Rightware relocates CEO to North America and appoints COO to Head of Operations in Finland

ESPOO, Finland & PALO ALTO, CA -- December 8, 2010 – Rightware, the leader in 3D user interface technology, today announced that its Chief Executive Officer Tero Sarkkinen will be relocating to the company’s recently established subsidiary – Rightware Inc., in Palo Alto, CA. The move allows Rightware to accelerate expansion of company operations in the US while providing greater opportunity to foster new and existing customer relationships more closely. Ville Ilves, Chief Operational Officer based in Espoo, Finland, assumes the role of operational head of headquarters in order to manage the organization as well as the sales operations in Europe and specific areas, effective immediately.

“With remarkable potential to increase our market share and business in the US, it’s only natural that Rightware also has an appropriate presence in this key location. Most importantly, the move enables us to serve our current customers, such as Intel, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Vivante – just to name a few – better and with proper magnitude,” said Mr. Sarkkinen. “After a fantastic first year with the company, I’m eager to expand our role in the US as a top UI technology provider for embedded industries as well as a provider of the industry’s leading benchmark products for mobile and telecommunication customers,” continued Mr. Sarkkinen. “Our goal is to grow our staff and to better serve our customers in all key locations. With this change, we are significantly increasing organizational capability to grow faster and to respond better to our customer needs,” said Mr. Ilves. “2010 looks to be a tremendous year for Rightware’s growth in both business areas and we’re overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response we’ve received from our customers and partners around the world. We are definitely looking forward to great success next year as well,” continued Mr. Ilves.

Tero Sarkkinen has served as the CEO of Rightware since founding the company. Prior to Rightware, Mr. Sarkkinen worked as the CEO of Futuremark Corp., a leading PC graphics benchmark software provider. He led the company to rapid organic growth resulting in the 85th place of Deloitte’s EMEA growth Company Ranking in 2005, and as a nomination in RedHerring’s Hot 100 Europe in 2006. Mr. Sarkkinen holds a Master of Science in Business Administration from Aalto University Business School in Helsinki, Finland, and has completed executive programs at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Ville Ilves has worked in various high-tech executive positions within Europe and the US. Most of his career, Mr. Ilves has worked at Nethawk Plc that was recently acquired by EXFO Inc. (NASDAQ: EXFO). Mr. Ilves has led various worldwide marketing and sales operations in mobile, software, wireless, clean-tech, test & measurement, and the governmental business segments. Mr. Ilves holds an Executive Master of Business Administration from the University of Oulu in Finland.

About Rightware:

Rightware serves mobile, automotive and the embedded industries with their Kanzi™ solution for rapid 3D user interface design and deployment. Rightware also develops industry leading system performance analysis tools. Their world renowned product portfolio includes 3DMark®Mobile for OpenGL ES 1.x and OpenGL ES 2.0, VGMark® for OpenVG 1.x, and SPMark® platform benchmark for Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile, Linux and mobile Java. Rightware is headquartered in Espoo, Finland and has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, and now also in Palo Alto, CA.

Contacts:

Media contacts:

Ville-Veikko Helppi, PMM
Tel. +358-400-949001

firstname dot lastname at rightware dot com