Qioptiq Announces the Appointment of a New Chief Executive Officer

Date Announced: 29 Jul 2010

Effective 1 September 2010, David Marks will become Chief Executive Officer of Qioptiq. Mr. Marks is currently Executive Vice President of Qioptiq's Defense & Aerospace Division.

Qioptiq today announced that effective 1 September 2010, David Marks will become Chief Executive Officer of the company. The current Chief Executive Officer, Fredrik Arp, who joined Qioptiq as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at the beginning of January 2010, will serve as Executive Chairman of Qioptiq.

Mr. Marks has been active in the optics business for many years. He has been the head of the Defense and Aerospace Division since its creation in 2005 when Qioptiq was formed and before that was Managing Director of the St. Asaph facility since 2003. Previously, he had served as Managing Director of the Singapore facility for three years.

Under the leadership of Mr. Marks, the Defense and Aerospace Division experienced compound annual growth rates of more than 10 percent in both sales and profitability between 2005 and 2010. Mr. Marks is an extremely qualified business leader who will devote his considerable energies and talents to ensuring Qioptiq’s continued success and growth over the coming years.

To ensure a smooth transition in the leadership of Qioptiq as well as in the leadership of the Defense and Aerospace Division there will be a transition period from 1 September until the end of December 2010. Following this transition period and from 1 January 2011 onwards, Mr. Marks will be responsible for running Qioptiq while Mr. Arp will continue as Executive Chairman.

At the Defense and Aerospace Division, Mr. Marks will be succeeded by Mr. Steve Shaw. Mr. Shaw is presently the Director of Operations at St. Asaph and has been since 2003. Mr. Shaw joined Qioptiq in 2001 as Manufacturing Director. During his tenure as Director of Operations, Mr. Shaw has implemented many improvements in the manufacturing processes and overseen numerous capital investments that have resulted in a truly world-class facility at St. Asaph.

He has also been instrumental in working with Qioptiq’s Singapore facility to effect the transfer technology and manufacturing know-how. Mr. Shaw has a Master of Science degree in advanced manufacturing management from the University of Derby in the United Kingdom.

In commenting on the appointment of Mr. Marks, Mr. Arp, current CEO and Chairman of Qioptiq said: “When I joined Qioptiq at the beginning of 2010 my understanding with the principal shareholders, Candover, was that my tenure as CEO would be for an interim period only. This expectation has been easy to meet given the presence of David Marks in the company. He has been extremely effective in leading the Defense and Aerospace Division over the last several years and I am certain he will be effective in leading Qioptiq. For my part I have greatly enjoyed working with the management and employees over the last several months and it is my intention to be a particularly active and involved Executive Chairman for the foreseeable future.

Source: Qioptiq

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