US WIRELESS ONLINE, INC.
OTCBB: UWRL
745 West Main Street, Suite 100
Louisville, KY 40202
(502) 213-3700
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For Immediate Release
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US WIRELESS ONLINE, INC. ANNOUNCES
NEW DIRECTORS AND EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT TEAM
SENIOR OFFICERS ADD INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE TO BOARD OF DIRECTORS
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (May 19, 2003) U.S. Wireless Online, Inc. (OTCBB: UWRL)
(website: www.uswo.net and www.uswirelessonline.com), today announced the
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appointment of three new members to its Board of Directors.
L. Douglas Keeney, Chief Executive Officer, who was recently elected Chairman of
the License Exempt Alliance and is a Director of the Wireless Communications
Association in Washington, DC, has joined the Company's Board of Directors,
along with Daniel Burke, Sr., the Company's President and Chief Financial
Officer and James D. Murphy, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Afterburner,
Inc.. David Ragland, Chairman and a co-founder of U.S. Wireless Online, Inc.,
completes the senior management team and oversees M&A activity, while co-founder
David Hayes will continue to direct the Company's Technology Advisory Board.
L. DOUGLAS KEENEY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, DIRECTOR. Mr. Keeney has been
involved in marketing and management since 1976. He is a former Vice President
of Benton & Bowles and Young & Rubicam and was the founder and CEO of several
successful start-up companies in the information technology field, including
Avion Park and Gateway America. Mr. Keeney worked for fifteen years in
marketing and advertising in Los Angeles, New York and brand management with a
subsidiary of British-American Tobacco. He was nominated to and attended the
Institute for Advanced Advertising Studies (NYC) and nominated for Entrepreneur
of the Year by both the University of Southern California and Arthur Young. For
the past seven years, Keeney has been the CEO of Avion Park, LLC, which
publishes and produces digitally based television and written content, and of
Gateway America, a content provider to MSN: The Microsoft Network. After selling
Avion Park, Mr. Keeney joined the Company and was appointed Chief Executive
Officer in December 2000. He also serves on the Board of Advisors of
Afterburner, Inc., an INC 500 company; and is a cofounder of PostToSell, LLC, a
provider to eBay. He is Chairman of the License Exempt Alliance and a director
of the Wireless Communications Association, holds one patent and is a published
author of business books and military histories with Simon & Schuster and
HarperCollins. Mr. Keeney has a BA in Economics from the University of Southern
California (USC) and an MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business.
DANIEL BURKE, SR., PRESIDENT AND CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, DIRECTOR. Mr. Burke
has been primarily involved in the energy industry since 1980, where he
developed a number of successful companies, including Commonwealth Energy
Services, which was sold to Sempra Energy (formerly San Diego Gas & Electric).
Mr. Burke most recently served as Chief Operating Officer of MxEnergy, a
residential energy marketing company that he co-founded in 1999. MxEnergy
serves 175,000 customers in six eastern states. He successfully launched his
company's marketing program in the nation's first deregulated natural gas
market. Mr. Burke has served in a number of executive positions involving
finance, accounting, administration, and employee benefits. He is a graduate
of the University of Louisville, with degrees in Accounting and English, and has
completed post-graduate courses at the University Of Louisville School Of Law.
DAVID RAGLAND, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD. Mr. Ragland has served as the CFO and
COO at several successful start-up and emerging growth companies during the past
decade. As CFO for Allied Foods, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia from 1991-1994, he
managed the financial turnaround of the $30 million dollar pet food
manufacturing company and was involved in labor union negotiations, information
systems management, and investor relations. Mr. Ragland participated in the
sale of the company after the financial turnaround was complete. A certified
public accountant, he began his career in accounting and finance with Ernst &
Young. Mr. Ragland received his Bachelor of Business Administration and Masters
in Accounting degrees from the University of Georgia. He is currently a member
of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Georgia
Society of Certified Public Accountants. Mr. Ragland was a co-founder of U.S.
Wireless Online, Inc.
DAVID HAYES, CHAIRMAN OF TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY BOARD AND FOUNDER. Mr. Hayes,
formerly the CEO of an Atlanta-based Linux consulting firm, co-founded US
Wireless Online, Inc. in 2000. He has extensive experience in design and
development of complex networking systems. As a senior architect for
Priceline.com, Mr. Hayes was instrumental in the development and deployment of
the Priceline.com E-Commerce business model. Prior thereto, he worked as a
network and systems engineer for Cabletron Systems, The United Nations, and
NASA.
JAMES D. MURPHY, DIRECTOR. Mr. Murphy is the founder and Chief Executive Officer
of Afterburner, Inc. an INC 500 management training company located in Atlanta,
Georgia. Since 1996 Afterburner has trained over 2.3 million executives and
middle managers of Fortune 500 companies in techniques to improve their
executional skills. A former military officer and F-15 Instructor Pilot in the
United States Air Force, Mr. Murphy brings to the company an extensive
background in sales management, and the independence of an outside director. Mr.
Murphy received his undergraduate degree at the University of Kentucky, is a
member of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization, was ranked as one of Atlanta's
Top 50 Entrepreneurs by Catalyst Magazine, and is the author of Business is
Combat.
U.S. Wireless Online is a provider of wireless "last mile" high-speed Internet
access (a wireless connection from a major trunk line to a business or
residential user) in the rapidly growing industry called variously "wireless
broadband", "802.11", "Wi-Fi", or "wireless local loop (WLL)". U.S. Wireless
Online, based in Louisville, Kentucky, owns and operates wireless metro-area
networks in Kentucky, Georgia, Ohio and Indiana. Offering residential and
business service, approximately 24,000 users access the Internet with high-speed
connections through the Company's more than 500 enterprise customers.
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, which are made
pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Expressions of future goals and similar expressions
reflecting something other than historical fact are intended to identify
forward-looking statements, but are not the exclusive means of identifying such
statements. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those
currently anticipated. Factors that could cause or contribute to such
differences include, but are not limited to, market acceptance of products and
technologies, competitive factors, the Company's ability to continue to secure
sources of financing and other factors described in the Company's filings with
Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligations to
revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or
circumstances that may arise after the date of this press release.
For more information please visit the Company's website at
www.uswirelessonline.com or contact
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Doug Keeney, CEO at (502) 213-3700