ST Foundation Announces Appointment of New Chairman

Geneva / 30 May 2011

ST Foundation, an independent charitable organization created by STMicroelectronics, today announced the appointment of Pietro Fox as its new chairman. Set up in 2001, the ST Foundation aims to develop, coordinate and sponsor projects employing the use of science and technology in the promotion of human progress and the sustainable development of less privileged communities around the world.

Pietro Fox has dedicated most of his professional life to STMicroelectronics, latterly as Corporate Vice President for ST’s Europe Region until his retirement in 2000. Since then, Fox has spent the past ten years supporting charitable activities, culminating in his selection by ST’s executive management as the ideal person to embrace the Foundation’s vision and further build upon the achievements of the prime instigator and former chairman of the Foundation, Carlo Ottaviani, who passed away in January this year.

The key focus for the ST Foundation in 2011 is to maximize the impact and efficiency of its most important program, called ‘Digital Unify’, which has the goal to help bridge the digital divide: the gap between those who have access, and those who have not, to modern digital technologies. Fundamentally, the program aims to provide technology and basic training, free of charge, to those who have no knowledge of how to use a personal computer or access the internet.

“We set up the ST Foundation ten years ago, spearheaded by its first Chairman Carlo Ottaviani, as a key plank in ST’s goal to deliver excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility,” said Carlo Bozotti, President and CEO of STMicroelectronics. “As an ST veteran with an additional track record in aiding human progress in less privileged communities, Pietro Fox has our full confidence and support to drive the Foundation on to even greater heights.”

About the Digital Unify Program
The Digital Unify program comprises the setting up of computer training centers by the Foundation, via co-operation with local partners such as schools, NGOs and local administrations, and the spearheading of a computer literacy course created by ST employees. As an example, the program’s Informatics and Computer Basics (ICB) course covers notions of hardware, software, file system and graphical user interface, personal productivity tools, and internet access, basic quality and security practices, and relevant rights and obligations.

A key element of the program is to ‘Train-the-Trainer’, in which the Foundation and its volunteers will organize training sessions usually at the premises of the partners. These sessions provide the opportunity for training, knowledge exchange and networking among the trainers, who can then cascade their knowledge in their own respective countries. Since its inception in 2003, the ‘Digital Unify’ program has delivered free computer education and access to more than 110,000 beneficiaries.

Countries in which Digital Unify programs are running include:

Africa – Burundi, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tunisia and Uganda
Americas – Bolivia and Dominican Republic
Asia – Cambodia, Nepal, India and Thailand
Europe – France and Italy

In addition to running Digital Unify in emerging economies and regions, the Foundation also serves several developed countries targeting those groups without computer or internet know-how such as the elderly, the unemployed, immigrants and prisoners.

Further information on the STMicroelectronics Foundation is available at: www.stfoundation.org.

For further information please contact: info@stfoundation.org

About Pietro Fox
Born in Vicenza, Italy, in 1938, Pietro Fox began his professional career in 1958 at Standard Telephones & Cables in the UK, where he worked as an applications engineer in the semiconductor field. Soon after this, he returned to his native country of Italy and began his career at ST in 1964 in product marketing at SGS-FAIRCHILD, a forerunner company of STMicroelectronics. During his career with ST, Fox took on several product marketing and senior management roles in both the US and Europe, including becoming the general manager of SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics in Germany in 1976, and Vice-President of the Telecom Business Unit for Europe in 1997, culminating with his appointment as Corporate Vice President for ST’s Europe Region in 1998.

Following his career at ST, in 2003, Fox was appointed Executive Vice President of the newly founded WITAR Association, an NGO created in 2002 to promote and support technical education in developing countries to encourage social and economic development. The organization’s first project was at a Technical High School in Ngozi, a small town north of Burundi. Fox coordinated the construction of classrooms, laboratories and workshops, together with the installation of equipment for specializations in mechanics, electronics and computer education, in addition to the training of local teachers on the use of the installed equipment. Since 2003 Fox has travelled 13 times to Burundi to monitor the ongoing activities and, in December 2009, he was appointed President of the Association.