Fairchild Semiconductor CEO Kirk Pond Selected As Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award Finalist; Pond Chosen for Vision, Determination and Leadership

Business Wire, May 11, 2001

Business/Technology Editors

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SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 2001

Fairchild Semiconductor International (NYSE: FCS), the global leader in multi-market semiconductors, today announced that President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kirk Pond has been selected as a finalist for the 15th Annual New England Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards. This awards program is produced by Ernst & Young to honor outstanding leaders of public and privately held companies. Pond is the only Maine representative among the 51 New England finalists chosen.

Pond is the founder, president, chairman and CEO of Fairchild Semiconductor, a four-year-old, $1.7 billion public company that, through his vision, pioneered a new market segment and business model for the semiconductor industry. Under Pond's direction, Fairchild became the world's first global company focused exclusively on the design and manufacture of high performance semiconductors for multiple end markets including computer, telecommunications, automotive, consumer, industrial, and aerospace applications. The multi-market segment is now projected to reach $60 billion by 2002.

According to Larry Davidson, host of the Entrepreneur Of The Year program, "These finalists possess characteristics that are crucial to successful entrepreneurship, including commitment, leadership, vision, innovation, performance, community spirit, empowerment of management and perseverance. They embody the entrepreneurial spirit, and we congratulate them on their accomplishments."

Since the March 1997 introduction of Fairchild and its multi-market business model, the company has grown at a blistering pace primarily through new product innovations and strategic acquisitions. Tripling revenues since Fairchild's $550 million leveraged buyout of a division of National Semiconductor, the company has introduced more than 600 new products, completed six major acquisitions, gained more than 50,000 customers worldwide and ships one billion chips each month.

The New England Entrepreneur Of The Year award finalists and winners are selected by an independent panel of judges, comprised of business people who have achieved success in their own right. Awards will be given in a diverse range of industry categories to those entrepreneurs who have demonstrated excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their business and communities. Award winners will be announced at the Entrepreneur Of The Year awards banquet to be held Thursday, June 21 at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. New England's winners will also compete with winners in 46 other regions at the National Entrepreneur Of The Year Conference in Palm Springs, California.

The New England Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards program was founded in 1987 and is produced by Ernst & Young and sponsored by Citigroup Private Bank, Hale and Dorr LLP, J. Robert Scott, Multi-Media Holdings, Inc., and William Gallagher Associates. Nationally, the Award is sponsored by USA TODAY, The Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the NASDAQ Stock Market, and CNNfn and CNN.

Fairchild Semiconductor International (NYSE:FCS) is a leading global supplier of high performance products for multiple end markets. With a focus on developing leading edge power and interface solutions to enable the electronics of today and tomorrow, Fairchild's components are used in computing, communications, consumer, industrial, automotive and aerospace applications. Fairchild's 11,000 employees design, manufacture and market power, analog & mixed signal, interface, logic, and optoelectronics products from its headquarters in South Portland, Maine, USA and numerous locations around the world. Please contact us on the web at www.fairchildsemi.com.

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