By Town Crier Staff

San Jose-based KLA-Tencor, the world’s fourth largest semiconductor equipment provider, hosted an awards dinner April 8 to honor selected employees for exceptional service to the company throughout 2002. Chief Executive Officer Ken Schroeder of Los Altos Hills acknowledged the efforts of the company’s award-winning employees.

Consistent with its strong commitment to the community, KLA-Tencor asked its 70 award winners to nominate a favored charity, to which the company pledged a $1,000 donation. A diverse list of 28 organizations was identified - from the Make a Wish Foundation to Amnesty International - each of which will benefit from a portion of the $70,000 KLA-Tencor pledge.

“Unlike many other high-tech corporations, KLA-Tencor placed the allocation of its philanthropy dollars in the hands of its employees,” said Jane Evans-Ryan, a spokeswoman for KLA-Tencor.

This year’s philanthropy effort was inspired by KLA-Tencor’s longtime advocacy of the Silicon Valley Charity Ball.

As a “Big Ten” supporter of the recently canceled Charity Ball, the company set out to find alternative methods to maintain the momentum of charitable giving pioneered by this annual event.

The company is pleased to have found an innovative way to fund many organizations that previously benefited from the Charity Ball, while simultaneously honoring its employees.

After the event, a KLA-Tencor awardwinner said in an e-mail to President Gary Dickerson: “I wanted to thank you for a thoroughly enjoyable GM Awards Dinner. In particular I wanted to offer my thanks to you and others who were involved with implementing the charitable donations program that went along with the award. As grateful as I am for the recognition represented by the GM award, my wife and I were very moved by the opportunity to select a charity. It meant a great deal to us both and made me proud to be part of KT. It was clear at the dinner that others had also made meaningful selections, often for deeply felt reasons.”

“This is just one slice of KLA-Tencor’s corporate giving pie,” Evans-Ryan said. “Other slices are just as innovative, such as the company’s provision of higher education scholarships to employees’ kids. (Schroeder) feels a strong obligation to give back to his employees, while seeding the next generation of Silicon Valley’s workforce. While corporate philanthropy is nothing new, it’s rare to see sustained giving in times of

economic distress. Schroeder feels that it is times like this when corporate giving should be accelerated.”

KLA-Tencor is the world leader in yield management and process control solutions for semiconductor manufacturing and related industries. The company is ranked No. 6 on S&P’s 2002 index of the top 500 companies in the U.S. KLA-Tencor is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol KLAC.

Additional information about the company is available on the Internet at www.kla-tencor.com.