Virtual Instruments Welcomes Michael Marks to Board of Directors

Former CEO of Flextronics and Visionary Entrepreneur Brings Over 30 Years of Business Experience to Virtual Instruments


SCOTTS VALLEY, CA--(Marketwire - September 23, 2009) - Virtual Instruments, a leader in virtual infrastructure optimization, today announced Michael Marks, former CEO and board chairman of Flextronics, was appointed to Virtual Instruments' board of directors. Marks, an expert in electronics manufacturing and vertical business integration, will join the board, effective immediately. He will offer guidance to the company as it expands and continues to build momentum on top of last year's record growth of 200 percent over the prior year.

As the former CEO of Flextronics, Marks brings extensive experience with supply chain management and integration to Virtual Instruments. He spent 13 years as CEO of Flextronics International Ltd. and built the company from $93 million to $25 billion. During his tenure, which culminated in his appointment as chairman, Marks established operations in over 35 countries and integrated over 100 acquisitions. He is also credited with leading Flextronics through the 2000 "bust," steadily holding revenues and surpassing its primary competitor, Solectron Corporation.

"As we evolve and expand globally, an innovative and strategic thinker like Michael can help us scale operations and supply chain management," said Mark Urdahl, CEO of Virtual Instruments. "Michael's proven track record in manufacturing strategy, coupled with his many deep industry relationships, makes him an ideal board member for Virtual Instruments."

"Virtual Instruments' pioneering approach to SAN and virtual infrastructure optimization technology solutions dramatically improves a company's IT efficiency and uptime while enabling intelligent IT cost-cutting and consolidation -- a critical requirement for enterprise data centers," said Marks. "I am looking forward to working with my fellow board members to help the company capitalize on its amazing success in this turbulent economy."

Marks is currently a founding partner of Riverwood Capital and was a partner and senior advisor at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) in 2006 and 2007. Electronic Business Magazine named Marks one of the Top Ten Most Influential Executives in Silicon Valley History and its 2003 CEO of the Year. Additionally, Marks was honored by Fortune, who named him one of the "Heroes in U.S. Manufacturing." He is on the board of directors for SanDisk Corporation, Schlumberger Limited, Zappos.com, Inc., in addition to two non-profit organizations -- the V Foundation for Cancer Research and the National Parks Conservation Association. Marks earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a BA and MA from Oberlin College.

About Virtual Instruments

Virtual Instruments offers the award-winning NetWisdom and VirtualWisdom virtual infrastructure optimization solutions that provide deep monitoring and analysis of how the virtualized IT infrastructure and SAN affect business-critical application performance. Customers such as Barclay's Card Services, Kaiser Permanente and McKesson Corp. achieve significant cost savings in virtualization and SAN deployments by optimizing utilization, performance and availability of IT resources. Leading system and storage vendors including IBM, HP and EMC leverage Virtual Instruments to design and optimize SAN solutions for enterprise customers. The company was founded in June 2008 via a spin-out from Finisar Corp.; it has headquarters in Scotts Valley, Calif., and can be found online at http://www.virtualinstruments.com.

Contact Information: Media Contact: Melissa Lang Voce Communications on behalf of Virtual Instruments (330) 401-9220