 Changes
To Gemplus Management And Board
Luxembourg, 19 December 2003--Gemplus International S.A. (Paris
Euronext: Euroclear 5768 and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading provider of
smart card solutions, announces that it has adjusted its internal organisation
in order to adapt to evolving market conditions, and to better serve its
customers.
With immediate effect The "Financial and Security Services Business
Unit" is being run jointly by Philippe Combes and Jacques Seneca. They will
continue in their existing duties as, respectively, Executive Vice-President,
Operations, and Executive Vice-President, Business Development Group.
The former Executive Vice-President of the FSS Business Unit, Gilles Michel,
will leave the company to pursue other interests.
Philippe Combes will focus on volume products including Banking, Retail &
Transport and Conventional Cards. This will maximize the efficiency of the
personalization component of the Banking and Retail offer, which is a key driver
of the growth of this area.
Jacques Seneca will focus on emerging markets including ID & Security and
Smart Card Interfaces. This will enable Gemplus to quickly capitalize this high
growth area while activating synergies with other developing activities like
WLAN.
The Board of Gemplus International S.A. also recently announced the
appointment of Werner Karl Koepf and Geoffrey D. Fink as Directors. They
replaced Kheng Nam Lee and Abel G. Halpern who have resigned. Mr. Koepf
currently holds various senior management positions at Marconi Corporation plc
London UK and Mr. Fink is a London-based Principal in Texas Pacific Group's
operating group. Further details are available at:
http://www.gemplus.com/companyinfo/board/index.html
About Gemplus
Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP) is
the world's leading player in the smart card industry in both revenue and total
shipments (source 2002: Gartner-Dataquest, Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor).
Gemplus has the largest R&D team, unrivalled experience, and an outstanding
track record of technological innovation.
Gemplus helps its clients offer an exceptional range of portable and
personalized solutions that bring security and convenience to people's lives.
These include Mobile Telecommunications, Public Telephony, Banking, Retail,
Transport, Identity, WLAN, Pay-TV, e-government, access control, and a wealth of
other applications.
Gemplus's revenue in 2002 was 787 million Euros.
www.gemplus.com
©2003 Gemplus International S.A.
Some of the statements contained in this release constitute forward-looking
statements. These statements relate to future events or our future financial
performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other
factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity,
performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results,
levels of activities, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ materially.
Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking
statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of
activity, performance or achievements. Factors that could cause actual results
to differ materially from those estimated by the forward-looking statements
contained in this release include, but are not limited to: trends in wireless
communication and mobile commerce markets; our ability to develop new technology,
and the effects of competing technologies developed and expected intense
competition generally in our main markets; profitability of our expansion
strategy; challenges to or loss of our intellectual property rights; our ability
to establish and maintain strategic relationships in our major businesses; our
ability to develop and take advantage of new software and services; and the
effect of future acquisitions and investments on our share price. Moreover,
neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and
completeness of such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements
contained in this release speak only as of this release. We are under no duty to
update any of the forward-looking statements after this date to conform such
statements to actual results or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated results.
For further information, contact:
Marielle Bricman, Corporate PR Manager
Gemplus
Tel : + 33 4 42 36 55 96
E-mail: marielle.bricman@gemplus.com
Aurélie Sabatié
Edelman Public Relations
Tel : +33 (0)1 56 69 75 64
Email : aurelie.sabatie@edelman.com
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