Patterson new Eastland chief executive

One day after the announcement of his resignation as chief executive of embattled Welshpool water and power company Solco Ltd, Dermot Patterson has been appointed chief executive of West Perth's Eastland Medical Systems Ltd.

The present Eastland chief executive, Don O'Sullivan, will be appointed non-executive chairman of the company when Mr Patterson takes over on September 4.

Before taking the position at Solco, five months ago, Mr Patterson was chief executive of Medec Ltd, and had spent 20 years with Huntleigh Technology Ltd, a large UK-based international healthcare firm.

The full Eastland announcement is pasted below

The Board of Eastland Medical Systems Ltd are pleased to advise of a number of significant changes to the Company's Senior Management effective 4 September 2006.

As previously outlined at the Company's 2005 Annual General Meeting and ASX Announcement of 22 December 2005, the Company would be seeking to appoint a new Group Chief Executive Officer to take the Company to the next level of its international development.

Eastland is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Dermot Patterson as the Group's Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Patterson has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Western Australia, a Surgical Technologist Diploma from Paddington College UK and brings to the Company 25 years extensive senior executive experience, demonstrating strong management performance with both national & international companies.

He also held the position of the Group Regional Director, Australasia of UK public listed Huntleigh Technology plc, a leading global healthcare company specialising in design and manufacture of a range of non-invasive healthcare devices and instrumentation for
medical applications. This experience provides an ideal background to assist Eastland to grow its range of patented safe parenteral devices and associated surgical and hospital range of products.

Mr. Patterson's 20 year career with Huntleigh provided a wealth of international marketing experience in the UK, continental Europe, North & South America and more recently the Asia Pacific region including the Australian markets. During his latter term of employment he also established several subsidiaries in China, Japan, Singapore and Australia.

Appointing Mr. Patterson to this role ensures Eastland has the required skill and expertise to successfully manage the ongoing international development of the organisation.

Mr. Don O'Sullivan will retire from his current role as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director effective 8 September 2006. To retain his experience gained over the past 4 years since the ASX listing, Mr. O'Sullivan will assume the role of Non-ExecutiveChairman leading up to the Company's next Annual General Meeting.

The Board wishes to thank for his tireless efforts in guiding Eastland through its formative stages.