NetApp Strengthens Board of Directors With Appointment of Gerald Held and Michael Nevens

SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwire - December 17, 2009) - NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) today announced that it appointed Dr. Gerald Held, CEO of Held Consulting LLC, and Michael Nevens, senior advisor to Permira, to the company's board of directors.

"We are pleased to welcome Dr. Gerald Held and Michael Nevens to the NetApp board of directors," said Tom Georgens, president and chief executive officer, NetApp. "Dr. Held's broad technology experience with strong product and customer insights will be a valuable asset to our board. Michael Neven's extensive business strategy experience providing strategic counsel and direction to Fortune 500 technology companies will help NetApp continue to gain market share in the storage industry."

"The information technology industry is entering a period of fundamental change driven by virtualization of computing and storage infrastructure," said Dr. Held. "NetApp is extremely well positioned to be the leader in storage virtualization."

"NetApp is an innovative leader in the storage industry and I look forward to contributing to its continued success," said Michael Nevens. "NetApp is poised to benefit from the economic recovery and pent-up demand for storage technology."

Dr. Gerald Held Biography

Dr. Gerald Held, CEO of Held Consulting LLC, provides strategic consulting to CEOs and senior executives of technology firms.

In 1998, Dr. Held was "CEO-in-residence" at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Through 1997, he was senior vice president of Oracle Corporation's server product division, where he was responsible for Oracle's most important products during a period of rapid growth, from $1.5 billion to $6 billion in annual revenues. Prior to working at Oracle, he spent 18 years at Tandem Computers, where he was a member of the executive team that grew Tandem from a startup to $2 billion in annual revenues. During his tenure at Tandem, Dr. Held was appointed to several senior management positions, including chief technology officer, senior vice president of strategy, and vice president of new ventures. He led the initial development of Tandem's relational database products.

Dr. Held also serves on the board of Informatica Corporation and Openwave Systems. He is chairman of Vertica Systems, Bella Pictures, and Software Development Technologies. He served as lead independent director of Business Objects until its sale to SAP in 2008.

Dr. Held received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Purdue, an MS in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, where he led the initial development of the INGRES relational database management system.

Michael Nevens Biography

Mike Nevens serves as a senior advisor to Permira, an international private equity fund with 21 billion euros of funds under management. He also serves on the board of directors of Altera and ModelN Software. Nevens is the president of the board of trustees of the San Jose Museum of Art and a member of the board and executive committee of ZER01: The Art and Technology Network. He is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, where he has been an adjunct professor of Corporate Governance and Strategy.

Nevens retired as a director (senior partner) of McKinsey & Co. in 2002 after leading McKinsey's global technology practice. He also served on the board of the McKinsey Global Institute, which conducts research on economic and policy issues.

Nevens received a B.S. in Physics from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Science in Industrial Administration from the Krannert School at Purdue University, where he was designated a Krannert Scholar. He resides in Los Altos Hills, California, with his wife, Yvonne.

About NetApp

NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that accelerate business breakthroughs and deliver outstanding cost efficiency. Discover our passion for helping organizations around the world go further, faster at www.netapp.com.

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