The Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) today announced that Michael Birck , chairman and chief executive officer of Tellabs, will be recognized for his achievements and leadership in the U.S. telecommunications industry as the recipient of this year’s Medal of Honor.  EIA presents the award each year to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the electronics industry.  The award ceremony will take place on Tuesday, May 6, at EIA’s annual Government/Industry Gala Dinner, held this year at the Washington D.C. Grand Hyatt Hotel.

“Michael Birck has dedicated his life to the advancement of the telecommunications industry,” said EIA President Dave McCurdy.  “From his early days at AT&T’s Bell Telephone Laboratories to the success of Tellabs – the company he co-founded – Michael has provided vision and leadership.  Under his guidance, Tellabs has not only achieved technology breakthroughs, but also set a high watermark for social responsibility.  The Electronic Industries Alliance is honored to present this Medal of Honor to Michael as recognition of his contribution.”

EIA’s esteemed Medal of Honor has been presented each year since 1952.  Previous recipients include Bob Galvin of Motorola, Mark Shepherd of Texas Instruments, Thomas Watson of IBM, David Packard of Hewlett-Packard, and Congressman Amo Houghton of New York, who served as CEO of Corning prior to his career in Congress.

A recognition booklet honoring Mr. Birck’s achievements is in preparation.  If you would like to participate in honoring Mr. Birck, please contact NSTEP at 703-907-7412.

For more information on EIA’s 2003 Spring Conference, please visit www.eia.org/events. 

About Tellabs

Tellabs (Nasdaq: TLAB) provides innovative bandwidth management solutions to help carriers around the world move communications traffic most efficiently and effectively. The world communicates through Tellabs™ — most telephone calls and Internet sessions in the United States and many other countries flow through the company's equipment. Tellabs employee-owners develop and deploy solutions that provide aggregation, grooming and business services in metro/regional networks in more than 100 countries.  For more information, visit www.tellabs.com .