bitcoin market is largely unregulated - there is a risk of losing money due to risks such as cyber-attacks, financial crime and counterparty failure; (iii) the Company may not be able to sell its Bitcoin at will - the ability to sell Bitcoin depends on various factors, including the supply and demand in the market at the relevant time, with operational failings such as technology outages, cyber-attacks and comingling of funds potentially causing unwanted delay. The Board of Directors of the Company does not subscribe to such a negative view, and therefore ascribes to the 'Bitcoin, not crypto' mantra and has a 'Bitcoin only ethos'. However, prospective investors in the Company are encouraged to do their own research and verify before investing.