Gemplus: Board Changes

Luxembourg, 8 April 2004 - Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading provider of smart card-based solutions, today announces that three new non-executive Directors will be proposed for election to its Board, at the Company's Annual General Meeting on 27 April 2004.

Kurt Hellstrom, 61, is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of Ericsson, the major telecommunications group, where he spent almost 20 years in a number of senior roles. Earlier in his career, he held commercial positions with Jugner Instrument and Standard Radio & Telephone. A Master of Science in Electrotechnology, Kurt is a highly respected figure in the mobile telecommunications industry, and brings to Gemplus exceptional experience of developing technology from a commercial perspective.

John Ormerod, 55, is a Senior Partner in the UK practice of Deloitte, the global accounting firm. Educated at Oxford, he was previously Regional Managing Partner, UK & Ireland, of Andersen, where he also spent six years as Head of European Technology, Media & Telecommunications. John is a Chartered Accountant who brings to Gemplus highly relevant experience of reporting and corporate governance issues in NASDAQ-listed TMT companies; after his election, he will join the Board on June 1st, 2004, when he retires from Deloitte.

Michel Akkermans, 44, is a successful entrepreneur specialising in information technology for the banking industry. A Master of Science in Electronic Engineering and Computer Sciences, he is currently Chairman and Chief Executive of Clear2Pay, a software solutions company that helps financial institutions to provide branded electronic payment services. Michel was previously Executive Chairman of NASDAQ-listed S1 Corporation, the market leader in internet banking. His experience of developing and marketing security solutions to the financial services sector is of particular interest to Gemplus.

These three non executive directors are proposed to replace Ron Mackinstosh, Randy Christofferson and Thierry Dassault, who will not be proposed for re-election by the Board to shareholders.

Commenting on the Board changes, Dominique Vignon, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said:

"The three new Directors being proposed for election not only bring specific skills which are highly relevant to Gemplus, but they also strengthen the independent element of our Board. This is important in delivering best-practice corporate governance to the Company. Separately, I would like to thank Ron Mackinstosh, Randy Christofferson and Thierry Dassault for their invaluable contributions to the Board during a period of transition for Gemplus."

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 offers 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.

Gemplus' revenue in 2003 was 749 million Euros.

www.gemplus.com

For more information, contact:

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

Celine Berthier
Gemplus Investor Relations
Tel: +41 22 544 5065
Email: celine.berthier@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.