ELECTROGIG continues expansion with new hires and dealer channel growth.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 8, 1994--Tuesday ELECTROGIG announced it has expanded its position in the U.S. marketplace by hiring several industry heavy-hitters to fill positions in marketing, sales, training and support.

Additionally, more than 40 dealers and key distributors have signed on in the United States since the channel program's inception in June, including Access Graphics, R.E. Snader, Image Soup, RFX, and Video Corporation of America.

Paul Lefebvre joins ELECTROGIG as director of marketing, where he will focus on reinforcing worldwide brand recognition, broadening support for resellers, developing new strategic alliances, and uncovering new opportunities for ELECTROGIG products on the information superhighway. Previously, Lefebvre was director of worldwide marketing communications for SOFTIMAGE, Inc., Montreal.

Lefebvre holds expertise in a range of products for broadcast and post-production, including editing, animation and paint. Among other industry leaders, he has worked with Sega and Industrial Light and Magic.

Christofer Dierdorff, a 20-year feature film and media veteran, joins ELECTROGIG as product line manger for GIGTIME, the company's new flagship products for the high-end broadcast and interactive markets. A national Emmy-award winner, Dierdorff has worked creatively with such companies as Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), Walt Disney, Xaos Tools, ABC, Colossal Pictures -- focusing on special visual effects, film and video production, and multimedia authoring environments.

He brought his creative and technical expertise to films -- such as The Hunt for Red October, Jaws, Back to the Future I and III, The Day After, and Ironweed -- as well as to numerous broadcast and corporate clients.

Mike Dilworth is ELECTROGIG's GIGVIZ and GIG3DGO product line manager, focusing on the visualization, animation and CAD/CAM markets. Dilworth has over 10 years' experience in the computer graphics and broadcast television industries, and was most recently president of Synesis, a video graphics and visualization/animation company based in New Jersey.

Some of Dilworth's projects include the development of television graphics systems for automatic scoring updates used by ESPN during PGA and Senior PGA golf broadcasts and the design of video input/output subsystems for workstation users in engineering and science.

Daniel Gonzales serves as education programs, training and support manager. Trained as an urban architect, Gonzales has been involved in higher education for more than 20 years. He joins the company after several years as director of computer education and associate dean of the graduate school at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.

Anthony Mohr is ELECTROGIG U.S. operations manager, where he oversees operations of four office locations and directs all trade show activities. He has worked in international marketing operations since 1987, first as U.S. trade advisor to the Royal Dutch Graphic Arts Association and, most recently, as advisor to Matchless Amplifiers in the United Kingdom.

Christine Noellert manages the GIGPIX product line, which will introduce 3D technology to the print industry. With more than 10 years' experience in electronic publishing, pre-press and media industries, Noellert played a key role in launching Silicon Graphics into the publishing market last year. In addition, she has worked with Adobe Systems, Linotype Hell, Apple Computer and Letraset Software, in various marketing, sales and channel capacities.

Several new demonstration artists, training specialists and special consultants to the film and broadcast industries have also been hired.

"At SIGGRAPH in July, we made our USA debut," said Paul Schmidman, ELECTROGIG managing director. "Now, we're making heavy investments in marketing, sales and training and support. ELECTROGIG is a serious contender in the visualization, publishing and animation software industry."

Dealer Channel Expansion

Response from the dealer channel regarding ELECTROGIG's high quality, competitively priced products and the company's "no channel conflict" philosophy has been positive, as all ELECTROGIG products are sold through the channel exclusively. In addition, the company has established new training and support centers in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Florida to assist the dealers.

"GIG does not currently sell their product direct, so there are no dealer channel conflicts," says Toki Rathor, president of Computrend/DIS, Anaheim, Calif. "ELECTROGIG is very aggressive with their training and support, particularly as they move to capture additional marketshare of the film and video industry in the United States."

"We became a GIG dealer because we believed its products would bolster sales of our Silicon Graphics machines due to high quality and a low price point," says Chris Kiersch, president, Image Soup, Clayton, Mo. "Additionally, we're impressed with the product's functionality, high-quality output, modularity and compatibility with other 2D morphing and compositing software.

ELECTROGIG develops, markets and supports the GIG family of software products and services for design professionals in the broadcast, film and video, CAD and publishing industries. It is designed for users looking forward to real-time, remote creative collaboration and production delivery on the "I-Way." GIG tools are used by visual-communication and image-production experts in over 800 institutions and corporations and 40 countries worldwide.

Contact ELECTROGIG for information -- In U.S., Canada and Latin America, contact the San Francisco office at 415/956-8212 (phone) or 415/956-8213 (fax). In Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) contact international headquarters in Amsterdam, Holland: 31-20-623-3495 (phone) or 31-20-622-6801 (fax). In Asia Pacific, contact the Hong Kong office at [phone] (phone) or [phone] (fax).

CONTACT: Hi Tech Communications, San Francisco

              Kathleen Nilles, 415/904-7000, ext. 220
              ELECTROGIG, San Francisco
              Paul Schmidman, 415/956-8212