Gemplus announces appointment of senior executives

Luxemburg – February 12 2003 – Alex Mandl, Chief Executive Officer of Gemplus International SA (Paris Euronext: Euroclear 5768, Nasdaq: GEMP), recently announced the appointment of the following officers:

Philippe Combes is appointed Executive Vice-President: Operations.
In order to optimise efficiency, quality and cost-competitiveness across Gemplus, all operational matters have been integrated into a single structure. The Operations Group comprises the company’s Purchasing, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Facilities, Quality and IT activities, and will be headed by Philippe Combes.

Philippe Combes brings an exceptional track record to the benefit of Gemplus. He has broad international experience, practical operational skills in the technology sector, and considerable expertise in managing leading-edge multi-cultural organizations.

Philippe, 49, was born in France and graduated from ENSAM with a degree in robotics and
electronics. In 1975 he joined Schlumberger Industries where he held various operational
responsibilities in France, Brazil and Indonesia. In 1988 he was appointed VP Asia, Tubes
and Displays, for Thomson Multimedia, before taking overall responsibility for their Tubes
operations in both Europe and Asia. In 1998 he pursued his international career as CEO of
Philips Displays in Holland, and most recently has been running his own Executive Coaching
consultancy.

Jacques Seneca is appointed Executive Vice-President: Business Development Group.
The newly formed Business Development Group will manage the company’s R&D activities, selecting and developing new technology projects in high added-value segments. Its aim is to grow new business opportunities in order to enhance Gemplus’ overall market positioning. This new division will be headed by Jacques Seneca.

Jacques Seneca joined Gemplus in 1989, and held various positions including managed the Products department, before moving on to direct sales and operations in Germany. He was later appointed Director of the Telecommunications Business Unit, before becoming Executive Vice President in charge of marketing and technologies. He has been a member of Gemplus’ Executive Committee for the past 13 years.

He graduated from the ENSAM and from the Institute of Business Administration of Aix-En-Provence.
He started his career at ST Microelectronics where he held various management positions

Philip Shih is appointed President: Greater China
This appointment demonstrates Gemplus’ strategy to enhance its customer responsiveness by strengthening its presence in the regions. In the new organization, each key region (North America, Greater China, Japan-Korea, and South East Asia) will be focused on its local customers, taking responsibility for sales and marketing. The Greater China region will be headed by Philip Shih.

Philip Shih was born in Taiwan. Before joining Gemplus, he was Vice President of Nortel Networks China and in charge of the Telecom Service Provider entity of Cisco in China.

A graduate of the National Taïwan University (1980) and of the University of Southern California (1983), Philip Shih started his career as a manager of product management within the Transmission Systems Engineering division of AT&T. He was later in charge of the Switching Systems engineering Division for the Asia Pacific region.

In 1993, he was instrumental in the installation of AT&T in Chengdu (China) where he led the Sales and Marketing effort for Western China, while running AT&T’s manufacturing unit in Taiwan.

About Gemplus
GEMPLUS: the worlds leading provider of smart card solutions Gemplus helps its clients offer an exceptional range of portable, personalized solutions that bring security and convenience to peoples lives. These include mobile Internet access, inter-operable banking facilities, e-commerce and a wealth of other applications.

Gemplus is the only completely dedicated, truly global player in the Smart Card industry, with the largest R&D team, unrivalled experience, and an outstanding track record of technological innovation.

In 2001, Gemplus was the worldwide smart card leader in both revenues and total smart card shipments (source: Gartner-Dataquest and Frost & Sullivan). Gemplus was also awarded Frost & Sullivans 2002 Market Value Award for its exceptional performance. Gemplus trades its shares on Euronext Paris S.A. First Market and on the NASDAQ Stock Market as GEMP in the form of ADSs. Its revenue in 2001 was 1 billion Euros.

Gemplus: Beyond Smart www.gemplus.com

Contacts

Gemplus
Marielle Bricman
Tél : +33 (0) 4 42 36 55 96
Mob : +33 (0) 6 74 68 72 82
Email : marielle.bricman@gemplus.com

Euro Rscg Corporate
Estelle Griffe
Tél : +33 (0) 1 41 34 41 28
Mob : +33 (0) 6 23 75 09 23
Email : estelle.griffe@eurorscg.fr

Carine Senft
Tél : +33 (0) 1 41 34 42 23
Mob : +33 (0) 6 20 98 34 09
Email : carine.senft@eurorscg.fr

Communication financière Gemplus:
Yves Guillaumot
Tél : +41 22 544 50 65
Email : yves.guillaumot@gemplus.com

Fineo
Anne Guimard
Tél : +33 (0) 1 56 33 32 31
Email : guimard@fineo.com

©2003 Gemplus All rights reserved. Gemplus, the Gemplus logo and GemSense are trademarks and service marks of Gemplus S.A. and are registered in certain countries. All other trademarks and service marks, whether registered or not in specific countries, are the property of their respective owners.