EXHIBIT 99.1
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Joanne Taylor Adam Mersky
Extended Systems Voce Communications
(208) 322-7575, ext. 6015 (617) 421-9628
joannet@extendsys.com amersky@vocepr.com
EXTENDED SYSTEMS APPOINTS NEW CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
BOISE, IDAHO - (Nov. 11, 2003) - Extended Systems (NASDAQ: XTND), a leading
provider of mobile application solutions for the enterprise, has appointed
Valerie Heusinkveld to the position of Vice President-Finance and Chief
Financial Officer, effective Monday, November 17, 2003. She succeeds Karla Rosa,
who has resigned from the company to pursue other opportunities.
"Valerie's broad involvement in virtually all areas of Finance, as well as her
considerable experience with both acquisitions and providing the infrastructure
to expand international sales operations, make her an important addition to our
executive management team," said Charles Jepson, who was appointed Chief
Executive Officer and President of Extended Systems in August.
Heusinkveld has more than two decades of executive financial experience with
both public and private companies. She began her career in 1981 in the Boise
office of a Big Eight accounting firm, where she managed large company audits,
conducted acquisition- related due diligence and participated on IPO teams. In
1989 she joined TJ International, Inc., an S&P 600 company, where she was part
of the senior management team during the company's period of rapid growth and
its subsequent acquisition by Weyerhaeuser in 2000. As Chief Financial Officer
from 1992 to 2000, she was instrumental in TJ's 1993 secondary equity offering,
its acquisition, integration and divestiture of several companies, as well as in
planning and implementing its successful growth strategies, including its
international expansion to Europe and the Pacific Rim. She also directed its
active investor relations program.
Following the TJ sale, Heusinkveld served as CFO for In-System Design, Inc., a
Boise fabless semiconductor company with worldwide annual revenues of $40
million before it was acquired by Cypress Semiconductor in late 2001. Since
then, she has been working with early stage companies in need of hands-on
management and seed capital.
"Since August, we have expanded and strengthened our board of directors with the
addition of five independent directors bringing a broad range of senior-level
experience with both public and private companies. Last month we appointed a new
Vice President of North American Sales and continue to add strong new members to
the company's management to capture the market opportunities in the mobile
computing space," Jepson said.
Rosa, who has been with the company since December 1991, was instrumental in
taking Extended Systems public in 1998, in transitioning the company to a
leading mobile middleware player and in the acquisition, integration and
divestiture of several businesses. She managed the company's cash resources
through a period of intense investment in the development of its mobile
infrastructure products and guided the company back to profitability in the
fourth quarter of fiscal 2003. Most recently she directed the completion of two
real estate transactions that added $6.1 million in cash to the company's
balance sheet. Rosa has agreed to continue to serve the company in an advisory
capacity through December 31, 2003.
"On behalf of our stockholders and employees, I want to thank Karla Rosa for the
important role she has played in helping management strengthen both our
financial performance and balance sheet," Jepson added. "Karla has made
tremendous contributions to Extended Systems and she will be greatly missed."
ABOUT EXTENDED SYSTEMS
Extended Systems provides the expertise, strategy and solutions to help
enterprise organizations streamline their business processes through mobile
technology. The company's OneBridge mobile solutions suite enables companies to
mobilize critical enterprise applications such as e-mail, field service, sales
force automation (SFA), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer
relationship management (CRM). Extended Systems has more than 3,000 enterprise
customers worldwide and key alliance relationships with Ericsson, HP,
Handspring, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, RIM, Sharp, Siemens, Symbian
and Toshiba.
Founded in 1984, Extended Systems has offices and subsidiaries in the United
States and worldwide. For more information, call 1-800-235-7576 or visit the
company Web site.