LEVEL 3 (LVLT)

[expat7]

President & COO Kevin O'Hara to Step Down; Sunit Patel to Remain CFO
March 10, 2008: 08:00 AM EST

BROOMFIELD, Colo., March 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Level 3 Communications, Inc. announced today that Kevin O'Hara is stepping down as the company's president and chief operating officer, effective immediately. The company also announced that Sunit Patel, the company's current chief financial officer, will continue in the role of CFO. The company has terminated its previously disclosed search for a new CFO.

"Kevin O'Hara has worked closely with me for more than 20 years and this was obviously a difficult decision for both of us," said Jim Crowe, chief executive officer of Level 3. "Kevin is one of the founders of our company and has made enormous contributions to its success. I want to personally thank him for his professionalism and commitment to our company over the many years we've been together. At this time, however, Kevin and I have agreed that a different perspective will be of benefit to our company."

Neil Hobbs, currently executive vice president, sales and network services, has been appointed to the newly created position of executive vice president, operations. Mr. Hobbs and Mr. Crowe will be assuming Mr. O'Hara's responsibilities going forward. Mr. Crowe will assume the additional title of president.

"I have worked closely with Neil Hobbs for several years and particularly closely over the last few months as we have worked to address our service activation and service management challenges," said Mr. Crowe. "I have great confidence that Neil will continue to provide the leadership that has already shown significant positive results in the early part of this year.

"In October, we announced that we were beginning a search for a new CFO. At the same time, we began implementing internal organizational changes aimed at both retaining Sunit Patel and bolstering our financial operational capabilities. During the search process, it became clear that the company would be best served by Sunit remaining CFO. I am particularly pleased that our company will continue to benefit from Sunit's broadly recognized leadership and strategic financial thinking. He is a gifted, financial executive with a deep knowledge of and commitment to the company."

As part of the internal finance organization changes, the company appointed Neel Dev to the new position of senior vice president, finance with responsibility for financial planning, budgeting and analysis for operations and the company's customer facing market groups. Mr. Dev has years of experience in finance and operations, and in his new role will report to Mr. Patel.

"Over the last several months, we have said that our company's primary goals for 2008 are to increase sales and service installation rates and to achieve sustainable, positive free cash flow as soon as reasonably possible," said Mr. Crowe. "We have already made real progress toward achieving these important objectives. I expect that the organizational changes we are announcing today will further contribute to the improvements we have already realized."
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/CLM05910032008-1.htm