SAN DIEGO, Nov. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Leap Wireless
International, Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP), today announced management
changes that underscore the Company's commitment to improved
business execution. The changes are intended to accelerate
operational improvements and better enable management to direct the
Company's long-term strategy in a time of industry transition.
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Jerry Elliott, who joined the
Company earlier this year, will bring considerable operational
experience to his new role as president and chief operating
officer, effective immediately. Mr. Elliott will assume
day-to-day operational management for the Company's field
operations, customer operations and supply chain functions.
In his new role, Mr. Elliott will continue to report to
S. Douglas Hutcheson, the Company's
chief executive officer.
In addition, Perley McBride has
been appointed as executive vice president and chief financial
officer, replacing Mr. Elliott in that role, and is expected to
start with the Company on December
10, 2012. Anne Liu, the
Company's former vice president and controller, has been appointed
senior vice president and chief accounting officer, effective
immediately.
"In elevating Jerry to the president and COO role, and
appointing Perley and Anne to their new roles, we are underscoring
our strong focus on and commitment to business improvement and
significantly better execution across all parts of our business at
a time of transition in our industry," said Hutcheson. "Jerry has
significant operational experience, having proven himself as a
strong leader with a fresh perspective for the work we have to do
to improve our performance. Perley brings a strong
operational and financial background to support the steps we are
taking to build improved execution, better results and stronger
cash flows. Anne has demonstrated her considerable skills and
experience during the past six years with us as we have
strengthened our finance and accounting functions. I'm
delighted to welcome them to our senior team."
Mr. Elliott joined Leap in May
2012 and has nearly 25 years of financial and operational
experience with both public and private companies. Prior to
joining Leap, Elliott served as chief financial officer and chief
administrative officer at The Weather Channel Companies. He
also has significant background in wireless and telecommunications,
having served as chief financial officer and later as president of
Frontier Communications, chief executive officer at Global Signal
and chief financial officer at Virgin Media.
Mr. McBride has served in financial leadership roles for the
past 18 years, most recently at The Weather Company where he served
as executive vice president of finance. In this capacity,
McBride provided strategic direction and leadership for accounting,
tax, treasury, procurement, real estate, facilities, financial
planning and analysis, operational and strategic planning, risk and
insurance, and corporate development functions. Prior to
that, McBride was the corporate vice president of financial
planning and analysis at Frontier Communications, where he was
responsible for all operating and strategic planning, financial
systems and reporting, decision support, pricing, and capital
management functions. Prior to Frontier, he held accounting
and finance positions at Sprint PCS and Citizens Communications.
McBride earned his B.S. from Mount Allison
University in Canada and
his M.B.A. from the University of
Houston.
Ms. Liu has nearly 30 years of accounting and finance
experience. She joined Leap in 2006 and has served as vice
president, controller since December
2008, having previously served as assistant
controller. Prior to joining the Company, Ms. Liu served in a
number of accounting and finance roles with Science Applications
International Corporation (SAIC) between March 1990 and November
2006, including as vice president of finance. From
1983 to 1990, Ms. Liu held various audit positions at Deloitte
(formerly Touche Ross). Ms.
Liu holds a B.A. in government from Pomona
College.
About Leap
Leap provides innovative, high-value wireless services to a
young and ethnically diverse customer base. With the value of
unlimited wireless services as the foundation of its business, Leap
pioneered its Cricket service. Cricket products and services are
available nationwide through company-owned stores, dealers,
national retailers and at MyCricket.com. Through its
affordable, flat-rate service plans, Cricket offers customers a
choice of unlimited voice, text, data and mobile Web services.
Headquartered in San Diego,
Calif., Leap is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market
under the ticker symbol "LEAP." For more information, please visit
www.leapwireless.com.
SOURCE Leap Wireless International, Inc.