W. L. Gore & Associates Marks 11th Year as One of Nation’s Best

Company Earns #15 Position on FORTUNE’S 2008 “100 Best Companies to Work For” List

Newark, DE (January 24, 2008) - W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., maker of GORE-TEX® fabric and thousands of other innovative products, today announced it has earned a position on FORTUNE magazine’s annual list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” for the 11th consecutive year. Gore is ranked number 15. The list and related stories appear in the February 4 issue of FORTUNE, available on newsstands January 28 and at www.fortune.com January 22.

According to FORTUNE, creating jobs was a driving factor for the 100 companies that comprise this year’s list. The selected companies employ nearly 1.6 million employees, adding 67,000 people in the past year.

Since its founding in 1958, Gore has avoided traditional hierarchy, opting instead for a team-based environment that fosters personal initiative, encourages innovation, and promotes direct person-to-person communication among all “associates,” as employees are known. Decisions are based on knowledge and experience, rather than title or particular position. And all associates are encouraged to grow in knowledge, skill and responsibility, and to make their own commitments. This kind of unique corporate structure has proven to be a significant contributor to associate satisfaction.

Gore President and CEO Terri Kelly said this year’s selection is particularly meaningful as the company engages in a year-long celebration of its 50th anniversary. “All of our practices reflect the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit of our founders, Bill and Vieve Gore, and the principles upon which they founded our company,” Kelly said. “Our practices stress maximizing individual potential, cultivating an environment that fosters creativity, and operating with high integrity in everything we do,” she continued. “We believe that our unique culture contributes very directly to our success in bringing innovative products to market.”

For the past several years, Gore’s facilities in the UK, France, Italy, and Germany have also been named as one of the Best Companies to Work For in those countries.

Perhaps best known for its consumer products like GORE-TEX® fabric and  ELIXIR® Strings for guitars, Gore is a leading manufacturer of thousands of advanced technology products for the electronics, industrial, fabrics, and medical  markets. The company is headquartered in Newark, Delaware, posts sales of more than $2 billion, and employs more than 8,000 associates at 45 facilities throughout the world.

About the FORTUNE “100 Best Companies to Work For” List

Authors Robert Levering and Milton Moskowitz of the Great Place to Work Institute in San Francisco initiated the collection in 1984 with a best-selling book, 100 Best Companies to Work For in America. Gore is one of only three companies to be included in their three hardbound and eleven subsequent rankings in FORTUNE magazine. Selection and ranking were based on two criteria: an evaluation of the policies and culture of each company and the opinions of the company’s employees. The latter is given more weight; two-thirds of the total score comes from employee responses to a 57-question survey that goes to a minimum of 400 randomly selected employees from each company. More than 100,000 employees from 406 companies participated in the survey this year. It asks about things such as attitudes towards management, job satisfaction, and camaraderie within the organization. The remaining one-third of the score is based on an evaluation of each company's demographic makeup, pay and benefits programs, and culture. Information about applying for the next list can be found at www.greatplacetowork.com.

Contact

For more information, contact:

Ed Schneider
302.292.4567
eschneid@wlgore.com
www.gore.com