Phitek Makes Key Senior Appointments

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Phitek Makes Key Senior Appointments As Part Of Record Year Of Growth

New VP of Sales And Marketing And Group Financial Controller Strengthen Phitek’s Global Management Team

Auckland, 5 September 2007 – New Zealand-based world leader in advanced audio technology solutions Phitek Systems Limited announced today that it has made two key senior appointments with Rick O’Connor as Vice-President of Sales and Marketing and Chris Powell as Group Financial Controller, which is part of the company’s record year of growth.

Mark Donaldson, CEO of Phitek Systems says the Company is excited to have both Rick and Chris on board particularly as their combined experience in crucial operational and strategic parts of the business will assist Phitek’s growth as a global force in active noise rejection (ANR™) technology and consumer electronics.

“Based in Canada, Rick O’Connor is our new VP of Sales and Marketing and Phitek brings all the benefits of his 23 years industry experience with a range of leading technology companies including most recently as Chief Technology Officer and Vice- President Strategic Marketing for Tundra Semiconductor Corporation, located in Ontario. I have no doubt that the extent of Rick’s knowledge will assist in positioning Phitek for some exciting success looking forward,” says Donaldson.

Donaldson also adds that Rick was recognised as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40TM business leaders, and has been at the forefront of leading-edge product and business development, new product development, and strategic relationship management, which will all be very useful for Phitek as it expands its activities worldwide.

At Tundra Rick contributed to the organisation’s $80M - $100M profitable turnover, and was responsible for overall corporate strategy, strategic partnering relationships, and setting the direction of technology investment decisions. He also drove innovation including the delivery of next-generation System Interconnect products for customers in the embedded communications and embedded computing markets.

Rick also held other positions during his time at Tundra including VP of Marketing and Business Development as well as Director of Product Management which gave him a significant knowledge of the commercialisation and sales process required to successfully take hi-tech products to market.

During this time some of his key achievements were leading a team that generated $400 million of revenue and forging lasting relationships with leading OEMs such as Cisco, Ericsson, Lucent, and HP. Rick also introduced a new business category for Tundra by creating a family of semiconductor PowerPC processor and VMEbus bridges, that has since grown to represent more than a third of current annual revenues.

Before Tundra, Rick also worked as a Project Engineer (Avionics Division) for Marconi in Ottawa primarily on the integration of Flat Panel Display Systems within cockpit instrumentation. He was also employed by Canada’s Astronautics Space Science Group in design of the flight electronics focussing on circuit board design, as well as performing hardware and software design.

‘We know that Rick is a tremendous addition to the team as Phitek embarks on even more global growth as he has a unique combination of business and technical skills, particular knowledge of semiconductor and system level knowledge as well as new product development through to deployment,” says Donaldson.

Phitek’s new Group Financial Controller, Chris Powell joins the company’s following an outstanding career with several leading New Zealand and multinational companies including Du Pont (New Zealand), SGS New Zealand; Digital Equipment Corporation New Zealand; Kerrick Industries and Inland Revenue.

In his 14 years at Du Pont, a subsidiary of E. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company, Inc, the world’s largest diversified chemical company, Chris held senior finance roles. He was responsible for Du Pont’s business finance services to 16 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, which involved coordination of various sub-regional managers and business analysts in business financial reporting, analysis and forecasting for the Company. Chris also has strong strategic skills and so was closely involved with Du Pont’s Business Planning Process that included reviews of the Asia-Pacific region’s 5 Year plans for each country, consolidation of regional business operations, growth and business extension programmes.

Some of Chris’ many achievements in his previous senior financial roles include implementing improved business management processes and integrating best practice corporate reporting models across regional offices to boost revenue growth and reduce operational costs. He also has considerable experience facilitating and implementing the financials involved in Merger and Acquisition proposals including during his five years as Company Secretary and Group Financial Controller at SGS New Zealand.

Donaldson says that Chris Powell is ideally placed to bring his extensive financial skills in managing a global regional business to Phitek as the Company now has several offices and teams throughout the world, including the APAC region.

“Chris has exceptionally strong strategic expertise in being able to coordinate the complex financial requirements of a fast-growing advanced technology business that Phitek represents today. This requires quick, decisive financial thinking that will assist the senior management team in making the best decisions whether capital expenditure requirements or business planning – to this end Chris’s skill set will be invaluable to Phitek going forward,” says Donaldson.

Chris will be based in Phitek’s Auckland-based headquarters.

ENDS

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