Data Systems & Solutions Appoints Bob Contratto as Global Nuclear Sales Vice President

Business Wire, Dec 14, 2007

RESTON, Va. -- Data Systems & Solutions, LLC (DS&S) has appointed Bob Contratto as vice president of global nuclear instrumentation and controls (I&C) sales in a step toward expanding its global I&C business.

Contratto will accelerate the company's growth into new markets by building and leading a customer relationship-focused sales force to manage the sales process from lead generation to contract delivery. Based in Atlanta, he will report to Laurent Ponthieu, senior vice president of DS&S' I&C business unit, and will lead the efforts of sales teams in the United States (U.S.) and Europe.

Contratto's appointment supports DS&S' positioning to pursue its identified strategic growth initiatives in the power industry: designing, delivering, and servicing complete instrumentation and controls platforms.

"Bob's expert knowledge of nuclear I&C products, economic markets, and competition, as well as his extensive track record of leading sales teams in the United States and Europe will help DS&S to expand its world-class services into untapped markets, bringing tangible value to the nuclear industry," said Laurent Ponthieu, senior vice president, I&C, DS&S.

Notes to Editors:

1. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Rolls-Royce, Data Systems & Solutions is a world-class supplier of high integrity and safety-critical systems and services that increase the availability and drive down the in-service cost of high value assets. With more than 600 employees working from offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Czech Republic, DS&S applies its domain expertise and core competencies in software and hardware engineering, predictive services and information management to protect, control and optimize reliability and availability, while ensuring safe and profitable operations. DS&S was a joint venture company in which Rolls-Royce held a 50 per cent interest until March 2006, when Rolls-Royce acquired full ownership.

2. Contratto holds a Master of Science degree from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh and a Bachelor of Science degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee. Contratto has led sales teams for large I&C replacement projects in Europe and the U.S. and has successfully introduced European-designed products to the U.S. nuclear industry.

For more information, please visit the Data Systems & Solutions web site at www.ds-s.com.