Press release

New Vice President for ib vogt in the U.S.

San Francisco, March 27, 2008.

Dr. Gopal Shankar (49) has joined the ib vogt team as Vice President of the ib vogt Inc. in San Francisco. In this position he is responsible for sales, marketing and business operations in the American market. He will oversee the growth of ib vogt Inc. to meet the increasing demand of the photovoltaic industry in the United States. He reports to Dagmar Vogt, founder and managing director of German based ib vogt GmbH.

Gopal Shankar has over 20 years experience in the semiconductor & power generation industry in engineering, program management, sales, marketing and business development. His past experience includes Veeco Instruments, Applied Materials and Westinghouse. He holds a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Kanpur University (India), an MS in Technology Management from SUNY Stony Brook, an MBA in Finance from St. John’s University (New York) and a DBA in Finance (Mergers & Acquisitions) from Golden Gate University, San Francisco. He is co-chair of the Cleantech Industry Group of the German American Business Association (GABA) as well as a member of the Sales & Marketing Executive Council and the Bob Graham Award Committee of the SEMI organization.