Accent Names Greg Kaiser to President and Promotes Two Additional Key Executives to Worldwide Positions.

Business/High Tech Editors

BEND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 13, 2001

Accent Optical Technologies (www.accentopto.com), a leading supplier of process control and measurement tools for the optoelectronics, wireless, and silicon semiconductor equipment industries, today announced the promotion of Greg Kaiser to President of Accent and Acting General Manager, Silicon Division, Bruce Crawford to Senior Vice President of Global Operations and Customer Support, and Raj Kaul to Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations.

Greg Kaiser was formerly Vice President and General Manager, Semiconductor Technology Group. Kaiser has recently led the silicon team in re-engineering the 300mm platform strategy and winning business at top tier semiconductor manufacturers. As President, Kaiser will focus on all operational aspects of the business. Bruce Rhine has been serving as President, Chairman and CEO of Accent. With Kaiser's appointment, he will relinquish his role as President, and continue as Chairman and CEO.

Prior to joining Accent one year ago as a founding investor, Kaiser held management positions at Obsidian, Inc., Lam Research, Carborundum, and Texas Instruments. Kaiser has a B.S. degree in Ceramic Science and Engineering with Honors from Pennsylvania State University, has studied Solid State Device Physics at Southern Methodist University, holds multiple relevant patents, and has authored several publications in his field.

Bruce Crawford, Senior Vice President of Global Operations and Customer Support, joined Accent a year ago as Vice President of Operations. Crawford has succeeded in building a world-class manufacturing operation, a top-of-the-line, international customer support team, and managing international operations. In his new role he assumes additional responsibilities for international sales, service and support. Prior to joining Accent, Crawford served as Vice President of Operations at Obsidian, Inc., Vice President of Manufacturing at Asyst Technologies, and in various senior management positions at LSI Logic and Seagate Technology.

Raj Kaul, newly appointed to Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations, joined Accent a year ago from Applied Materials where he served five years, most recently as Senior Manager, Supply Chain Management. While at Applied Materials, Kaul also served as Total Product Support Manager. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from CSIO, India and a MS in Global Technology Management from Pepperdine University. Kaul has spent the last year focusing on Accent's global customer support operations and has significantly raised Accent's standard worldwide. In his new role he will be responsible for spares and customer support in the US and Europe.

"These three individuals have single-handedly contributed to the success of Accent and exemplify the Accent vision to improve our customer's competitiveness and profitability by providing innovative and comprehensive process-control and measurement tools. Their leadership and management skills have proven to be some of the best I've seen and I look forward to seeing them excel in their new roles," stated Bruce C. Rhine, Chairman and CEO of Accent.

Accent Optical Technologies (www.accentopto.com) is a leading supplier of optoelectronics and silicon process control systems. The company's legacy dates backs over 300 years to its optical instrument manufacturing roots in York, England. It serves leading manufacturers of laser diodes, VCSELs, HBTs and high electron mobility transistors and supplies optical CD measurement, thin film characterization and optical lithography feedback control systems to leading silicon device manufacturers. Accent Optical Technologies, a privately held company headquartered in Bend, Oregon, operates in 11 countries with more than 280 employees, including over 70 technologists.