SurgePays Promotes Derron Winfrey to President, Sales and Operations

Veteran Operator to Lead Growth Initiatives Across Core Services

BARTLETT, Tenn., April 23, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SurgePays, Inc. (Nasdaq: SURG) ("SurgePays" or the "Company"), a leading technology and wireless telecommunications company, today announced the promotion of Derron Winfrey to the role of President, Sales and Operations.

Winfrey will oversee SurgePays' expanding sales organization with a focus on scaling the Company's core offerings: LinkUp Mobile prepaid wireless service, prepaid top-ups and financial services, federal Lifeline programs, and the Clearline marketing and customer engagement platform. He will also lead the operational buildout of the Company's new sales center in El Salvador and drive enhancements to customer onboarding and experience by leveraging data intelligence across the organization. 

A fintech and wireless industry pioneer with over 25 years of experience, Winfrey joined SurgePays through its 2019 acquisition of ECS Prepaid, a company he founded. Since then, he has helped transform SurgePays' go-to-market strategy, building out the prepaid business platform, scaling the ISO channel, and preparing the Company's LinkUp Mobile MVNO for direct market launch with AT&T.

"Derron has been an intrapreneur on steroids for SurgePays," said Brian Cox, Chairman and CEO of SurgePays. "He's been instrumental in expanding our sales team, strengthening our ISO partnerships and positioning SurgePays for our next wave of growth. With him fully focused on sales and operations, we are raising the bar even higher for execution, scale and shareholder value creation."

Winfrey's leadership philosophy centers on investing in people and building high-performing teams.

"Simply put, I believe it's critical to take care of the people who take care of the people. We expect a great deal from the SurgePays team, all of whom are highly motivated, results-oriented professionals built to win – and win now," said Winfrey. "Indeed, it takes a special team to launch and expand market share with multiple product lines simultaneously. We have that exceptional team in place; watch them go as we hit the market running with our LinkUp Mobile direct MVNO, nationwide Lifeline service and top-up platform services – all supported by our Clearline POS services." 

Prior to joining SurgePays, Winfrey was president of Electronic Check Services (ECS), a company offering merchants and ISO channel partners a full suite of check processing services. He also founded and served as president of ECS Prepaid, a business providing prepaid cellular phone reloads, bill payments, gift cards and loyalty programs. To power the processing of ECS Prepaid, Mr. Winfrey created the concept and helped launch Softgate Systems, a fintech product processing company, in 2007, where he served as president until 2009. During that time, Softgate grew in volume by nearly 110% by providing processing services for 12 other companies in addition to both ECS and ECS Prepaid. Softgate Systems was acquired in 2009 by In Person Payments (IPP).

In 2011, under Winfrey's leadership, ECS Prepaid earned several honors, including ranking 69 in Inc. Magazine's List of Fastest Growing Companies in North America and being named the Fastest Growing Company in Southwest Missouri by the Springfield Business Journal. He served for six years on the Petroleum Marketers Advisory Council, including two years as vice president and two years as president, for a four-state Midwest region creating market concepts for the Midwest convenience store industry. In 2012, Winfrey was named top entrepreneur business person in Springfield, Mo. by the Springfield Business Journal. He is a member of the Springfield Business Journal's 40 Under 40 Class of 2009 and has been honored in the publication's list of 12 People You Should Know and Top 12 Businesspeople in Southwest Missouri.

Born in Oklahoma City, Okla., Winfrey earned his bachelor's degree in communications at Wichita State University. He resides in Springfield with his wife, Paula. He enjoys cheering for the Kansas State University football team and spends quality time with his three children and six grandchildren.

For more information on SurgePays, please visit the Company's investor relations website at ir.surgepays.com.

About SurgePays, Inc.

SurgePays, Inc. is a wireless and point-of-sale (POS) technology company. SurgePays operates a unique ecosystem that blends prepaid wireless, government-subsidized mobile plans, and a point-of-sale software platform used in thousands of community retail stores. SurgePays is a platform — built for stores in underserved communities, built to scale, and built for growth. Please visit www.SurgePays.com for more information.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes express or implied statements that are not historical facts and are considered forward-looking within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act. Forward-looking statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or our future financial or operating performance and may contain projections of our future results of operations or of our financial information or state other forward-looking information. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: "may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "project," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," "attempting," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words.

Although we believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, these statements relate to future events or our future operational or financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements including but not limited to our ability to maintain a strong balance sheet and our ability to execute our business plan. Furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by a variety of risks and factors that are beyond our control, including, without limitation, statements about our future financial performance, including our revenue, cash flows, costs of revenue and operating expenses; our anticipated growth; and our predictions about our industry. These include, but are not limited to, our ability to scale our prepaid wireless business, transition ACP subscribers to Lifeline, maintain our MVNE partnerships, and achieve financial targets. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024. The forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update, and expressly disclaim the obligation to update, any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

SOURCE SurgePays