NI Announces New Senior Vice President of Research and Development

AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 17, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- National Instruments (Nasdaq: NATI) today announced the appointment of Phil Hester to the position of senior vice president of R&D. Hester brings 30 years of technology industry knowledge and technical expertise to NI.

"I am very pleased to have Phil join the NI management team," said Dr. James Truchard, president, CEO and cofounder of National Instruments. "I believe he is well-suited to lead the global NI R&D organization toward our long-term plan to deliver customer success through innovative technologies and sound business management. With his considerable technical and international management expertise, I am confident that Phil will provide the leadership and strategic direction into new application areas that will advance our graphical system design vision."

Throughout his 30-year career, Hester has distinguished himself as a technology leader holding several key engineering and management positions, most recently as senior vice president and chief technology officer at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Prior to AMD, Hester served in a variety of leadership and management roles at IBM, including chief technology officer and vice president, systems and technology for the PC division at IBM, and general manager, systems and technology division, where he oversaw 1,500 employees globally.

As senior vice president of R&D at National Instruments, Hester will provide strategic guidance to the company's 1,500 person global hardware and software development team, helping to continue the NI track record of delivering new and innovative products and services. National Instruments continues to prioritize customer success by maintaining a consistent investment in R&D, creating a steady stream of tools to further empower engineers and scientists.

About National Instruments

National Instruments (www.ni.com) is transforming the way engineers and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement, automation and embedded applications. NI empowers customers with off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to a broad base of more than 30,000 different companies worldwide, with no one customer representing more than 3 percent of revenue and no one industry representing more than 15 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 5,000 employees and direct operations in more than 40 countries. For the past 10 years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America. Readers can obtain investment information from the company's investor relations department by calling (512) 683-5090, e-mailing nati@ni.com or visiting www.ni.com/nati. (NATI-G)

LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

Editor Contact: Hilary Marchbanks, (512) 683-5937

SOURCE National Instruments

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