Kathleen Ligocki Elected to Ashland Inc. Board

Kathleen Ligocki Elected to Ashland Inc. BoardCOVINGTON, Ky., July 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Kathleen Ligocki, 47, has been elected to the board of directors of Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH), according to James J. O'Brien, Ashland Inc. chairman and chief executive officer. Ligocki is president and chief executive officer of Tower Automotive, Inc., a post to which she was named in August 2003. The Ashland board now consists of 12 members, 11 of whom are outside directors. O'Brien is the sole inside director.

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Ligocki joined Tower Automotive from the Ford Motor Company, where she was serving as a corporate officer and vice-president, Ford Customer Service Division. During her five-year tenure at Ford she held positions including president and chief executive officer, Ford of Mexico; vice president, North American Marketing, while overseeing Ford's Canadian, Mexican and export operations; and director of business strategy.

From 1996 to 1998, Ligocki worked for United Technologies Automotive, a division of United Technologies Corporation (UTC), as vice president, strategy and worldwide sales, and as vice president and general manager, Motors Systems Division. Prior experience at UTC included an assignment at Carrier Corporation's European Transcontinental Operations as director, manufacturing and purchasing, for operations in Western Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Russia. She also served from 1979 to 1994 at Delco Electronics, a division of General Motors, in various manufacturing, engineering, sales, finance and strategy positions. Before joining the corporate world, Ligocki worked for the government as a community development planner and was a teacher.

She holds a bachelor's degree in Liberal Studies from Indiana University, an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from Indiana University.

Ligocki strongly advocates women's leadership development as a frequent public speaker. She is a founding member of the Women's Leadership Forum, a teaching and charitable organization affiliated with the Women's Economic Club of Detroit, and is an executive board member for the Automotive Women's Association. She has received recognition by Automotive News to Detroit's Most Influential Women's list in 1997, again by Automotive News as one of the auto industry's top 100 women in 2000 and by Expansion as one of the most influential women in Mexico in 2001. She volunteers on the St. Vincent / Sarah Fisher Center Advisory Board.

Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH) is a Fortune 500 transportation construction, chemicals and petroleum company providing products, services and customer solutions throughout the world. To learn more about Ashland, visit http://www.ashland.com.

SOURCE  Ashland Inc.
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    (ASH)

CO:  Ashland Inc.
ST:  Kentucky
IN:  TRN OIL CST
SU:  PER

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"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Ashland's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report or Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year.