Advanced Digital Broadcast Appoints William Luehrs To Grow Americas Markets

Leading set-top box designer and developer, Advanced Digital Broadcast, has set up a US marketing facility and has appointed US cable and satellite veteran, William G. Luehrs to head it.

Advanced Digital Broadcast (www.adbglobal.com) today announced the appointment of William ¡§Bill¡¨ Luehrs as president of ADB Americas. In this role Luehrs will direct the development of ADB¡¦s expansion in the US, Canada and Latin American digital TV markets.

ADB CEO and President Andrew Rybicki said: ¡§The digital TV and media industry is now poised for explosive growth as the consumer becomes more comfortable with interactive digital TV technology. I believe that Bill Luehrs¡¦ appointment to head ADB¡¦s Americas subsidiary will be instrumental in introducing ADB¡¦s interactive digital technology to cable operators and programmers seeking to deliver video entertainment to the large consumer marketplaces.¡¨

Before joining ADB, Luehrs was president of the Network System Division at Zenith Electronics. Luehrs drove the transition to digital technology at Zenith, landing and executing on a billion dollar contract to deliver digital set-top boxes to the Americast RBOC consortium.

He also developed a successful satellite receiver product line that established leading market share in Latin America and in several other emerging markets.

He later organized the sale of the Zenith Networks Systems business to GI/Motorola, and provided merger integration services to help Motorola consolidate this business into their Broadband Communications Group.

Luehrs is a veteran top executive in the US cable and satellite TV industry. He developed his strategic marketing and general management skills during 17 years at General Electric. He has also held several vice presidential and general management positions at Scientific Atlanta, including the subscriber set-top box business, and the digital audio product line.¡§

Bill Luehrs¡¦ track record of achievement in the industry is outstanding,¡¨ Andrew Rybicki said. "I am happy to add his leadership to our senior management team as we expand our successful business base in Asian and European markets into the Americas: ADB as a truly global enterprise.¡¨

Luehrs is establishing ADB-Americas corporate headquarters in Chicago.

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About ADB

Advanced Digital Broadcast is a major supplier of digital set-top boxes and software solutions for digital interactive television. Since releasing its first unit in the summer of 1997, ADB has shipped over two million set-tops to customers in 15 countries

ADB employs some 300 staff in offices in Switzerland, Australia, Poland, Spain, in the Philippines, Canada, the United States, and in Taiwan (where the company's Corporate Headquarters is located). Of this total staff, more than 195 work as development engineers, principally in the company's Software Engineering facility in Zielona Gora, western Poland, in Manila, and in ADB's Advanced Interactive Application Development Center in Sydney, Australia.