Essex Rental announces Tom Ryan to the Board od Directors as upcoming Independent Member

– USA, IL – Essex Rental Corp. (Nasdaq: ESSX) today announced that Thomas A. Ryan, Jr. has accepted the Company’s invitation to join its Board of Directors following his election at the Company’s 2015 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held on June 4, 2015.

Mr. Ryan is Managing Partner of Redwing Consulting, LLC, an independent consulting group serving small to middle market public and private clients, and he also serves as a Senior Advisor/Investment Banker for Cascadia Capital, LLC, an investment bank focused on sell-side representations. From 2008 to 2012, Mr. Ryan served as chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of PODS Enterprises, Inc., a leader in the containerized moving and storage industry, which, in December 2014, announced it was being sold to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Mr. Ryan’s other professional experience includes serving as: Senior Vice President and General Manager of Johns Manville/Berkshire Hathaway, a wholly-owned building products subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway; President of IR Retail Solutions, the industrial services division of Ingersoll Rand, Corp.; Vice President and General Manager of AlliedSignal Aftermarket Europe, an automotive aftermarket parts division of AlliedSignal, Inc.; and Senior Consultant at Price Waterhouse Coopers, a public accounting firm. The Board of Directors has affirmatively determined that Mr. Ryan is “independent” under the listing standards of The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC and all relevant securities and other laws and regulations.

“We are delighted to have someone of Tom’s background and experience join our Board of Directors,” commented Laurence S. Levy, Chairman of the Essex’s Board of Directors. “We believe that Tom will provide invaluable insight and support as we continue to implement our strategic initiatives that have already led to positive operating results. We are confident that Tom’s successful experience as CEO of PODS, a company in the business of the rental of long-lived assets, will enable him to add value as a member of Essex’s Board,” continued Mr. Levy.

“I am pleased to have the opportunity to join Essex’s Board. Essex has an attractive portfolio of lifting assets, and the Company’s leadership has embarked on initiatives that have already shown positive results and, I believe, position Essex for continued growth and improvement. I look forward to working with Essex’s Board and contributing to Essex’s success,” stated Tom Ryan.

As previously announced, two of the Company’s long-standing directors, John Nestor and Dan Blumenthal, will not be standing for reelection at the 2015 Annual Meeting, and the Nominating Committee of the Board began undertaking a search to identify candidates for inclusion on management’s slate of director nominees for election at the Annual Meeting immediately after that announcement. Mr. Ryan will serve as one such nominee, and Mr. Ryan together with Edward Levy, an existing Class A Director, will constitute management’s slate of director nominees for the Annual Meeting. The Nominating Committee is continuing its search to identify a second highly qualified professional with strong credentials in the equipment rental sector or other relevant areas of expertise, and such individual, once identified, will be appointed to the Board of Directors as soon as possible after the Annual Meeting.

Mr. Levy added, “As part of the Nominating Committee’s search process, the Board has extended an offer to Lee Keddie – an activist stockholder who, despite holding only 500 shares for only 50 days, has threatened to pursue a hostile proxy contest – for his purported director nominees to be evaluated by our Nominating Committee. Mr. Keddie, to date, has been non-responsive to our offer. We have informed Mr. Keddie that his nomination notice is defective and that he will not be entitled to make nominations at our upcoming Annual Meeting, but Mr. Keddie has nonetheless continued his campaign.”

“We do not believe it is in stockholders’ best interests for the Company to engage in an adversarial process with Mr. Keddie, and we have informed Mr. Keddie that we and our stockholders would prefer to avoid the unnecessary expense and management distraction of such a process. Mr. Keddie, however, through his non-responsiveness, appears not to care about these stockholder concerns. Notwithstanding Mr. Keddie’s recalcitrance and de minimis investment in the Company, the Board has left its offer to Mr. Keddie open, and we will continue to make every effort to resolve Mr. Keddie’s issues on an amicable basis.”

About Essex Rental Corp.

Essex, through its subsidiaries, is one of North America’s largest providers of rental and distribution for mobile cranes (including lattice-boom crawler cranes, truck cranes and rough terrain cranes), self-erecting cranes, stationary tower cranes, elevators and hoists, and other lifting equipment used in a wide array of construction projects. In addition, the Company provides product support including installation, maintenance, repair, and parts and services for equipment provided and other equipment used by its construction industry customers. With a large fleet, consisting primarily of cranes, as well as other construction equipment and unparalleled customer service and support, Essex supplies a wide variety of innovative lifting solutions for construction projects related to power generation, petro-chemical, refineries, water treatment and purification, bridges, highways, hospitals, shipbuilding, offshore oil fabrication and industrial plants, and commercial and residential construction.

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