Verizon Wireless Names Six Leaders For New Lincoln, Nebraska, Customer Service Center

LINCOLN, NE — Verizon Wireless, the company with the most customers of any wireless brand, announced today it has named six leaders for its new Customer Service Center, scheduled to open in Lincoln in late 2007. Previously the company announced Bonnie A. Edwards as director of the center.

Edwards named three leadership team members as associate directors: Tonda L. Gibson, Virginia Kelsey-Wood and Christopher Shepherd. Gibson has worked for Allstate in Lincoln since 1999 in several positions including customer service and most recently as a senior manager of a team of employees in Life Inforce Processing. Gibson is a Nebraska native and earned a bachelor's degree from Doane College in Lincoln.

Kelsey-Wood has been with Verizon Wireless for eight years, most recently as associate director for customer service at the company's Chandler, Ariz., center. Shepherd joined Verizon Wireless in 2003 and most recently served as supervisor for new hire transition at the Murfreesboro, Tenn., Verizon Wireless Customer Service Center.

Karen Opp has been named human resources manager for the Customer Service Center. Most recently Opp has served as a human resources consultant and has been with Verizon Wireless since 1997 in the Florida region, based in Jacksonville. A native of Wood River, Neb., she earned a bachelors degree from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

Sharon Valentine has been named manager of information technology for the Lincoln Customer Service Center. Valentine has held a variety of management positions in technology, most recently as a senior project manager at Kaiser Permanente in Denver.

Steven Sherrill has been named senior technical analyst. Sherrill has worked for the state of Nebraska since 1998, most recently as senior network analyst for the Department of Administrative Service, Office of CIO.

"We are in the process of screening applicants and conducting interviews for customer service supervisor positions," said Edwards. "We will be conducting a job fair in the coming months to recruit applicants for our first class of 75 customer service representatives."

Edwards says the company plans to hire approximately 280 employees by the opening of the center this year and will continue hiring new staff over the next two years for an employee base of 800 when the center is fully staffed.

Applications can be submitted online at www.verizonwireless.com/careers or by stopping by the Verizon Wireless Communications Store in Gateway Mall.

About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless operates the nation's most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving 60.7 million customers. The largest U.S. wireless company and largest wireless data provider, based on revenues, Verizon Wireless is headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 66,000 employees nationwide. The company is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). Find more information on the Web at www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

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