Symbol Technologies Names Leader of RFID Division

HOLTSVILLE, N.Y. -- Symbol Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: SBL), The Enterprise Mobility Company, announced that in a strategic effort to bolster the Company's growing investment and emerging market opportunity in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), it has appointed current Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Chief Marketing Officer John G. Bruno to lead the Company's RFID division. Bruno will focus on bringing new innovations in auto-identification technologies to market, enabling increased supply chain efficiencies and enhanced homeland security solutions for Symbol customers. Bruno will assume his new role as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Symbol's RFID division effective immediately.

In his new role, Bruno will spearhead Symbol's global RFID initiatives, including technology innovation, product development and go-to-market strategy. He will also focus on leveraging existing partner and customer relationships, and securing new business relationships for Symbol. Bruno will continue to be a key influencer in the development of global RFID industry standards, and will drive Symbol's strategy on RFID technology issues related to intellectual property.

"Placing a key member of my senior management team in this position sends a strong signal to our customers, partners, employees and shareholders that we are determined to maintain and further strengthen our leadership position in the RFID market," said Bill Nuti, Symbol president and chief executive officer. "John is an industry visionary who possesses an unparalleled capability of seeing a business opportunity and transforming it into a reality -- such as he did with Symbol's acquisition of Matrics, then the leading electronic product code (EPC)-compliant RFID company. Symbol's acquisition of Matrics catapulted us into a leadership position in RFID and built on Symbol's market leading status in advanced data capture. It was John's stewardship of this acquisition that has helped enhance Symbol's position on a path of expansive growth and profitability in RFID."

"With John's appointment, Symbol has chosen the most capable person to lead our RFID industry initiatives. Symbol could not have made a better choice to fill this vital role," said Todd Hewlin, Symbol senior vice president of the global products group and interim general manager of the RFID division. "Throughout the process of acquiring Matrics, John demonstrated an impressive grasp of the importance of RFID technology and vision of how it could be integrated with Symbol's other technology in a way that would enable Symbol to be the only company capable of offering customers an end-to-end supply chain advantage."

Bruno most recently served as Symbol's senior vice president of corporate development and chief marketing officer. While overseeing business development, corporate marketing and government affairs, Bruno has driven significant awareness about Symbol's brand and leadership in key emerging technology areas such as the Enterprise Digital Assistant and RFID. His contributions have elevated Symbol's reputation as an RFID leader with top industry pioneers in the retail, supply chain and government sectors.

Bruno joined Symbol in 2002 as senior vice president of business development and chief information officer (CIO). As CIO, in less than a few years he led what the industry has recognized as one of the largest and most aggressive business transformation programs. At the same time, Bruno expanded Symbol's enterprise mobility solutions offerings through the acquisition of mobility software developer Covigo in 2003 and Matrics in 2004.

With almost 20 years of experience serving the hi-tech industry, Bruno is known for his business and technology acumen. Prior to joining Symbol, he held a number of senior positions at leading companies such as Cisco Systems, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb and United Parcel Service (UPS).

Bruno, 40, will be based at Symbol's RFID facility in Rockville, Md. He will continue to serve as chief marketing officer for an interim period.