Conner appoints senior executive to head corporate quality.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 13, 1995--Conner Peripherals Inc. (NYSE:CNR) Monday announced the appointment of A. Donald Stratton as senior vice president, corporate quality, and chief quality officer.

Stratton, who is responsible for implementing a total quality management initiative that involves the entire corporation, reports to Tom Mitchell, president and chief operating officer at Conner.

"Total quality management is a philosophy that includes everything from the way we work together as Conner employees to our relationships with suppliers and, most important, our customers," said Finis Conner, chairman and chief executive officer. "Quality involves everyone and benefits everyone, and it has the support of management at the highest level."

"We're extremely pleased to have Don Stratton on our management team," Mitchell said. "His impressive credentials and reputation as a forward thinker in his field will help Conner achieve the next level of quality in virtually every activity that takes place within the company."

Before joining Conner, Stratton led the quality improvement effort at StorageTek for six years as vice president, corporate quality and education, and chief quality officer for the Louisville, Colo. computer storage and retrieval supplier. Earlier, he held various positions at AT&T, where he ended at 31-year career as manager of quality improvement in engineering and installation at the global telecommunications company.

Under Stratton's leadership, StorageTek won a number of quality awards from customers that included Avis Corp., Convex Computer Corp., Shell Oil Co., Xerox Corp. and the U.S. Postal Service. He was instrumental in helping StorageTek earn the International Standards Organization ISO 9001 registration in 1993. ISO 9001 is a prestigious designation that covers the quality of all operations from design to delivery of products.

The British Standards Institute performed independent audits that certified StorageTek has achieved and maintains processes ensuring total quality in all its activities. Stratton told the StorageTek quality story at the World Quality Congress in Helsinki, the Australian Quality Congress and the Juran Institute international conference.

He has authored two books and numerous articles on quality improvement. He is a member of the American Society for Quality Control and frequently lectures on the subject at universities and professional conferences throughout the world.

Stratton holds a master's degree in business administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a bachelor's degree from Rutgers University, both in New Jersey.

Founded in 1986, Conner sells, designs and builds a comprehensive line of information storage solutions products, including disk drives, tape drives, storage management software and disk array storage systems, for a wide range of computer applications. Conner had 1994 sales of $2.4 billion.

CONTACT: Conner Corporate Communications

Kevin Burr or Mike Seither, 408/456-3134 or

408/456-3743