Aavid Thermal Technologies, Inc. Announces Leadership Change Patel Steps Up as CEO and President; Borelli Chairman of the Board.

Business/Technology Editors

CONCORD, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 6, 2000

Aavid Thermal Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:AATT), today announced the appointment of Bharatan R. Patel, Ph.D. to the positions of chief executive officer and president. Patel was formerly president and chief operating officer of the company. Ronald F. Borelli steps down as chief executive officer, remaining as chairman of the company's board of directors. Patel's appointment was effective January 1, 2000.

"On behalf of our entire board of directors, we are delighted to have Bart Patel lead this company into the new millennium," said Borelli. "Having worked with Bart for the past four years, I believe that he has the necessary business and management skills to lead Aavid. His extensive business experience and knowledge of our industry should allow for a smooth management succession," Borelli concluded.

In his expanded role, Patel will be responsible for strategic direction of the company, in addition to the day-to-day operations of Aavid Thermal Technologies' business units around the world. Aavid has approximately 3,500 employees and estimated revenues of $300 million across its entire operations. Patel, 50, has been president and chief operating officer of Aavid Thermal Technologies since October 1998. Prior to joining Aavid, he was chief executive officer of Fluent, Inc., the world's leader in computational fluid dynamics software tools.

Company Background

Aavid Thermal Technologies is a leading provider of thermal management solutions for dissipating potentially damaging heat from digital and power electronics. Aavid serves a highly diversified range of markets, principally in North America, Europe and the Far East. Aavid's 1998 sales totaled $209 million, driven by the company's operations in two distinct markets: thermal management solutions and computational fluid dynamics software.

Thermal management solutions include products and services for problems associated with the dissipation of unwanted heat in electronic and electrical components and systems.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software involves developing software for computer modeling and flow analysis of products and processes that would otherwise require time consuming and expensive physical models and the facilities to test them.

Ongoing increases in silicon and system integration, higher processing speeds and frequencies, smaller form factors, more sophisticated power requirements and other advances in chip technology create excessive heat in microprocessors and IC's (semiconductors) in electronic and electrical components and systems. Microprocessors and integrated circuits operate efficiently only in a narrow temperature band. The excessive heat generated by these semiconductors not only harms their own performance but also degrades system performance and reliability and can cause system failure. These negative effects are exacerbated by the increasingly wide range of environmental conditions, including temperature extremes, in which electronic systems are expected to operate. The use of Aavid's thermal solutions helps maintain device and system performance and reliability and helps avoid premature component and system failure.

Additional information on Aavid Thermal Technologies is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.aatt.com.

"Safe Harbor" Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

The matters discussed in this release contain forward-looking statements (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) and information relating to the Company that is based on the beliefs of the management of the Company, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the management of the Company. When used in this presentation, the words "estimate," "project," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views of the Company with respect to future events, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.