News Release

Contact: Elizabeth Masten (415) 974-2133

SCALISE ELECTED TO SAN FRANCISCO FED

SAN FRANCISCO, December 29, 1999 -- Member banks in the Twelfth Federal Reserve District have elected Silicon Valley executive George M. Scalise to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco for the remaining portion of a three-year term beginning January 1, 2000, and ending December 31, 2001.

Scalise, 65, is president of the Semiconductor Industry Association in San Jose, California. He was elected by the Bank's largest member banks to represent non-banking interests in the District's nine western states.

Following thirty years in the electronics industry, Scalise was elected in 1997 to head the Semiconductor Industry Association, a national trade association which provides leadership for U.S. chip manufacturers on critical issues of trade, technology, environmental protection, and worker safety and health. In the past, Scalise held executive positions in Motorola's Semiconductor Division, at Fairchild Semiconductor, at Advanced Micro Devices, and at National Semiconductor Corporation. In 1987, he was appointed president and chief executive officer of Maxtor Corporation, and in 1996 he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer-and later as Executive Vice President of Operations-at Apple Computer.

A graduate of Purdue University, Scalise is active in industry and community affairs. He currently serves as a director of Cadence Design Systems, Inc.; the Foreign Policy Association; and Network Equipment Technologies. He also serves as an advisor and member of the U.S.- Israel Science and Technology Commission's Joint High Level Advisory Panel, Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business Advisory Board, the Bay Area Science and Infrastructure Consortium's Executive Board, the California Council on Science and Technology, and the Council on Foreign Relations' Economic Task Force on Japan. Scalise is a former chairman of the U.S. Department of Energy's Secretary of Energy Advisory Board and the Semiconductor Research Corporation, as well as a former director or trustee of SEMATECH, the San Jose Cleveland Ballet, Tower Semiconductor, the American Electronics Association, and other leadership positions.

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco provides wholesale banking services to financial institutions in the nine western states through the head office in San Francisco and branch offices at Los Angeles, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. As the nation's central bank, the Federal Reserve System formulates monetary policy, serves as a bank regulator, administers consumer protection laws, and is fiscal agent for the U.S. government. Head office directors are responsible for overseeing Reserve Bank operations, selecting the Reserve Bank president, providing details of economic trends in their regions, and advising the Bank's president and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on the general direction of monetary policy by establishing the Bank's discount rates.