TurboChef Technologies Announces Appointment of J. Thomas Presby, James W. DeYoung and Sir Anthony Jolliffe as New Board Members
03 December 2003 - 11:28PM
PR Newswire (US)
TurboChef Technologies Announces Appointment of J. Thomas Presby,
James W. DeYoung and Sir Anthony Jolliffe as New Board Members
DALLAS, Dec. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TurboChef Technologies,
Inc. (BULLETIN BOARD: TRBO) announced today that J. Thomas Presby,
James W. DeYoung and Sir Anthony Jolliffe have been appointed to
its Board of Directors. Until his recent retirement on June 1,
2002, Mr. Presby was a senior partner with Deloitte Touche
Tohmatsu. Deloitte is an international accounting and consulting
organization providing auditing, accounting, tax and consulting
services. During his 30 years of partnership, eight of which were
spent abroad, Mr. Presby held a number of positions, including
Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Deloitte & Touche LLP, Deputy
Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu,
Chief Executive Officer of Deloitte & Touche Europe, Chief
Executive Officer of Deloitte & Touche Central Europe, and
Managing Partner of Deloitte's Financial Services Center. Mr.
Presby is currently a director of Tiffany & Co., Greenpoint
Financial Corp., World Fuel Services Corporation and the German
Marshall Fund of the USA. Mr. Presby received a B.S. in Electrical
Engineering from Rutgers University, a Masters in Industrial
Administration from Carnegie Mellon University Graduate School of
Business and is a Certified Public Accountant. In addition to his
activities as a member of the TurboChef Board, Mr. Presby will
serve as Chairman of the Board's Audit Committee. Mr. DeYoung is a
founder and principal of Winston Partners Incorporated, which
provides strategic corporate advisory, corporate disclosure and
investor relations services to select private and publicly-owned
companies. Mr. DeYoung is also a General Partner of Resource
Ventures L.P., a private investment firm that invests in promising
businesses with a strong reliance on technology and the internet.
Prior to forming Winston Partners in 1984, Mr. DeYoung spent
fourteen years with Baxter International, Inc., serving in a senior
capacity in marketing, investor relations, public relations and
corporate financial management functions. Mr. DeYoung is currently
a director of several private companies and is involved with
numerous not-for-profit organizations in the Chicago, Illinois
area. Mr. DeYoung received a B.A. degree from Washington and Lee
University and a J.D. degree from Northwestern University School of
Law. Until his retirement from the accounting profession, Sir
Anthony Jolliffe was a Chartered Accountant for 18 years, during
which time he grew his accounting firm into a multi-national
operation with offices in 44 countries with over 200 partners. His
firm eventually merged with Coopers & Lybrand and Grant
Thornton. Sir Anthony remained a partner in Grant Thornton for two
years until he retired from the accounting profession in 1982.
Since that time, Sir Anthony has built a number of businesses, two
of which have been listed on the UK Stock Market. He is currently
involved in several business projects in China, the Middle East,
the United States and the United Kingdom. Sir Anthony has held, and
currently holds, numerous positions with governmental and
charitable entities in the United Kingdom and China, including
being a former Lord Mayor of London and the Chairman of the Special
Advisory Board to the Governor of Yunnan Province in China. Sir
Anthony is a former TurboChef Board member who is rejoining the
Board. Richard E. Perlman, Chairman of the Board of TurboChef,
said, "We are delighted to have additional persons of Tom's, Jim's
and Sir Anthony's stature, reputation, and experience on our Board.
This raises the number of outside independent members of
TurboChef's Board of Directors to five out of seven members, and is
part of our effort to raise the standards of our corporate
governance through the use of outside directors. We have endeavored
to add individuals to our Board who can bring value with their
experience in specific areas on which TurboChef intends to focus."
TurboChef also announced that on November 24, 2003, it entered into
an amendment to its Stockholders' Agreement with OvenWorks, LLLP,
Jeffrey B. Bogatin and Donald J. Gogel pursuant to which, among
other things, Mr. Bogatin gave up his right to nominate and elect
one member of TurboChef's Board of Directors, and TurboChef
consented to certain sales of TurboChef stock by Mr. Bogatin. About
TurboChef TurboChef is engaged primarily in designing, developing
and marketing its proprietary rapid cook technologies. TurboChef's
proprietary rapid cook ovens, which require no ventilation, employ
a combination of high speed forced air and microwave energy to
"cook to order" a variety of food products at faster speeds and to
quality standards comparable, and in many instances superior to,
other conventional commercial and residential ovens currently
available. With its superior technology and new management team,
TurboChef seeks to become the world leader in rapid cook
technologies. "Safe Harbor" Statement under Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Certain statements contained in this
News Release constitute "forward- looking statements" within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Such forward-looking statements involve a number of known and
unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the
actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be
materially different from any future results, performance or
achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to new
management becoming familiar with the Company's business, the
uncertainty of market acceptance and demand for the Company's
products, the ability to obtain additional financing necessary to
continue operations, the uncertainty of consumer acceptance of new
products or technologies that may be offered by TurboChef,
relationships with and dependence on third-party equipment
manufacturers and suppliers, impact of competitive products and
pricing and other risks detailed in the Company's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. The words "looking forward,"
"believe," "expect," "likely" and similar expressions identify
forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place
undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak
only for the date the statement was made. TurboChef Technologies,
Inc. undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking
statements contained in this news release. DATASOURCE: TurboChef
Technologies, Inc. CONTACT: James A. Cochran, Chief Financial
Officer of TurboChef Technologies, Inc., +1-678-742-5943
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