EL SEGUNDO, CA. March 1998 - International Rectifier (IR) CEO Derek Lidow has turned over day-to-day leadership for the company's global sales and marketing team to two executives -- Curtis C. Jones Jr. and W. D. Collins -- who will jointly share the title of executive vice president for global sales and marketing.

"This promotion provides our sales and marketing organization with the focused, full-time leadership that is required to meet our plans for revenue growth and better customer service in the coming years," Lidow explained. "It will also allow me to devote full time to managing International Rectifier's strategic direction, making sure that all facets of our organization are aligned to extend our position as the leader and the innovator within the power conversion marketplace."

In their new role, Jones and Collins will develop the conceptual approaches required for improving customer service and product definition for the entire sales and marketing team, and manage the evolution of the current team assignments to meet these plans. All industry-specific and global area sales managers will report directly to Jones for day-to-day business decisions, while day-to-day direction of all personnel for service, marketing, marketing communications and training will report to Collins.

Jones joined IR in 1991, and most recently served as vice president of North American and Asia-Pacific sales. He came to IR from General Electric where he directed the sales and marketing of multiple high-growth divisions for twenty years. Jones also spent ten years at Bourns as corporate vice president of marketing and sales. Jones earned a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the University of South Carolina. While at GE he received an MBA from UCLA and went through a Harvard GE advanced marketing program.

Collins joined the International Rectifier team in 1984, and has worked at various sales and marketing management positions within the company in the automotive, HEXFET^® power MOSFET, and Schottky diode areas, to name a few. More recently, he served as vice president for HEXFET business management and vice president of global accounts. Prior to IR, Collins held various sales management positions at Intel. He earned a BSEE degree at Clarkson University in New York and has pursued graduate work in business management at Union College in New York. "Jones and Collins are excellent leaders and proven team players," Lidow said. "Their experience, insight and hard work are sure to make our sales and marketing team the best in the industry."

International Rectifier is the power semiconductor expert and is recognized as a leading supplier of power systems solutions. Their power conversion components make electricity work smarter and use less energy in virtually every type of modern electrical and electronic equipment. Their patented HEXFET power MOSFETs, IGBTs and HVICs make IR the world leader in power conversion components. IR's technological advances improve the performance and energy efficiency of electronic and electrical equipment in automotive, consumer, computer/peripheral, industrial, lighting, telecommunications and government/space applications.