Leap Announces Changes to Leadership Group

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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.