3 January 2001

WESTERN DIGITAL APPOINTS NEW GENERAL MANAGER EMEA

Western Digital Corporation, one of the world’s leading designers and manufacturers of hard drives for desktop computers and home entertainment applications, has appointed Klaas De Vos as Vice President and General Manager Europe, Middle East, Africa and South West Asia, with effect from 1 January 2001.

Based in Amsterdam, he will be responsible for all aspects of the corporation’s activities in this region and for its offices in the Netherlands, Germany, UK, France, Czech Republic and United Arab Emirates.

He succeeds Bernd Robatzek, who has been promoted to Vice President, Worldwide Sales, based in USA, and, in his new role, Klaas De Vos will continue to report to Bernd Robatzek.

Klaas De Vos joined Western Digital in 1990 and during the last 10 years, he has gained extensive experience in Sales, Marketing, Operational and General Management. He has held various positions with the company – including Sales Manager for Germany, Regional Sales Director for Central Europe and for two years he was seconded to the company’s head office in the USA where he worked in Worldwide Marketing and Operations. For the last 12 months he has been European Operations and Marketing Director.

Announcing this appointment, Bernd Robatzek said: “With Klaas' experience in the storage industry and his leadership qualities, I am absolutely certain that he will play a vital role in harnessing and focusing the strengths and skills of WD’s operations in this part of the world in order to improve our business position in the hard drive market.”

Klaas De Vos is a Bachelor of Computer Science, having graduated from Hilversum

HTS. Before joining Western Digital in 1990 he worked for Tulip Computers in the

Netherlands in several engineering and marketing roles.

About Western Digital
One of the data storage industry's longtime leaders, Western Digital Corporation has leveraged its core strengths in becoming a leading Internet solutions company. Western Digital is providing services and products to manage, store and communicate both digital content and network intelligence. The Company remains an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of hard drives for desktop computers and home entertainment applications. Through its Connex subsidiary, Western Digital delivers enterprise-class storage functionality for the department and mid-sized business markets, including storage management software, network attached storage and storage area networks. The Company's SageTree subsidiary markets packaged analytical software applications and professional services to help manufacturers manage quality and quality-related business decisions throughout the entire supply chain and product lifecycle.

Western Digital was founded in 1970. The Company's storage products are marketed to leading systems manufacturers and selected resellers under the Western Digital® brand name. Its home page can be found at http://www.westerndigital.com.

 

Western Digital and WD Caviar are registered trademarks and WD Protégé, WD Performer, WhisperDrive and StreamWeaver are trademarks of Western Digital Corporation.  All other brand and product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies.

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Editorial Contacts:

Paul Calderwood                                                

Western Digital Europe                                              

Tel: +44 (0)20 8763 2241                               

Fax: +44 (0)20 8763 2245                                          

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