Daniel A. Pelak Appointed as President And Chief Executive Officer of Closure Medical

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Board of Directors of Closure Medical Corporation today announced that medical device veteran and longtime Medtronic, Inc. executive Daniel A. Pelak, 50, has been appointed its president and CEO. Pelak succeeds Robert V. Toni, 62, whose previously announced retirement begins concurrent with Pelak's arrival.

Pelak has been with Minneapolis-based Medtronic, Inc. since 1976. He began his career in marketing and sales, and has worked over the years with surgical devices in cardiac and cardiovascular applications, neurological products, hospital disposables and pharmaceuticals. Most recently he served as vice president and GM of the Perfusion Systems Division of Medtronic since January 2002. For the two years prior to that he was vice president and GM of Medtronic's Cardiac Surgery Technology Division. From 1992 to 2000, Pelak managed progressively larger marketing operations in the cardiac and cardiovascular areas of Medtronic. Prior to 1992, he held the position of VP and GM of Medtronic's Nortech Division, after moving through several sales management positions of increasing responsibility.

Closure Chairman Ronald Ahrens said, "Closure is at an exciting point in its development. Our existing partnerships are healthy and we believe Dan will continue and strengthen those relationships. He also has the opportunity to fulfill our ambition to build and develop an internal marketing and sales capability to support our product pipeline, such as products for use inside the body. Dan's record demonstrates that he knows how to manage fast-growing and complex organizations while maximizing current performance and facilitating additional growth. He combines strong operations experience with a deep and abiding sense of the customer bred of his background in marketing and sales. He spent many years at Medtronic managing R&D-intensive operations, and is adept at bringing development in on-time and on-budget. We believe Dan will be an excellent CEO for the potential growth of the Company and are very pleased to be able to work with him."

Pelak said, "I am enthusiastic about joining Closure Medical. I believe a sound foundation for growth is in place and I see great opportunities for our existing and future products."

Pelak will begin full time work in mid-September.

Closure Medical Corporation is a global leader in the development, manufacture, and commercialization of medical adhesive brands for wound closure and care based on its proprietary medical grade cyanoacrylate technology. Closure's proprietary technology has customized the physical and chemical properties of cyanoacrylates to develop medical adhesive formulations to close and seal topical skin wounds and incisions. For additional information on CLOSURE Medical visit its website at http://www.closuremed.com.