RYE, N.Y. -- (Business Wire)

The Gabelli Equity Trust Inc. (NYSE:GAB) appointed Mr. William F. Heitmann to the Board of Directors of the Fund.

Mr. Heitmann currently serves on The Board of Trustees of the GAMCO Natural Resources, Gold & Income Trust by Gabelli and the Gabelli SRI Green Fund, Inc. He most recently served as Senior Vice President of Finance at Verizon Communications, Inc. and was responsible for leading the Verizon Investment Management Corporation for which he also held the positions of President and Chief Investment Officer. During his thirty-nine year career at Verizon Communications and its predecessor companies, he served as Senior Vice President and Treasurer of Verizon Communications, Vice President of Asset Management, Treasurer of Bell Atlantic Corporation, and Vice President of Merger Implementation during the Bell Atlantic-NYNEX merger. Additionally, he served as Chairman of the Board for Verizon Capital Corporation, the Company’s financial subsidiary. In his leadership roles outside Verizon, Mr. Heitmann was a Director of DRS Technologies, formerly a NYSE listed Company, and Chair of its Audit Committee; a Director of the Pension Real Estate Association; and a member of the Committee for the Investment of Employee Benefit Assets, the Financial Executives Institute, the Pension Manager’s Advisory Committee of the NYSE, and the Investment Committee of the Neurological Society. Mr. Heitmann received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology and his Master’s of Business Administration from Rutgers University.

Gabelli Funds, LLC serves as the investment adviser to the aforementioned Gabelli Funds and is a wholly owned subsidiary of GAMCO Investors, Inc. (NYSE:GBL), which through its subsidiaries, manages assets of private advisory accounts (GAMCO Asset Management Inc.), mutual funds and closed-end funds (Gabelli Funds, LLC), and partnerships and offshore funds (Gabelli Securities, Inc.) and is known for its Private Market Value with a Catalyst^® style of investment. As of June 30, 2012, GAMCO Investors, Inc. had $35.7 billion in assets under management.

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Our disclosure and analysis in this press release contain some forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements give our current expectations or forecasts of future events. You can identify these statements because they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They use words such as "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "plan," "believe," and other words and terms of similar meaning. They also appear in any discussion of future operating or financial performance. In particular, these include statements relating to future actions, future performance of our products, expenses, the outcome of any legal proceedings, and financial results. Although we believe that we are basing our expectations and beliefs on reasonable assumptions within the bounds of what we currently know about our business and operations, there can be no assurance that our actual results will not differ materially from what we expect or believe. Some of the factors that could cause our actual results to differ from our expectations or beliefs include, without limitation: the adverse effect from a decline in the securities markets; a decline in the performance of our products; a general downturn in the economy; changes in government policy or regulation; changes in our ability to attract or retain key employees; and unforeseen costs and other effects related to legal proceedings or investigations of governmental and self-regulatory organizations. We also direct your attention to any more specific discussions of risk contained in our Form 10-K and other public filings. We are providing these statements as permitted by the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We do not undertake to update publicly any forward-looking statements if we subsequently learn that we are unlikely to achieve our expectations or if we receive any additional information relating to the subject matters of our forward-looking statements.

Contacts:

The Gabelli Equity Trust Inc.
Bruce N. Alpert / Agnes Mullady, 914-921-5070
or
For further information please visit
www.gabelli.com

Source: The Gabelli Equity Trust Inc.