NEWS RELEASE
TOWER REINFORCES COMMITMENT TO CUSTOMER SERVICE WITH NEW APPOINTMENT
INTEL VETERAN RAFI NAVE TO SERVE AS VP OF CUSTOMER SERVICES
MIGDAL HAEMEK, ISRAEL - July 2, 2003 - Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ: TSEM;
TASE: TSEM) announced today that Rafi Nave will join the company as vice
president of customer services. This appointment will take effect in mid-August
2003.
In this position, Nave will oversee all areas of customer service, including
account management, project management, IP and design services, the VLSI design
center and customer support. He will report directly to Carmel Vernia, chairman
of the board and CEO of Tower. Nave is the first senior appointment since Vernia
joined the company a month ago.
"Tower has long been recognized and rewarded by customers for providing
exceptional service and support," said Vernia. "Taking our customer-service
organization to new heights of achievement is essential to enhancing our global
market position, and I am confident that Rafi is the person to lead that effort.
With over 20 years of experience gained from working at Intel, he is familiar
with customer needs and knows how to provide customers with the best possible
service solutions. Rafi is a welcome addition to the Tower team."
Creating the position of vice president of customer services is the most recent
action that Tower has taken as part of its broader customer relationship
management initiative. Earlier this year, Tower opened a new office near Boston
to support customers in the eastern United States and hired Harold Blomquist to
direct the company's global business development activities from Israel and the
United States. As well, the company has built an extensive IP portfolio and has
developed various design support services to make it easier for customers to
achieve first-time silicon success.
"Having worked in the semiconductor industry for most of my career, I have
watched with great interest Tower's inception and evolution. The company has
overcome myriad obstacles, including the most recent downturn, through the
intelligence, hard work and perseverance of its people. Tower has reached a very
exciting juncture in its history, and I am honored that I will have the
opportunity to play a key role in its next phase of development and growth,"
said Nave.
Nave joins Tower after six years of serving as vice president of R&D for NDS
Group (NASDAQ: NNDS), where he managed a group of 300 engineers and scientists.
Prior to that, he spent most of his career at Intel Corporation in a variety of
positions of increasing responsibility. He started as a chip design engineer,
and then went on to manage the
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TOWER REINFORCES COMMITMENT TO CUSTOMER SERVICE WITH NEW APPOINTMENT
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development of Intel's family of 8XX87 math co-processors. Next, he served for
five years as the general manager of Intel's design center in Israel, employing
200 engineers and designing Intel's leading products. Nave earned master's and
bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering (with honors) from the Technion in
Haifa, Israel.
ABOUT TOWER SEMICONDUCTOR LTD.
Tower Semiconductor Ltd. is a pure-play independent wafer foundry established in
1993. The company manufactures integrated circuits with geometries ranging from
1.0 to 0.18 microns; it also provides complementary manufacturing services and
design support. In addition to digital CMOS process technology, Tower offers
advanced non-volatile memory solutions, mixed-signal and CMOS image-sensor
technologies. To provide world-class customer service, the company maintains two
manufacturing facilities: Fab 1 has process technologies from 1.0 to 0.35
microns and can produce up to 20,000 150mm wafers per month. Fab 2 features
0.18-micron and below process technologies, including foundry-standard
technology, and will offer full production capacity of 33,000 200mm wafers per
month. The Tower Web site is located at www.towersemi.com.
# # #
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JULIE LASS SHELDON LUTCH L.T. GUTTADAURO
Loomis Group Fusion IR & Communications Tower Semiconductor USA.
+1 (713) 526 3737 +1 (212) 268 1816 +1 (408) 557-2690
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