Mr. Kawabata, industry veteran, brings proven leadership
experience and extensive background in sales and marketing to address
growing needs of customers in Japan
Mr. Song, who leads the TowerJazz Korea Office, will further
expand sales and technical support for Korean customers
NISHIWAKI, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 18, 2013--
TowerJazz,
the global specialty foundry leader, today announced the appointment of
Keiichi Kawabata as Representative Director and President of TowerJazz
Japan, Ltd. and the nomination of Michael Song as Vice President of
Sales and President of TowerJazz Korea. TowerJazz is strengthening its
sales organization to focus on Japan business and providing increased
business and technical support to address the growing customer needs in
Japan and the APAC region. TowerJazz is extending its offering in its
Nishiwaki fab to address the RF market as well as power management, CMOS
image sensors (CIS), MEMS, TOPS and other applications. Furthermore, to
better support its local customers and expand business in Japan,
TowerJazz has launched a Japanese language website: http://www.towerjazz.com/jp/.
In his role, Kawabata will be responsible for leading the Business
Development and Sales group. He has nearly 30 years of managerial
experience in creating global sales and marketing strategies through
strong leadership and focused efforts (especially sales penetration and
technical engineering/marketing) and building robust customer
relationships through many years of experience working with people from
diverse backgrounds. Kawabata’s strength in leadership is based on
scientific analytical thought, strategic marketing ability and project
management skills, as well as devotion to developing newer, unique
approaches to business processes. His experience includes roles at
Novellus Japan Corporation as President; Miyoshi Kasei Inc. as
President; Avnet Japan, Inc. as Representative Director and COO; and
various executive positions for 20 years at Tokyo Electron Limited.
Michael Song joined TowerJazz in 2009 as Korea Country Manager, and to
date has attained a number of significant achievements such as
increasing the number of Korean customers from zero to more than 50 and
growing revenue by about 400%. He also played a critical role in
defining long-term market and technical trends, especially in the power
management area. His insight and aggressive push to develop
differentiated platforms for Korean customers has led TowerJazz to
become the fastest growing foundry in Korea.
“Keiichi’s extensive knowledge and impressive track record will help us
better serve our Japanese customers and increase our market share in
Japan,” said Russell Ellwanger, TowerJazz Chief Executive Officer.
“Furthermore, this newly created role evidences the importance TowerJazz
is placing on the Japanese market and in supporting the foundry needs of
the APAC region at our Nishiwaki facility. Keiichi’s expertise in
leadership strategies, sales and customer relationships will be of
enormous benefit to us.”
“In addition, the appointment of Michael Song to Vice President of Sales
and President of TowerJazz Korea recognizes the increased business and
expanded relationships we have realized in Korea in the past few years
since he joined TowerJazz as Country Manager. We look forward to Michael
continuing to lead his team’s growing success in the region,” added
Ellwanger.
"This is an extraordinary opportunity that I have accepted with great
excitement and determination,” said Kawabata. “The IDM and fabless
business in Japan is growing rapidly and I am pleased to lead the
Nishiwaki plant in becoming the highest volume 200mm fab in the world. I
strongly believe that TowerJazz Japan’s growth will continue to
accelerate significantly and I am pleased with the quality of this
facility and the excellence of the team. I look forward to the continued
qualification of our core process technologies to serve the substantial
growth demand from our Japanese customers and those in the APAC region.”
Commenting on the appointment of his new role, Song said, “Since I
joined TowerJazz in 2009, we have achieved much in the way of growing
our business in this region, especially in the power management market.
I was excited to join the TowerJazz team then, and I am even more
excited now about the momentum we have built and will continue to build
as we move forward in providing more specialty process offerings and
technical support for Korea’s next-generation products.”
About TowerJazz
Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ: TSEM) (TASE: TSEM), its fully owned
U.S. subsidiary Jazz Semiconductor Ltd., and its fully owned Japanese
subsidiary TowerJazz Japan, Ltd., operate collectively under the brand
name TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry leader. TowerJazz
manufactures integrated circuits with geometries ranging from 1.0 to
0.13-micron, offering a broad range of customizable process technologies
including: SiGe, BiCMOS, Mixed-Signal and RFCMOS, CMOS Image Sensor,
Power Management (BCD), and Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) as well as CMOS
and MEMS capabilities. TowerJazz also offers a world-class design
enablement platform that complements its sophisticated technology and
enables a quick and accurate design cycle. In addition, TowerJazz
provides (TOPS) Technology Optimization Process Services to IDMs as well
as fabless companies that need to expand capacity, or progress from an
R&D line to a production line. To provide multi-fab sourcing, TowerJazz
maintains two manufacturing facilities in Israel, one in the U.S., and
one in Japan with additional capacity available in China through
manufacturing partnerships. For more information, please visit www.towerjazz.com.
Safe Harbor Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes forward-looking statements, which are
subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may vary from those
projected or implied by such forward-looking statements. A complete
discussion of risks and uncertainties that may affect the accuracy of
forward-looking statements included in this press release or which may
otherwise affect TowerJazz’s business is included under the heading
"Risk Factors" in Tower’s most recent filings on Forms 20-F, F-3, F-4
and 6-K, as were filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the
“SEC”) and the Israel Securities Authority and Jazz’s most recent
filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, as were filed with the SEC,
respectively. Tower and Jazz do not intend to update, and expressly
disclaim any obligation to update, the information contained in this
release.
Source: TowerJazz
TowerJazz
Company/Media Contact in Asia:
Shoko
Saimiya, 81-795-23-6609
saimiya@towerjazz.com
or
Investor
Relations Contact:
Noit Levi, +972-4-604-7066
noit.levi@towerjazz.com