At a time when there is so much dissatisfaction with overpaid, underperforming CEOs, this award recognizes CEOs who have generated the most shareholder value for the least amount of compensation.

OVERLAND PARK, KANSAS – SARATOGA COUNTY CEO named one of the Best – CHRISTOPHER L. COCCIO, PH.D., of SONO-TEK CORPORATION (UX7-BE) – is among the Best CEOs in the nation, according to DeMarche Associates, Inc., a leading investment research and financial consulting firm. The award goes to a small group of American CEOs – this year 163 or less than 2.5 percent out of a potential field of 6,700 – who over the last three years generated the most shareholder value per unit of CEO compensation.

“The boards and shareholders associated with these companies have good reason to celebrate because they are getting the most corporate value for the least amount of CEO compensation,” says Robert Marchesi, chairman of DeMarche Associates, a 33-year-old firm known in recent years for its annual Best 100 Companies and Honorable Mention awards. “This recognition is especially significant today, when there is much public outcry about CEOs whose compensation is rising meteorically even as their companies falter. We should all be encouraged by the ability of CHRISTOPHER L. COCCIO, PH.D., and the other Best CEOs to counter this trend by delivering more for less. They have proven to be tremendous assets to their companies.”

The Best CEOs awards are based on DeMarche’s breakthrough migration formula, which allows us to systematically measure corporate change, over a specified time horizon, related to growth, risk management and other key factors affecting the bottom line of a company. After we identified the most improved companies out of 6,700 ratable U.S. companies, we factored in the compensation of each CEO as defined and published by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the simplest of terms, this enabled us to determine which CEOs produced the most corporate bang for their bucks. Companies led by our Best CEOs have already received short-term benefit. For example, the average one-year and three-year returns for companies represented by our Best CEOs were 20.1 percent and 14.0 percent respectively, compared to 15.8 percent and 10.4 percent for S&P 500 companies.

Of course, this is information about the past. And, as any investment prospectus warns, past performance does not necessarily predict future performance. “Therein lies the unique quality of the companies headed by our Best CEOs,” Marchesi explains. “Our research shows that the stock price of these companies as a group will trend upward. But here’s the part that will help individual and institutional investors stay ahead of the curve: At the moment, these companies are probably undervalued by the market because most of the investment world is not yet aware that they have been experiencing substantial improvement or have been guided by a Best CEO.”

For a complete list of DeMarche’s Best CEOs, visit DeMarche’s web site at www.demarche.com.