Leuven, June 2, 1999

Professor Gilbert Declerck has today been appointed

by the Board of Directors of IMEC as its new

President and Chief Executive Officer of IMEC,

succeeding Professor Roger Van Overstraeten, who

passed away last month. Professor Declerck, 52, has

been Chief Operating Officer of IMEC since

November last year.

Professor Declerck received his PhD degree in electrical engineering from the University of Leuven in 1972 and subsequently worked at the IC laboratories of Stanford University in from 1973 to 1974. He joined the University of Leuven in August 1974, where he became a professor in 1983. In 1984, he was appointed Vice President of the Advanced Semiconductor Processing Division of IMEC, and Chief Operating Officer in 1998.

"Our first priority is to carry on Professor Van Overstraeten's work," says Professor Declerck. "We will continue to ensure that IMEC is known worldwide for its excellent research in process technology, design of systems-on-a-chip, telecommunications and multimedia, microsystems and optoelectronic components, solar cells and advanced packaging technologies." In addition to R&D, increased efforts will be devoted towards dedicated training for the semiconductor industry. "The future of the high-tech industry depends more than ever on the ability to find people with the right qualifications," according to the new CEO.

"The semiconductor industry is now entering a period of significant industrial growth, and new opportunities will certainly occur for a large R&D institution such as IMEC. It is becoming increasingly clear that more companies are turning to joint R&D in order to meet new market demands and provide the right solutions on time," says Professor Declerck. "Even in the recent downturn, we experienced significant growth in our contract research income and we hope to benefit now from the strong upturn in the industry."

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Notes to editors

ABOUT IMEC

IMEC was founded in 1984 and is today Europe’s leading independent research centre for the development and licensing of state-of-the-art microelectronic technologies.  IMEC is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium and employs about  850 people, of whom 75 % are highly qualified scientists and engineers. Its $ 88million revenue is derived from agreements and contracts with government agencies, aerospace and semiconductor industry companies world-wide.

IMEC’s activities  concentrate on: design of integrated information and communication systems (System on Chip, MPEG-4, Broadband wireless modems); silicon  process technology (lithography, Cu & low k back end, salicides, clean, dry etch, pilot line); silicon technology and device integration (deep submicron CMOS, BICMOS, NVM, reliability, analysis); microsystems, components and packaging (packaging, optoelectronic components, imagers, smart sensors and integrated microsystems, solar cells); training center for advanced training in microelectronics (including IC design, process technology and packaging).

For further information please contact:

Marianne Van den Broeck

Head of Public Relations

IMEC, Kapeldreef 75

B- 3001 Leuven, Belgium

http://www.imec.be

Tel +32 16 28 14 91

Fax +32 16 28 16 37

Email: Marianne.vandenbroeck@imec.be