National Instruments Releases 2009 Citizenship Report

AUSTIN, Texas, April 27, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- National Instruments (Nasdaq: NATI) today released its 2009 Citizenship Report, and, as part of its citizenship efforts, announced a long-term commitment to increase the technical literacy of students around the world. The annual report reviews the company's corporate citizenship achievements in 2009, from the production of more environmentally friendly products to initiatives that enhance science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. It outlines the company's performance across economic, environmental and social areas as well as commitments for the future.

"When we founded NI more than 30 years ago, we aspired to create a company that fosters innovation in a fun and collaborative environment, empowers engineers and scientists to improve the world and aims to be a responsible corporate citizen to communities around the globe," said Dr. James Truchard, president, CEO and cofounder of National Instruments. "I am proud to present our annual citizenship report, which outlines our commitment to these long-standing efforts and demonstrates the many ways we are working to achieve success for our key stakeholders: employees, customers, suppliers and shareholders."

At the heart of NI citizenship is an effort to engage students with technology through mentorship and a fun, hands-on, project-based learning environment, arming them with skills to become tomorrow's innovators. The company's citizenship report underscores this commitment by detailing the key programs and collaborations, product development initiatives and donations designed to increase the technical literacy of students, from grade school through graduate school.

The report highlights benchmarks of the company, including the following:

-- Increased the number of hours mentored in classrooms by NI headquarters employees by 14 percent

-- Received recognition for 11 consecutive years on the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For list in the U.S. and from the Great Place to Work Institute for superior employment culture at five NI branch offices

-- Supported 34 medical device start-ups with $600,000 USD in software and services through the NI Medical Device Grant Program

-- Reduced water usage by 7 percent at headquarters and reduced energy usage by 13 percent at NI Hungary

-- Reduced physical size of software packaging by 71 percent

-- Donated 1 percent of corporate pretax profits to nonprofit organizations

Readers can view the full report online or download a PDF version by visiting www.ni.com/citizenship.

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 11 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 [email protected] 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.

SOURCE National Instruments