WoZ Hires COO, Two VPs

LOS GATOS, Calif. -- Wheels of Zeus(TM), Inc. (wOz), a start-up focused on developing an innovative wireless platform, today announced the appointment of three key executives to its management team. In addition to Steve Wozniak, the management team includes Rich Rifredi, chief operating officer, Frank Canova, vice president of engineering, and Gina Clark, vice president of business development and marketing. The three executives bring a wealth of business, technology and marketing experience to the company as well as depth in wireless markets, handhelds and platforms. Steve Wozniak, technology innovator and co-founder of Apple Computer, serves as the chairman, chief executive officer and technical visionary of the company.

The company is creating the wOz Platform(TM) system, an innovative wireless platform that includes a system reference design, a wireless network, and an online service that will enable solutions to help people take better care of what's important to them. The heart of the wOz Platform is the wOzNet(TM) network, a unique local wireless network that provides long range and long battery life at a low cost. The wOz Platform will enable a variety of solutions such as location, status and control, and communications applications. wOz is currently working with industry-leading partners to bring to market business and consumer solutions based on the wOz Platform. The company plans to publicly unveil the wOz Platform and wOzNet in the first half of 2004.

"My vision in starting this company was to create technologies that would be helpful to people's everyday lives. We're developing a breakthrough network technology that fills a substantial gap in the wireless market," said Steve Wozniak, CEO of wOz. "We now have a team of savvy and experienced business leaders in place to bring our technology to market."

As COO, Rich Rifredi is responsible for developing and overseeing the company's infrastructure and strategic direction. Prior to wOz, Rich was part of the founding team at Pixo, Inc. (recently acquired by Sun Microsystems), a developer of applications and platforms for wireless phones. While at Pixo, Rich set product direction for Pixo's OS Platform and Internet Microbrowser products. He served in various senior management positions including vice president of marketing and corporate development. During his tenure at Pixo, he took over responsibilities for all OS product development, sales and operations activities. Rich has over 17 years of high technology experience and started his career at Apple Computer holding various R&D, marketing and finance positions over a nine-year tenure with the company. Rich's last position at Apple was as the worldwide product manager for Apple's award winning PowerBook products.

Frank Canova is responsible for all product development activities. With over 20 years of high technology experience, Frank previously held a number of key positions, including vice president of worldwide product engineering at Palm, Inc., a pioneer in handhelds. Frank led hardware engineering for the original Palm Pilot handheld, the Palm III, V, and VII series handhelds. Prior to Palm, Frank worked at IBM, where he played a lead role in the development of the first SmartPhone, and managed various PDA and portable computer projects, including the creation of the forerunner to the modern laptop. Frank also directed the development of two-way pager products and technology as technical director at a division of Cirrus Logic.

Gina Clark is responsible for developing strategic partnerships and creating and executing the company's marketing strategy including brand development. Before wOz, Gina served as vice president of marketing for PalmSource, Inc., maker of the Palm OS® platform, where she developed the worldwide marketing strategy. At PalmSource, Gina created the company's brand strategy in preparation for its spin-off from Palm, Inc. Prior to PalmSource, Gina served as vice president of marketing for LoopNet, Inc., the leading online service for the commercial real estate industry. With more than 20 years of high technology experience, Gina has held various business development and marketing positions at Digital Equipment Corporation, Apple Computer, and Connectix Corporation.

Wheels of Zeus (wOz)