»Æ¹ÏÊÓƵ

AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS – SEPTEMBER 21, 2012 – »Æ¹ÏÊÓƵ announces two senior appointments, with Jo Wetz joining the board as Executive Vice-President Finance and Chief Financial Officer and Jonny Crane taking over the role of Non-Executive Member of »Æ¹ÏÊÓƵ’s Operating Committee.

Wetz, who has served as a Non-Executive Member of »Æ¹ÏÊÓƵ’s Operating Committee since 2010, previously spent 13 years working in finance and private equity most recently at 3i. Prior to 3i, Wetz was with Deloitte and specialised in both bank- and company-led restructuring processes before joining the company’s Private Equity transaction services working across Europe and Asia. During his time at 3i, Wetz led a number of successful buyouts both in the US and Europe, focussing on the global Testing and Inspection market specifically. These included 3i’s investments in Inspicio, Inspecta and »Æ¹ÏÊÓƵ. Wetz is a Chartered Accountant who holds a BSc (Econ) from University College London.

Charles Noall, »Æ¹ÏÊÓƵ President and CEO, says: “I have worked very closely with Jo over the last two years and I strongly believe he will bring tremendous value to the »Æ¹ÏÊÓƵ Group and our leadership team in his full-time role as Executive VP Finance and CFO.”

Jo Wetz says: “After spending six years focusing on investing in and working with other high-growth testing companies, as CFO I look forward to supporting »Æ¹ÏÊÓƵ’s ambitious plans for both acquisitive and organic growth in new and existing geographies. I see this as a very exciting opportunity to help lead a dynamic, customer-focussed company that has doubled in size over the past two years and that enjoys a very strong platform for growth following investment from 3i. I look forward to working with Charles and the management team to see »Æ¹ÏÊÓƵ go from strength to strength over the coming years.”

New Non-Executive Jonny Crane joined 3i in 2010, and was involved in a number of significant investments by the company including »Æ¹ÏÊÓƵ and Environmental Scientifics Group. He also assisted with »Æ¹ÏÊÓƵ’s successful exit from Stork as well as the development of the company’s growth strategy and, most recently, supporting »Æ¹ÏÊÓƵ’s US operations around commercial excellence. Crane previously spent 11 years at Bain and Company, where he worked on strategy and performance improvement projects for a wide range of both publicly- and privately-owned companies. Crane holds a Masters degree in Natural Sciences and Management Studies from Cambridge University.

About »Æ¹ÏÊÓƵ 

»Æ¹ÏÊÓƵ, formerly Stork SMT, is a global network of laboratories with experts specializing in materials testing, product qualification testing and failure analysis for the Aerospace & Defense, Oil & Gas, Power Generation, and Transportation sectors. Their team of over 1,000 scientists, engineers and technicians work in laboratories located throughout the US and Europe. For more information, please visit www.element.com.