Evogene Appoints Ofer Haviv as President and CEO
Company announces new Board appointments

Rehovot, Israel – May 31, 2005 – Evogene today announced the appointment of Ofer Haviv as President and Chief Executive Officer. Previously, Haviv was the Company’s Chief Operating and Financial Officer. Dr. Hagai Karchi, who co-founded Evogene in 2002 with Dr. Rafi Meissner and has served as CEO since that time, has been appointed Chief Scientific Officer.

In addition, the Company announced a number of changes to its Board of Directors. Martin Gerstel, chairman of Compugen Ltd., the parent company of Evogene, has been appointed Chairman, Leon Recanati, Chairman and CEO of GlenRock Israel, has been elected a director, and Professor Ilan Chet, President of the Weizmann Institute, has been appointed as a special advisor to the Board.

Mr. Gerstel stated, “We are extremely pleased to be adding these distinguished leaders to the Evogene family. This is another important step which, along with the financing also announced today, helps position the Company to obtain the maximum future value from our broad technology base and our four lead programs”.

Mr. Ofer Haviv said: “I want to thank Hagai for providing the leadership in establishing an excellent foundation - in terms of research directions, scientific talent, technologies and initial projects – on which I am confident we can now build a substantial, and unique, multidisciplinary plant biotechnology company. I very much look forward to his continuing contributions as we aggressively pursue this opportunity.”

Dr .Hagai Karchi said: “Having lead the development of the Company and its technologies since founding it together with Dr Rafi Meissner, moving forward I believe it is appropriate for me to concentrate on our technologies and products, the areas where I believe I can have the most impact. Having worked closely with Ofer for the past few years, there is no doubt in my mind that he is the right person to lead Evogene as we begin to focus on commercializing our initial programs.”

About Evogene
Evogene is a biotechnology company focused on developing high-value commercial products based on plant genomics. The Company is merging state-of-the-art predictive computational biology and molecular biology with the most advanced breeding technologies. Evogene’s current product development portfolio is focused on improving abiotic stress tolerance and yield in key crops such as corn, soya, cotton and canola; enhancing fiber development in cotton; improving nitrogen use efficiency; and plant manufacturing of therapeutic proteins. Evogene was founded in 2002 by Drs. Hagai Karchi and Rafi Meissner as a plant biotechnology spin-off of Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN). For additional information, please visit Evogene’s Website at www.evogene.com.

Contact Information
Evogene:
Ofer Haviv
Chief Executive Officer
E-mail: ofer.haviv@evogene.com
Tel: +972-8-931-1904

Mr. Martin Gerstel
Mr. Gerstel has served as the chairman of Compugen Ltd since August 1997. Prior to relocating to Israel in 1994, Mr. Gerstel was co-chairman and CEO of ALZA Corporation, which he helped found in 1968. Mr. Gerstel is also the co-founder and co-chairman of Itamar Medical, chairman of Keddem Bioscience, and serves as a director of Symyx Technologies, Yissum Ltd, Yeda Ltd and the Foundation for the United States National Medals of Science and Technology. He is a member of the Board of Governors and the Executive Committee of the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University, and is an advisor to the Burrill Life Science Funds and the board of the Israel-U.S. Bi-national Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation. Mr. Gerstel holds a B.S. from Yale University and an MBA from Stanford University.

Dr. Leon Recanati
Dr. Leon Recanati is the founder and CEO of GlenRock Israel, a private Equity group. Until May 2003, Leon was CEO and Chairman of IDB Holding Corporation, one of the largest investment groups in Israel. Also, Leon was Chairman of C

Publisher Contact Information:

Evogene
00 972 8 931 1904
ofer.haviv@evogene.com

Company profile of Evogene
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