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WISeKey Appoints Jean-Pierre Pennacino as Chief Operating Officer and Alexander Zinser as Chief Legal Officer

WISeKey Appoints Jean-Pierre Pennacino as Chief Operating Officer and Alexander Zinser as Chief Legal Officer

 Zug/Geneva, April 11, 2018 – WISeKey International Holding Ltd (WIHN.SW) (“WISeKey”), a leading cybersecurity and IoT company, announced today the appointment of Jean-Pierre Pennacino as Chief Operating Officer, and Alexander Zinser as Chief Legal Officer.

Jean-Pierre Pennacino brings more than two decades of leadership positions in finance and process improvement for the semiconductor and smartcard business segments, working for companies such as Motorola Semiconductor (Freescale), STMicroelectronics and Gemplus (Gemalto). Also, Mr. Pennacino has extensive M&A experience working with a variety of companies, from fast growing to turn-arounds. Before joining WISeKey, Mr. Pennacino served as CFO of a leading European scrap metal recycling company. Mr. Pennacino is a graduate of Audencia – Nantes business School, and is a French Chartered Accountant.

In his new role, Mr. Pennacino will be responsible for the overall operations of WISeKey, its strategic direction, expansion of mPKI and semiconductors services and solutions offered to clients and will be reporting directly to Carlos Moreira, WISeKey’s Chairman and CEO.

Alexander Zinser has more than 15-years of legal and compliance affairs experience for the semiconductor, life sciences, FMCG and manufacturing industry, working for rapidly growing companies such as Agilent Technologies, Reynolds American and Guardian Industries. Mr. Zinser started his professional career at the law firm Graf von Westphalen in Frankfurt having studied law in Passau, Birmingham, Vienna, Strasbourg and Munich and he holds a Ph.D and also an Executive MBA from the University of St. Gallen (HSG).

Mr. Zinser will oversee all legal and compliance matters pertaining to the Wisekey organization.

These two new senior positions reflect the evolution of WISeKey into a global organization following the complete integration of the recently acquired companies into its vertical platform, and the next phase of its growth and expansion as the Company continues to further streamline end-to-end sales process, expand cross selling opportunities, and improve efficiencies and collaboration between international offices/teams (Switzerland, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, U.K., The Netherlands, U.S.A, India, Singapore, Japan, Bermuda and Taiwan) of 170 people.  WISeKey’s office in Geneva will continue to operate as the global operational hub of the group, while Zug and St Gallen teams have been fully integrated into the Swiss operations.

Carlos Moreira, Chairman and CEO of WISeKey, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Jean-Pierre and Alexander to our team. Their expertise will be of great value to WISeKey as we continue executing our growth strategy, following the successful integration of our recent acquisitions.”

About WISeKey:

WISeKey (SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying via a Virtual Platform large scale digital identity ecosystems. WISeKey’s Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (“RoT”) and IoT Microchips provide secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.

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Press and investor contacts:

WISeKey International Holding Ltd

Company Contact:  Carlos Moreira

Chairman & CEO

Tel: +41 22 594 3000

info@wisekey.com
WISeKey Investor Relations (US)

Contact:  Lena Cati

The Equity Group Inc.

Tel: +1 212 836-9611

lcati@equityny.com

Disclaimer:

This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.