EL SEGUNDO, CA, June 1996 - Marking a culmination of five years worth of dedicated effort, Ford Motor Company has elevated International Rectifier (IR) to Preferred Supplier Status. Doug Davis, Vice President of IR Automotive Marketing stated, "This accomplishment was a total team effort and IR's Automotive Sector truly rose to the occassion and exceeded all expectations".

The Ford Transistor Commodity Team based their evaluation of IR's capabilities in the areas of technology, quality, manufacturing processes, competitiveness and service. Ford Transistor and Diode Commodity Team Leader, J.S. Kim concluded, "IR has the potential to provide unique advantages to Ford's electronic products and we look forward to a long and mutually rewarding relationship between Ford and IR."

In accepting this new distinction, IR welcomes the mutual challenge of working together toward effective integration of IR within the Ford team. The next step will be to work with Ford in facilitating a review of IR's technology roadmap by a broad cross-section of our design engineering community.