Leuven – Belgium, January 19, 2006 – Option N.V. (Euronext: OPTI, OTC: OPNVY), the wireless technology company, today announced that Mr. Lawrence M. Levy and Mr. Jan Loeber have agreed to join its Board of Directors, as new members, expanding the company’s board size from four to six.
Final appointment of the new directors will be subject to vote at the annual meeting of shareholders to be held on Friday March 31, 2006. Mr. Levy will act as a non-independent member, whilst Mr. Loeber’s future mandate will have the status of an independent Board member.
Jan Callewaert, CEO Option: “The Board of Directors is pleased to welcome Lawrence and Jan. Our Company will benefit from their extensive experience in international business and finance while working with high growth companies in the telecom industry. Their insights should further strengthen our global market leadership. We look forward to a productive collaboration focused on increasing shareholder value.”
Mr. Lawrence Levy, 67, has been, and continues as, Senior Counsel at Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels LLP. For more than 30 years before that, Mr. Levy had been a partner at Brown Rudnick, specializing in Corporate and Securities Law. Since 1998, Mr. Levy has divided his time between Brown Rudnick’s Boston and London offices, dealing with cross-border issues and transactions for the firm’s clients. Mr. Levy is also a Director of Hologic, Inc., (Nasdaq: HOLX), located in Bedford, Massachusetts. Mr. Levy received a B.A. from Yale University and a LLB from Harvard Law School.
Mr. Jan Loeber, 62, is a member of the Board of Directors of Tele2 (TEL2_A.ST) in Sweden, an advisor to the CEO of Interxion, BV in The Netherlands and Chairman of Newfound Comm (Boston) and Vino Via (NL). Previously Mr. Loeber held leadership positions at a number of companies as the founding Managing Director of GTS Carrier Services (later Ebone) in Brussels, Managing Director of Bankers Trust’s Global Telecom Merchant Banking Group, founding Managing Director of Unitel (merged with Mercury one-2-one and acquired by T-Mobile) in London and Group President of Nokia Americas. He has also held other senior management positions at ITT Europe in Brussels and at AT&T (Bell Laboratories) in New Jersey. Mr. Loeber received his B.S. in Physics from Michigan Technological University and his M.S. in business administration from George Washington University.
Option’s continuing Board Directors are: Jan Callewaert, Founder and Chairman Option – Triakon N.V. represented by Lucien De Schamphelaere, Board member of Melexis N.V. (Euronext: MELE) – Arnoud De Meyer, Professor of Technology Management and Deputy Dean at INSEAD and Board member of Dassault Systems S.A. (Euronext: DSY.PA, NASDAQ DASTY) and – Philip Vermeulen, Advisor and Director of various companies active in the information technology business.
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT
Jan Callewaert, CEO or Frederic Convent, CFO
Tel + 32 (0) 16 317 411, E-mail: investor@option.com
ABOUT OPTION
Option NV (www.option.com ), the wireless technology company, is a leading innovator in the design, development and manufacture of 3G WCDMA (HSDPA and UMTS), EDGE, GPRS, GSM and WLAN technology products for wireless connectivity solutions. Option has built up an enviable reputation for creating exciting products that enhance the performance and functionality of wireless communications. Option’s headquarters are in Leuven, Belgium. The company has Research & Development in Leuven, a Software and Applications development centre in Adelsried (Germany), a Wireless Router development centre in Stockholm (Sweden) and an ISO 9002 production engineering and logistics facility in Cork, Ireland.