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For Immediate Release

Media Contact:
Amy Foschetti
Interprose PR
Phone: + 1 (703) 917-0972
[email protected]

NanoOpto Announces Addition of Ed Zschau to Board of Directors as Chairman

Steve Chou Remains on Board as Founder and Chairman Emeritus

Somerset, New Jersey. June 13, 2002. NanoOpto Corp., which is applying proprietary nano-optics and nano-manufacturing technology to design and make components for optical networking, announced today a number of previously planned changes to the Board of Directors. Ed Zschau, a founder of NanoOpto, has rejoined the Board replacing Rob Soni of Bessemer Venture Partners earlier this month. Effective June 11, 2002, Dr. Stephen Y. Chou, founder and Chairman, stepped down from his position as Chair, and Dr. Ed Zschau was elected Chairman.

These changes are in accordance with the progress that NanoOpto has made over the past year in completing A-round financing, completing construction of its state of the art nano-fabrication manufacturing facility, and shipping product samples.

Dr. Zschau is a Visiting Lecturer with rank of Professor at Princeton University in the Electrical Engineering department. He also works with a variety of entrepreneurial enterprises and public policy organizations. He has had a long and distinguished career in business, public policy and academia. Among his many accomplishments, Zschau was founder and CEO of System Industries, a Silicon Valley computer products company, from 1968 to 1982, and General Manager of IBM’s Storage Systems Division from 1993 to 1995. He served as Director and Chairman of the American Electronics Association in the 1970s and as U.S. Congressman from Silicon Valley for two terms in the 1980s. He was California’s Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1986. In addition to his post at Princeton, Zschau has taught in the Graduate Schools of Business at both Harvard and Stanford Universities.

The NanoOpto Board now consists of Ed Zschau, founder and Chairman; Steve Chou, founder and Elgin Professor of Engineering at Princeton University; Barry Weinbaum, CEO and President of NanoOpto; Howard Lee, founder and COO of NanoOpto; Glenn Falcao of Bessemer Venture Partners; and Greg Blonder and Gary Shaffer of Morgenthaler Ventures.

“Dr. Chou’s contributions in starting NanoOpto has been nothing less than remarkable,” said Barry Weinbaum, president and CEO of NanoOpto. “His intellectual efforts not only provided the company with breakthrough new products, but with breakthrough manufacturing techniques to make them. That he and his research team were able to combine these paradigm-shifting capabilities has enabled NanoOpto to move from the concept stage to the cusp of volume production in approximately 18 months—an almost unheard of achievement for academic research. We look forward to continued input and support from Steve in the coming years. We are also delighted to welcome someone with Ed Zschau’s stature back to the NanoOpto board.”

About NanoOpto
NanoOpto Corp. is applying proprietary nano-optics and nano-manufacturing technology to design and make components for optical networking. Based on years of research, the company’s technology allows orders of magnitude more rapid prototyping, higher performance and lower overall system cost. Both on its own and with corporate partners, NanoOpto will use subwavelength techniques to produce better conventional optical components and also to create new classes of integrated components. The company’s development of patented nano-imprint lithography techniques forms the basis for high volume manufacture at its facility in Somerset, New Jersey. The company has received financial backing from leading venture capitalists.

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