NEMI Names Pfahl Vice President of Operations.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

HERNDON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 17, 2002

The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI) today announced that Robert C. Pfahl Jr. has been named vice president of operations. Pfahl replaces Ron Gedney, who is retiring at the end of this year.

"We are delighted to have Bob join us as part of the NEMI staff," said Jim McElroy, president and CEO of NEMI. "Bob helped create NEMI in 1994 and has played a significant role in the organization since that time. He has been a key player in every roadmap NEMI has published, and has also helped guide our technology deployment programs as part of the consortium's Technical Committee. He is obviously knowledgeable of our organization and he brings a breadth and depth of industry knowledge that will be a tremendous asset to our efforts."

"Of course, he has some big shoes to fill here at NEMI," continued McElroy. "Ron has been with the consortium since 1996 and wears many hats in his role as vice president. He has been instrumental in NEMI's many successes, as well as our continued growth, over the past six years. We will miss his daily guidance but hope we'll be able to call on his expertise as a consultant in the future."

Pfahl recently retired as director of international and environmental research and development at Motorola Labs, where he led Motorola's Environmental Technology R&D and Advanced Technology R&D labs in China and Germany. Pfahl was a pioneer in developing reflow soldering processes. He holds nine U.S. patents in electronics manufacturing technology and is the inventor of the vapor phase soldering process.

For NEMI, Pfahl served as director of roadmapping for the 1994 and 1996 cycles, and was a founding member of the consortium's Technical Committee. He chairs the Environmentally Conscious Electronics chapter for the NEMI roadmap and is NEMI's representative on the National Roadmap Coordinating Committee, which coordinates North American electronics roadmapping activities with electronics R&D activities in government and academia. He is also a member of the National Materials Advisory Board of the National Research Council (USA).

Over the course of his career, Pfahl has developed an expertise in environmental issues affecting the electronics industry. He participated in the National Research Council's study, "The Greening of Industrial Ecosystems." He is a member of the US EPA Scientific Advisory Board's sub-committee on industrial ecology. In addition, Pfahl is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Industrial Ecology and a member of the steering committee of the International Society of Industrial Ecology. In recognition of his efforts to eliminate the use of CFCs in the electronics industry, Pfahl received the 1991 United States EPA Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award for executive leadership and industry organizing.

Pfahl received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, where he majored in heat transfer and fluid mechanics.

When Ronald W. Gedney joined NEMI, he had nearly 40 years experience in the development, manufacturing and procurement of electronic components and packaging. The bulk of his career was spent at IBM, where he was responsible for taking one of IBM's cost-oriented ceramic package programs and making it into the most popular LSI/VLSI device package in IBM with some 750 million chip carriers manufactured prior to his retirement in 1992.

Gedney holds several patents in electronic packaging and has authored or co-authored numerous book chapters and technical articles. He is a past president of the IEEE Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology (CPMT) Society, past general chair of the IEEE/EIA-sponsored Electronic Components and Technology Conference, an IEEE Fellow and a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (IMAPS). In 1999, Gedney received the IEEE CMPT Society's David Feldman Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of his continuous and meritorious service to the CPMT and electronic packaging technology.

Gedney graduated from Tufts University with a degree in electrical engineering.

About NEMI

The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative's mission is to facilitate leadership of the North American electronics manufacturing supply chain. Based in Herndon, Va., the industry-led consortium is made up of approximately 65 electronics manufacturers, suppliers, industry associations and consortia, government agencies and universities. NEMI roadmaps the needs of the North American electronics industry, identifies gaps in the technology infrastructure, establishes implementation projects to eliminate these gaps (both business and technical), and stimulates standards activities to speed the introduction of new technologies. The consortium also works with government, universities and other funding agencies to set priorities for future industry needs and R&D initiatives. For additional information about NEMI, visit www.nemi.org.

NOTE: photographs of Bob Pfahl and Ron Gedney are available on the NEMI website (www.nemi.org), or by email from Cynthia Williams ([e-mail]).