LED Lighting Provider Orion Energy Systems Names Seasoned Business Leader and Public Company Director Alan B. Howe to its Board

MANITOWOC, Wis., May 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orion Energy Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: OESX) (Orion Lighting), a provider of enterprise-grade LED lighting and energy project solutions, today announced the expansion of its Board of Directors with the appointment of Alan B. Howe.

Mr. Howe has over 30 years of extensive hands-on operational and board level experience combined with corporate finance, business development and corporate governance expertise. He is the founder and Managing Partner of Broadband Initiatives, LLC, a San Diego-based boutique corporate advisory firm that advises the boards and senior management of small and microcap companies. Mr. Howe puts particular emphasis on guidance and direction aimed at creating shareholder value, and as a result, he possesses a strong base of institutional investor relationships.

Mr. Howe has served on the Board of a diverse base of public companies as well as in a variety of senior management roles and has participated in the successful sale of many of these companies.  Certain past public company experience includes serving as Chairman of Ditech Networks (DITC) and JPS Industries (JPST); as Interim CEO and Director of Sunrise Telecom (SRTI); as a Director of MagicJack Vocaltec Ltd. (CALL), Cafepress (PRSS), Urban Communications (UBN.V), Aldila (ALDA) and Livewire Mobile (LVWR).

Mike Altschaefl, Orion’s CEO and Board Chair, commented, “Alan is an excellent addition to our Board. He brings a broad base of expertise and relevant experience in creating shareholder value in small and microcap companies. We believe his insights will prove very beneficial in guiding our strategy and plans for Orion’s future."

"Having recently demonstrated Orion’s unique capabilities and value proposition, including our ability to execute large-scale contracts, we are optimistic about the company's prospects. We look forward to working with Alan as we execute on our strategic vision and our business and operational goals in order to best serve Orion's stakeholders.”

Mr. Howe previously served as V.P. of Strategic Development at Covad Communications (a $500 million national telecommunications company) where he successfully helped identify, analyze and negotiate an acquisition that transformed it into the largest wireless fixed internet provider in the U.S. He served as CFO of Teletrac, Inc., where he raised $193 million to fund acquisition and growth opportunities and identified a strategic merger partner. He was also part of the original team at Sprint Corporation that started Sprint PCS.

Mr. Howe said, “I am grateful for the opportunity join Orion's Board at an exciting time in the company's transformation and return to growth. I look forward to working with the Board and management to advance business opportunities, financial performance and shareholder value."

About Orion Energy Systems
Orion is a provider of enterprise-grade LED lighting and energy project solutions. Orion manufactures and markets connected lighting systems encompassing LED solid-state lighting and smart controls. Orion systems incorporate patented design elements that deliver significant energy, efficiency, optical and thermal performance that drive financial, environmental, and work-space benefits for a wide variety of customers, including nearly 40% of the Fortune 500.

Safe Harbor Statement 
Certain matters discussed in this press release are "forward-looking statements" intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements may generally be identified as such because the context of such statements will include words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will," "would" or words of similar import. Similarly, statements that describe our future plans, objectives or goals are also forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ materially from those expected, including, but not limited to, the following: (i) our ability to achieve our expected revenue growth, gross margin, and EBITDA objectives in fiscal 2020 and beyond; (ii) our ability to achieve profitability and positive cash flows; (iii) our levels of cash and our limited borrowing capacity under our revolving line of credit; (iv) the availability of additional debt financing and/or equity capital; (v) our increasing emphasis on selling more of our products through third party distributors and sales agents, including our ability to attract and retain effective third party distributors and sales agents to execute our sales model; (vi) our ability to develop and participate in new product and technology offerings or applications in a cost effective and timely manner; (vii) our ability to manage the ongoing decreases in the average selling prices of our products as a result of competitive pressures in the evolving LED market; (viii) our ability to manage our inventory and avoid inventory obsolescence in a rapidly evolving LED market; (ix) our lack of major sources of recurring revenue and the potential consequences of the loss of one or more key customers or suppliers, including key contacts at such customers; (x) our ability to adapt to increasing convergence in the LED market; (xi) our ability to differentiate our products in a highly competitive market; (xii) the deterioration of market conditions, including our dependence on customers' capital budgets for sales of products and services; (xiii) our ability to complete and execute our strategy in a highly competitive market and our ability to respond successfully to market competition; (xiv) our increasing reliance on third parties for the manufacture and development of products and product components; (xv) our ability to successfully implement our strategy of focusing mainly on lighting solutions using LED technologies; (xvi) the market acceptance of our products and services; (xvii) our ability to realize expected cost savings on the timetable and amounts expected from our cost reduction initiatives; (xviii) adverse developments with respect to litigation and other legal matters pursuant to which we are subject; (xix) our failure to comply with the covenants in our revolving credit agreement; (xx) our fluctuating quarterly results of operations as we focus on new LED technologies and continue to focus investing in our third party distribution sales channel; (xxi) our ability to recruit, hire and retain talented individuals in all disciplines of our company; (xxii) price fluctuations, shortages or interruptions of component supplies and raw materials used to manufacture our products; (xxiii) our ability to defend our patent portfolio; (xxiv) a reduction in the price of electricity; (xxv) the cost to comply with, and the effects of, any current and future government regulations, laws and policies; (xxvi) potential warranty claims in excess of our reserve estimates; (xxvii) our inability to timely and effectively remediate any material weaknesses in our internal control of financial reporting and/or our failure to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting; and (xxviii) the other risks described in our filings with the SEC. Shareholders, potential investors and other readers are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements made herein are made only as of the date of this press release and we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. More detailed information about factors that may affect our performance may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at http://www.sec.gov or at http://investor.oriones.com/ in the Investor Relations section of our Website.

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