Akustica Expands Management Team; Company Taps Seasoned Financial, Technology Executives to Fill CFO, VP of Engineering Posts.

Business Editors

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 8, 2004

Akustica, Inc., a pioneer in acoustic system-on-chip solutions, today announced that it has expanded its management team, adding seasoned financial and technology executives to help drive and manage the Company's ongoing growth. Steve Harrell, a former director of finance and business operations for Texas Instruments, has been named chief financial officer, and Steve Kornachuk, who previously headed product engineering at SiberCore Technologies, will serve as Vice President of Engineering.

Mr. Harrell and Mr. Kornachuk round out a seasoned list of technology industry veterans who serve on Akustica's management team, including Akustica co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Ken Gabriel; co-founder, President and CEO Jim Rock, Vice President of Sales Michael Elchik, and Vice President of Operations Raymond Ciferno. Among the industry-leading companies and research institutions that Akustica executives have worked for: AT&T, DARPA, Infineon, Intel, Intersil, National Semiconductor, Nortel Networks, Lam Research and Varian.

"We are pleased to be adding such world-class talent to our management team," said James Rock, co-founder, president and CEO of Akustica. "As we continue to develop and grow as an organization, it is critical that we have experienced leaders in place to guide our strategy and execute our plan. Steve Harrell and Steve Kornachuk have the financial and engineering skills and an understanding of the semiconductor industry necessary to help us achieve our most strategic goals."

Mr. Harrell joins Akustica after ten years as a financial executive in the Semiconductor Industry Group at Texas Instruments, where he most recently served as director of finance and business operations for the Digital Signal Processor division. Prior to joining Texas Instruments, he served as a financial consultant with KPMG, where he focused on serving customers in the aerospace, defense and telecommunications industries.

Mr. Harrell holds a BS from Radford University and an MBA in Finance and Operations Management from the Joseph M. Katz School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh.

"Akustica is at a very exciting stage in its development," Mr. Harrell said. "I am thrilled to be able to leverage my experience to create and manage the financial infrastructure needed to drive the Company's rapid growth and build a successful commercial organization."

An experienced executive in the semiconductor industry, Mr. Kornachuk began his career with Nortel Networks, and has 15 years of design and management experience with leading companies, including Artisan Components and SiberCore Technologies.

Mr. Kornachuk holds a BS in Electrical Engineering with Management Option from the University of Ottawa.

"The technology that Akustica is developing is truly leading-edge," Mr. Kornachuk said. "I am very excited to be joining such an innovative company and look forward to working with the team to create solutions that revolutionize the way that chips, and ultimately electronic products, are designed."

About Akustica

Akustica, Inc. is a MEMS-focused semiconductor company dedicated to developing a line of acoustic system-on-chip products that promise to revolutionize sound capture, processing and reproduction. Based on CMOS MEMS technology exclusively licensed from Carnegie Mellon University's world-renowned MEMS laboratory, the company's products are targeted at high volume and high growth rate digital media markets such as mobile phones, telematics in automobiles, digital cameras and camcorders, and personal computers.