Six CEOs Raise $160,377 For The Family Giving Tree

Displaying their holiday spirit, executives from six prominent Silicon Valley
companies raced through the aisles of a Sunnyvale Target store in a frenzied
20-minute shopping spree to scoop up gifts for underprivileged children. The
event was the second annual CEO Shopping Challenge sponsored by The Family
Giving Tree, a charitable organization.

Nvidia Corporation claimed the championship for the second year in a row,
spending $49,971 and fulfilling 2,395 wishes. Eli Harari, CEO, SanDisk and a
posse of the company's VP filled up more than 50 shopping carts, chalking up
$34,241 worth of presents and earning SanDisk the second place in the
gift-raising event, which benefits children in the San Francisco Bay Area. The
total amount raised by the Challenge was $160,377—all personal donations from
the CEOs— and this will generate 7,067 gifts.

National Semiconductor's team used aisle maps strapped to their arms to get ahead in the game

Havoc erupted as the executives and their assistants dashed madly down the
aisles, grabbing everything from electronics and toys to dolls and sporting
goods and throwing them into empty carts. The chaos continued with cart
collisions, swapping of company tags to take possession of a filled cart,
congested check-out lines and broken cash registers. At the end, a shortage of
carts prompted the executives to physically carry their booty. Each company was
given a stocking filled with children's wish cards. The challenge was for the
teams to collect as many of the items as possible and spend the most money
within the allotted time, without grabbing any item over $100 as it would not
count toward the final numbers.

The SanDisk team consisted of Harari, VP, Yoram Cedar; Randhir Thakur and Tom
Baker, and their executive assistants. The other teams of high-powered
technology firms came from Applied Materials, National Semiconductor, Nvidia,
Palm and Silicon Graphics. SanDisk's $34,241 will underwrite

1,369 gifts. In addition to Harari's donation, SanDisk's worldwide employees,
through the SanDisk Community Sharing Program, are contributing another $100,000
to The Family Giving Tree this holiday season.

The Family Giving Tree is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fulfilling
the holiday wishes of low-income, deserving children.  It was established
in 1990 as a San Jose State University MBA class project, but since then it has
grown to become the largest gift donation program in California. Social agencies
gather the names and wishes of the children and wish cards are distributed to
host companies and schools throughout the region.

DQC NEWS BUREAU