Steven F.
Nicola
Chief Financial
Officer, Secretary & Treasurer
412:442-8262
MATTHEWS
INTERNATIONAL
ANNOUNCES NEW
DIRECTOR
PITTSBURGH,
PA, July 24, 2008 -- Matthews International Corporation (NASDAQ: MATW) announced
that Katherine E. Dietze was elected today to the Company’s Board of
Directors.
Ms. Dietze was Global Chief Operating
Officer, Investment Banking Division of Credit Suisse First Boston until her
retirement in 2005. She had also held the position of Managing
Director, Investment Banking. Prior to joining Credit Suisse First
Boston in 1996, Ms. Dietze was a Managing Director for Salomon Brothers
Inc. In 2007, she was elected to the Board of Directors of LaBranche
& Co., Inc., a financial services firm. Ms. Dietze received
a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University and graduated from Columbia
University with an M.B.A. in Finance and Marketing.
Matthews
International Corporation, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a
designer, manufacturer and marketer principally of memorialization products and
brand solutions. Memorialization products consist primarily of bronze memorials
and other memorialization products, caskets and cremation equipment for the
cemetery and funeral home industries. Brand solutions include graphics imaging
products and services, marking products, and merchandising solutions. The
Company's products and services include cast bronze memorials and other
memorialization products; caskets; cast and etched architectural products;
cremation equipment and cremation-related products; mausoleums; brand
management, printing plates, pre-press services and imaging services for the
primary packaging and corrugated industries; marking and coding equipment and
consumables, and industrial automation products for identifying, tracking and
conveying various consumer and industrial products, components and packaging
containers; and merchandising display systems and marketing and design
services.