Matthews International Announces Executive Appointments

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Matthews International Corporation (Nasdaq: MATW) today announced two executive appointments.

Jennifer A. Ciccone has been appointed Vice President, Human Resources for the Company. Ms. Ciccone had been Director, Corporate Human Resources since 2006. Ms. Ciccone joined the Company in 1998 and has held various managerial positions within the Company's Human Resources Department.

Brian D. Walters has been appointed Vice President and General Counsel for the Company. Mr. Walters joined Matthews as Corporate Legal Counsel in 2005. Prior to 2005, Mr. Walters was a partner with Fried, Kane, Walters, Zuschlag & Grochmal, a law firm in Pittsburgh, PA.

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 and cylinders, 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.

SOURCE Matthews International Corporation

Released February 23, 2009