Goodyear Directors Re-elected, Dividend Declared

AKRON, Ohio, April 15 Shareholders of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company today re-elected Sam G. Gibara, William J. Hudson Jr., and Martin D. Walker to three-year terms on the company's board of directors.

Gibara is Goodyear's chairman of the board and chief executive officer. Hudson is the retired president and chief executive officer of AMP Inc. Walker is the retired chairman of the board and chief executive officer of M.A. Hanna Co.

The eight continuing directors are:

Steven A. Minter, Agnar Pytte, Kathryn D. Wriston and James M. Zimmerman, whose terms expire at the 2003 annual meeting. John G. Breen, Edward T. Fogarty, Robert J. Keegan and Philip A. Laskawy, whose terms expire at the 2004 annual meeting. Directors William E. Butler and Thomas H. Cruikshank retired from the board today.

Shareholders also approved the re-appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent accountants for 2002 and a proposal to adopt the company's 2002 Performance Plan.

A proposal requesting that the board take steps to establish annual elections of all directors passed. A proposal to redeem the company's Shareholder Rights Plan was defeated.

The board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of 12 cents a share. The dividend is payable June 17, to shareholders of record May 15. The payout represents an annual rate of 48 cents per share.

The board also re-elected all Goodyear officers for the coming year.

Goodyear is the world's largest tire company. Headquartered in Akron, Ohio, the company manufactures tires, engineered rubber products and chemicals in more than 90 facilities in 28 countries. It has marketing operations in almost every country around the world. Goodyear employs 95,000 people worldwide.