Capstone Turbine Corporation Names Robert C. Gleason as Senior Vice President, Program Management

CHATSWORTH, Calif., March 28, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Capstone Turbine Corporation (www.capstoneturbine.com) (Nasdaq:CPST), the world's leading clean technology manufacturer of microturbine energy systems, today announced that it has named Robert C. Gleason to the position of Senior Vice President, Program Management effective April 6, 2011.

Darren Jamison, Capstone's President and Chief Executive Officer, announced the creation of the new position during the Company's February earnings call. Capstone created the new position to ensure the timely execution of the Company's critical cost reduction programs, reliability improvement initiatives and Department of Energy (DOE) programs.

The Company currently has three major new product development efforts underway: one for a Flexible Fuel microturbine to run on agricultural syngas, one for an externally fired solar powered microturbine and another to increase the output of the C200 microturbine to 250kW and utilize the new C250 as part of a new multistage high efficiency C370 product.

"Rob is a great addition to the Capstone Leadership Team and brings a wealth of experience and solid accomplishments in leading high tech program management organizations," stated Mr. Jamison. "Rob will be able to immediately contribute to the organization by prioritizing and driving all of our critical programs and ensuring their successful completion and on-time performance."

Prior to joining Capstone, Mr. Gleason spent more than 17 years in program management, project engineering and business development in high technology companies. Most recently, he worked for Parker Hannifin Corporation in Irvine, California and Kalamazoo, Michigan where he held management positions at several divisions and introduced the first Program Management Office within Parker Aerospace. Prior to joining Parker, he was a project engineer for Aero-Motive Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Mr. Gleason holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Western Michigan University and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP)® from the Project Management Institute.

In addition to the other terms of his employment arrangement with Capstone, Mr. Gleason will receive a grant of equity securities effective upon the date of commencement of his employment. Mr. Gleason will receive options to purchase 250,000 shares of the common stock of the Company. Conditioned on his continued employment, the options will vest 25% after one year and, thereafter, will vest pro rata each month over the next 36 months. The exercise price of the options granted to Mr. Gleason will be the fair market value of Capstone's common stock on the date of the grant, which is expected to be the closing price per share as reported on the Nasdaq Global Market on April 6, 2011. The options expire 10 years from the date of grant. Mr. Gleason will also receive a grant of 62,500 restricted stock units (RSUs) that vest 25% after each of the first four years of service. 

About Capstone Turbine Corporation

Capstone Turbine Corporation (www.capstoneturbine.com) (Nasdaq:CPST) is the world's leading producer of low-emission microturbine systems, and was the first to market commercially viable microturbine energy products. Capstone Turbine has shipped over 5,000 Capstone MicroTurbine(R) systems to customers worldwide. These award-winning systems have logged millions of documented runtime operating hours. Capstone Turbine is a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Combined Heat and Power Partnership, which is committed to improving the efficiency of the nation's energy infrastructure and reducing emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases. A UL-Certified ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 certified company, Capstone is headquartered in the Los Angeles area with sales and/or service centers in the New York Metro Area, Mexico City, Nottingham, Shanghai and Singapore.

The Capstone Turbine Corporation logo is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=6212

This press release contains "forward-looking statements," as that term is used in the federal securities laws, about the success of our new Senior Vice President, Program Management and the timely execution of the Company's critical cost reduction programs, reliability improvement initiatives and DOE programs. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as "expects," "objective," "intend," "targeted," "plan" and similar phrases. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties described in Capstone's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that may cause Capstone's actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied in such statements. Capstone cautions readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. Capstone undertakes no obligation, and specifically disclaims any obligation, to release any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

"Capstone Turbine Corporation" and "Capstone MicroTurbine" are registered trademarks of Capstone Turbine Corporation. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Capstone Turbine Corporation
         Investor and Investment Media Inquiries:
         818-407-3628
         ir@capstoneturbine.com

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Released March 28, 2011