Office Depot Appoints Monica Luechtefeld as Company's First Head of S

    Business Editors

    DELRAY BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 5, 2005--Office Depot (NYSE:ODP), one of the world's leading resellers of office products and services, today announced that Monica Luechtefeld, formerly Executive Vice President, Global E-Commerce, has been appointed Executive Vice President, Strategy and Development.
    Luechtefeld has been directing online initiatives for Office Depot since 1994, when she helped put Office Depot at the forefront of the Internet revolution -- transforming the company into the third largest multichannel retailer on the Web, trailing only Amazon.com and Dell.com. In 2004, Office Depot's worldwide e-commerce sales are expected to top $3B - accounting for more than 20 percent of the company's annual revenues.
    In her new role, which is a first for Office Depot, Luechtefeld will be responsible for managing the strategic planning process to support the company's long-term growth objectives - including leading global initiatives geared towards new business development and orchestrating worldwide corporate development activities. She will also continue to oversee e-commerce strategy and focus on customer-driven enhancements that ensure Office Depot will maintain its industry leading position.
    "Monica Luechtefeld is a proven leader whose long and distinguished career at Office Depot has included successful assignments in marketing, sales administration, general management and business development," said Neil Austrian, Chairman and CEO of Office Depot, and the person to whom Luechtefeld will report. "Monica had the vision to embrace technology very early on, and use the Internet as an effective channel to build our business. I fully expect that her pioneering style and entrepreneurial spirit will continue to open up new frontiers for the company."
    Under Luechtefeld's leadership, Office Depot has won numerous awards for website development and for successfully transforming its business operations through technology.
    Luechtefeld also helped create, and currently hosts, Office Depot's Web Cafe, a free, weekly online seminar series for business owners where guest speakers share their insight and vision, and offer advice to business owners that will help them discover how to grow and flourish in today's marketplace.
    In 2001, Luechtefeld was instrumental in the acquisition of Tech Depot (4Sure.com), a corporate reseller of technology products. Through Tech Depot, Office Depot has created a unique technology-selling model.
    Luechtefeld joined Office Depot in 1993 and was appointed General Manager of the Southern California Region. In this role she was responsible for sales, warehouse, distribution and operations throughout Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada. In 1996, she was promoted to Vice President of Contract Marketing and Sales Administration where she was responsible for the creation of Office Depot's business-to-business Internet Commerce site. Subsequently, she was promoted to Senior Vice President of e-commerce and in August 2000 was named Executive Vice President of e-commerce assuming global responsibility in January 2003.
    Luechtefeld was named by BusinessWeek as one of the Top 25 in eBusiness in 2001, and by Fast Company as "Who's Fast" in e-commerce in 2003. This year, she was appointed by Secretary Tom Ridge to the Department of Homeland Security's Private Sector Senior Advisory Committee, representing the Retail Industry.
    Luechtefeld is a graduate of Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles, California and holds a B.S. in Biological Sciences-Chemistry. She is a Los Angeles native, who currently lives in Boca Raton, Florida.

    About Office Depot

    With annual sales of more than $12 billion, no one sells more office supplies to more customers in more countries than Office Depot. Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Delray Beach, Fla., the company conducts business in 23 countries and employs nearly 50,000 people worldwide.
    Office Depot is a leader in every distribution channel - from retail stores and contract delivery to catalogs and e-commerce. The company is the world's number three online retailer - on track to generate $3B in sales for FY'04. In North America, Office Depot has 923 retail stores in addition to a national business-to-business delivery network supported by 22 delivery centers, more than 60 local sales offices and 13 regional call centers.
    The company's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ODP and is included in the S&P 500 Index.

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CONTACT: Office Depot, Delray Beach Brian Levine, 561-438-2895 blevine@officedepot.com

KEYWORD: FLORIDA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: RETAIL INTERNET E-COMMERCE MANAGEMENT CHANGES SOURCE: Office Depot

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