STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 31, 2000--Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) named Ronald P. Sansone the "Pitney Bowes 1999 Inventor of the Year" at a reception at its Headquarters in Stamford.

Mr. Sansone's winning patent, U.S. Patent No. 5,890,818 issued April 6, 1999 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, covers "Pixel Splitting to Improve Bar Code Readability." He was also recognized as the inventor granted the most patents in 1999 with eight, covering a range of technologies including digital printing, hybrid mail, innovative dual side printing, automatic enabling address correction and incoming mail metering systems.

"Pitney Bowes is delighted to honor Ron Sansone as the 1999 Inventor of the Year," said Michael J. Critelli, chairman and CEO of Pitney Bowes. "Innovation is a core value at Pitney Bowes and we are extremely proud of all of our inventors. Intellectual property is a key asset and value driver in the New Economy and a company's ability to management and leverage its proprietary technologies will directly affect its ability to compete in the marketplace."

Pitney Bowes' wealth of intellectual assets covers a broad range of technologies and business applications that are key in the new economy such as ticketing, cellular telephones, shipping, laser printing, encryption and mailing. The company is strategically leveraging its technological assets through direct development and delivery of innovative products and services; formation of strategic alliances and joint ventures; and by licensing proprietary technology to others who are interested in participating in markets which use the technology.

In a letter to Mr. Sansone, Vice President Al Gore offered his congratulations and stated, "America's strength can be attributed in large part to the creative ingenuity of our inventors and innovators. Our economy, our society and even our freedom have been defined by people willing to put ideas into practice. Inventors are truly worthy of recognition for the contribution that they continue to make for our country."

Mr. Sansone, a Pitney Bowes Fellow, joined Pitney Bowes in 1973 and filed his first patent application within 6 months. During his 27 years at Pitney Bowes, Ron has been issued 76 U.S. patents, the most ever by a Pitney Bowes employee.

The Company also recognized two inventors - Edilberto I. Salazar and Leon Pintsov - who joined the distinguished group of Pitney Bowes inventors with 30 or more patents.

"Both Eddie and Leon have made tremendous contributions to Pitney Bowes. There is a certain spark, a creative genius inside all of our inventors," said Joseph E. Wall, vice president and chief technology officer at Pitney Bowes. "We have a long history of innovation and we look to all of our technology people and inventors to continue their work and success as we compete in the New Economy."

Since joining Pitney Bowes in 1979, Mr. Salazar has received 30 U.S. patents and was Inventor of the Year in 1992. He received his first patent in 1984.

Dr. Leon Pintsov is inventor of 36 U.S. patents and was Inventor of the Year in 1995 and 1996. He joined Pitney Bowes is 1983.

Pitney Bowes Inc. is a $4.4 billion global provider of informed mail and messaging management. For more information about the company, visit www.pitneybowes.com.

Biographical Sketches

Ronald P. Sansone

Mr. Sansone held technical positions of Sr. Engineer, Manager, Director of New Concept Development and Director of Postal Systems Development at Pitney Bowes. During that period, he was recognized as both expert and a resource in several technical areas, including Electro-optics, Optics, Xerography, Printing, Metrology and Automated Postal Systems.

In 1991 Mr. Sansone was appointed to the position of Pitney Bowes Fellow, the highest position on Pitney Bowes' technical ladder. Between 1989 and 1998, in support of the Office of the Post, Mr. Sansone published eight papers at Post organized Technical Symposiums in the USA, France and the UK. He also created and gave numerous technical/business presentations to senior postal management in U.S.A., U.K., Canada France, Germany and Ireland. Exploratory technology piloting/partnering presentations were prepared and given to the senior management of American Express (USA & Europe), AEG, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Chase Bank, DEC, Electro-com, Hallmark Cards, IBM, Merrill Lynch, Principal Insurance, and Travelers Insurance.

Mr. Sansone had the distinction of being recognized by Congress in 1989, as one of the top twenty Inventors in the USA. The award from the U.S. Senate characterized his work as "the first new way of evidencing postal payment since Arthur Pitney introduced the postage meter in 1920."

Mr. Sansone's new product concept programs have received three Pitney Bowes One Standard Excellence Awards. His current focus is on developing new concepts that will add to both the Pitney Bowes patent and new business Portfolios.

Prior to joining Pitney Bowes, Mr. Sansone held engineering positions with various companies that specialized in developing cutting-edge technology for military, space and government agency contracts. These companies included Fairchild Camera, 1959 to 1966; CBS Laboratories, 1966 to1969; Sequential Information Systems, 1969 to 1970; Century Sciences Ltd., 1970; and DBA Optics, 1971 to 1973.

Mr. Sansone attended Queens College, majoring in Optics. He later completed advanced courses in optics and physics at Colombia and the University of Rochester and studied under Rudolph Kingslake.

Edilberto I. Salazar

Ed Salazar is a recognized expert in the area of digital motion control system design. Since joining Pitney Bowes in 1979, Mr. Salazar has been instrumental in developing digital motion control technology as a core competency for Pitney Bowes and has successfully applied it in products, such as the 6500A and A900 electronic postage meters, and the Paragon and Galaxy mailing machine systems.

Mr. Salazar was honored as the first recipient of the PB Inventor of the Year Award in 1992. He was elected to the position of Senior Fellow in1997 after holding various senior technical and management positions within the mailing systems engineering organization.

Mr. Salazar is presently a member of the International Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEEE) and the American Institute of Motion Engineers (AIME). His present area of interest includes the application of intelligent and modern control technology in Pitney Bowes machines designs to improve performance and cost.

Mr. Salazar holds a B.S. Electronics and Communications Engineering from Manila, Philippines, a B.S. Electrical Engineering from Bridgeport Engineering Institute, and a M.S. Computer Science degree from Polytechnic Institute of New York.

Dr. Leon Pintsov

Dr. Pintsov has authored and co-authored a book on computer modeling of imaging devices and over 30 publications in the fields of computer imaging, cryptographic applications and transaction cost economics. He is an internationally recognized authority in the fields of payment applications in electronic commerce and mailing, computer imaging and optical character recognition. Dr. Pintsov has been a speaker and presenter at many major international conferences on electronic commerce, public key cryptography, computer imaging, postal technology and postal economics.

In 1985, Dr. Pintsov was elected to the rank of a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is listed in Who is Who in America in Frontiers of Science and Technology and is a member of American National Standards Institute' accredited committee X9.F1 on financial security and European Standardisation Committee (CEN) TC331 committee on postal standards. Dr. Pintsov is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Center for Applied Cryptographic Research at the University of Waterloo (Canada).

Dr. Pintsov holds a M.S. degree in Mathematics (Magna Cum Laude) from the University of St. Petersburg (Russia), Executive M.S. degree in Management Science from the Hartford Graduate Center of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Ph.D. degree in Applied Mathematics from the Institute of Telecommunication Engineering in St. Petersburg.

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