 Gemplus
announces organizational changes
Luxembourg, 20 January 2004 - Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext:
LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading provider of smart card
based solutions, announces that in line with its strategy for 2004, it has
appointed two new members of the Operations Committee, reporting to Alex Mandl,
CEO and it has adjusted its internal organization in order to adapt to evolving
market conditions, and to better serve its customers.
 Ernie Berger is joining Gemplus in the United States as the President
of Gemplus North America and is based in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area.
Mr. Berger has 15 years of experience in the financial services sector with
American Express and First USA, a Bank One company, where he held senior
management positions. He successfully launched multiple new products, managed
national branding campaigns, and grew profitability. More recently, Mr. Berger
was instrumental in the start-up of new business ventures, first with Walker
Digital, and then through his own consulting firm, acting as a "start-up
CEO". He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from
Columbia University in New York, and an MBA from the Wharton School, University
of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.
 Rémi Calvet is joining Gemplus as the new Vice President Corporate
Communications. Mr. Calvet holds a B.A. in Corporate Law, and an MBA from HEC (Hautes
Etudes Commerciales) in Paris. After five years with Unilever and DMC (a
leading European Textile group) in auditing and strategic planning, Mr. Calvet
joined Philip Morris International. During his ten years with Philip Morris, he
had various responsibilities based in Paris, Brussels, and Lausanne in Business
Planning, Corporate Affairs, Government Relations, and Communications.
At the same time, Gemplus is building a more efficient organization and
refocusing its approach to customers in three key segments: telecommunications,
financial services, and ID and security. The former "Financial and Security
Services Business Unit" has been divided into two distinct entities: the
Financial Services Business Unit, comprising banking, retail, transport, and
conventional cards; and the ID & Security Business Unit, comprising ID,
security and smart card interface (hardware and readers). With this new focused
structure Gemplus will be able to build a closer relationship with its customers
and benefit from all of the growth opportunities in each of the markets.
Justin D'Angelo, will head the Financial Services Business Unit as Senior
Vice President. In his new role Justin will report to Philippe Combes, Executive
Vice-President, Operations and Financial Services. Jacques Seneca will head the
Security Services Business Unit, in addition to his existing duties as Executive
Vice-President, Business Development Group.
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.)
It 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,
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.
www.gemplus.com
For more information
Marielle Bricman, Press Relations
Gemplus
Tel : + 33 4 42 36 55 96
E-mail: marielle.bricman@gemplus.com
©2004 Gemplus. All rights reserved. Gemplus and the Gemplus logo 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.
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.
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