QIAGEN Announces New Management Roles VENLO, Netherlands, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- QIAGEN N.V. (Nasdaq: QGENF; Frankfurt, Prime Standard: QIA) today announced management changes and a new management structure which will take effect January 1, 2004. The new positions and structure are designed to provide continued strong leadership to address QIAGEN's exciting opportunities in the months and years ahead. Dr. Metin Colpan, 48, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, will transition his role to Senior Technology Advisor to QIAGEN advising on technology projects. Dr. Colpan, a co-founder, will also join QIAGEN's Supervisory Board. Peer M. Schatz, 38, Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer for the past 11 years, has been nominated as QIAGEN's Chief Executive Officer as well as Chairman of both the Management Board and the newly created Executive Committee. The transition will take place over the coming two-month period to ensure a smooth transfer of responsibilities and continuity in all key areas of the company's operations. QIAGEN also announced the formation of a new Executive Committee, comprised of the Company's most senior executives responsible for QIAGEN's core functions on a global basis. The Committee, which will be led by Mr. Schatz, combines the experience and competence of the team of the Company's most seasoned executives who have been with QIAGEN for many years and have been key contributors in building QIAGEN's current industry leadership position. The Executive Committee will be the management group which continues to chart QIAGEN's strategic and operational direction. The members of the Executive Committee are: - Peer M. Schatz (38), Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer - Dr. Joachim Schorr (43), Managing Director, Senior Vice President, R&D - Bernd Uder (46), Managing Director, Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing - Roland Sackers (34), CFO, Deputy Managing Director, Vice President, Finance - Dr. Michael Collasius (41), Vice President, Instrumentation - Aeneas Marxen (43), Vice President, Operations. - Dr. Uli Schriek (47), Vice President, Business Development QIAGEN expects to appoint additional members to the Executive Committee as new hires are finalized to fill the open positions of Vice President of Molecular Diagnostics Applications and Vice President of Corporate Strategy. Dr. Schorr and Mr. Uder have also been nominated as members of QIAGEN's Management Board and promoted to the positions of Senior Vice President. Prior to these nominations, Dr.Colpan and Mr. Schatz had jointly led the Company as members of the Managing Board. Mr. Sackers, has been nominated to fill the position of Chief Financial Officer and promoted to Deputy Managing Director. "As one of QIAGEN's founders and a member of the current management team, I am proud of our approximately 1,600 employees worldwide who have made QIAGEN the leading company in our industry," said Dr. Colpan. "Founders' roles evolve, and this is the right time for me to transition from my current operational role. We have an exceptionally talented team that will lead QIAGEN to even greater success. I look forward to my continued involvement as Senior Technology Advisor, as it will provide me the opportunity to return to my roots and passion for science. Nucleic acid handling, separation and purification have never been a more exciting field, and I plan to help QIAGEN further leverage its unmatched technology portfolio. I have the fullest confidence in Peer Schatz as QIAGEN's new CEO. Peer has been my colleague, co- leader and friend during the past 11 years, and his skills, talents and exceptional business judgment in all areas of the Company's activities have been valuable to me and highly instrumental to our success." "On behalf of all of us at QIAGEN, I want to thank Metin for his strong vision and leadership. We all look forward to our continued relationship with him. I can assure our employees, customers, partners and shareholders of our continued focused commitment to providing advanced and innovative technologies for separation, purification and handling of nucleic acids to the evolving life science industry. Our drive for highest creativity and innovation, our profound commitment to address our customers' needs, and our goal of operational excellence are deeply rooted in our corporate culture," said Mr. Schatz. "QIAGEN is a company where our common, focused vision and our entrepreneurial spirit have always been shared throughout the organization. We are very excited about our new management structure and about having Metin join our Board of Supervisory Directors," said Prof. Detlev Riesner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of QIAGEN NV. "QIAGEN is one of the best positioned companies worldwide in Life Sciences and has a proven and powerful engine of innovation that fuels exciting growth. The introduction of an Executive Committee with Peer as its Chairman and as our CEO is a very positive and natural evolution of a rapidly expanding, thriving company." QIAGEN will host a conference call on October 28th, 2003 at 9:30 am EST to discuss its third quarter financial results and transition plans. The corresponding presentation slides will be available 60 minutes ahead of the conference call on the Company's website at http://www.qiagen.com/goto/102803. A webcast of the conference call will be available at http://www.videonewswire.com/QIAGEN/102803. In addition QIAGEN will post statements of Dr. Colpan and Mr. Schatz as well as an interview with the newly introduced Executive Committee that can be followed on QIAGEN's website at http://www.qiagen.com/. QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands holding company with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Italy, Australia, Norway, Austria and Canada, believes it is the world's leading provider of innovative enabling technologies and products for the separation, purification and handling of nucleic acids. The Company has developed a comprehensive portfolio of more than 320 proprietary, consumable products for nucleic acid separation, purification and handling, nucleic acid amplification, as well as automated instrumentation, synthetic nucleic acid products and related services. QIAGEN's products are sold in more than 42 countries throughout the world to academic research markets and to leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. In addition, the Company is positioning its products for sale into developing commercial markets, including DNA sequencing and genomics, nucleic acid-based molecular diagnostics, and genetic vaccination and gene therapy. QIAGEN employs approximately 1,600 people worldwide. Further information on QIAGEN can be found at http://www.qiagen.com/. Certain of the statements contained in this news release may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. To the extent that any of the statements contained herein relating to QIAGEN's products and markets and operating results are forward-looking, such statements are based on current expectations that involve a number of uncertainties and risks. Such uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, risks associated with management of growth and international operations (including the effects of currency fluctuations and risks of dependency on logistics), variability of operating results, the commercial development of the DNA sequencing, genomics and synthetic nucleic acid-related markets, nucleic acid-based molecular diagnostics market, and genetic vaccination and gene therapy markets, competition, rapid or unexpected changes in technologies, fluctuations in demand for QIAGEN's, products (including seasonal fluctuations), difficulties in successfully adapting QIAGEN's products to integrated solutions and producing such products, the ability of QIAGEN to identify and develop new products and to differentiate its products from competitors, and the integration of acquisitions of technologies and businesses. For further information, refer to the discussion in reports that QIAGEN has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). DATASOURCE: QIAGEN N.V. CONTACT: Peer M. Schatz, Chief Financial Officer, +49-2103-29-11702, or , or Dr. Solveigh Mahler, Investor Relations, +49-2103-29-11710, or , both of QIAGEN N.V. Web site: http://www.qiagen.com/

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