ANDERSEN CONSULTING CONSOLIDATES GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP UNDER LARRY R. LEVITAN; Communications Industry Group Expects Growth Rate to Exceed 50% in 1995

Business Wire, July 19, 1995

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 19, 1995--In a move designed to better serve the increasingly global communications industry, Andersen Consulting has consolidated worldwide operational responsibility for its Communications Industry Group under partner Larry R. Levitan, 54, who is based in Washington, D.C.

"The exploding communications marketplace demands a global practice that can serve clients internationally and deploy resources across geographic boundaries," said George T. Shaheen, Andersen Consulting's worldwide managing partner. "Andersen Consulting, alone of all the consultants serving this market, has the global resources and structure in place to bring that kind of service to bear on marketplace needs. Larry Levitan, who has had extensive involvement with global clients and initiatives, is the ideal person to lead the newly consolidated worldwide group."

The Communications Industry Group, with more than 3,000 consultants worldwide, serves a wide array of communications companies, including telecommunications carriers, cable TV companies, and wireless and satellite carriers. It provides a wide spectrum of services. The group works with its clients to transform business processes, to develop and implement customer care and network support solutions and to implement interactive broadband networks. The group serves most of the world's major carriers, including such companies as France Telecom, Belgacom, Telstra (formerly Telecom Australia), Bell Atlantic, Pacific Bell, NYNEX, Ameritech, U S WEST, and American Mobile Satellite Corporation.

"There is no other consulting firm that combines our breadth of business transformation skills with our worldwide geographic strength," said Levitan. "With our global practice, we will be able to quickly deploy people with highly specialized skills from one area of the world to the other. This is particularly critical, given our skills in the advanced technologies that are revolutionizing the marketplace today. It also differentiates us from the competition, who are typically tied to geographic service models that inhibit their ability to share resources around the world."

"Our practice, currently growing at well more than 50 percent this year, and our clients, will benefit from more globally focused planning and skill building initiatives," Levitan added.

"The principle is to think globally, act globally," Levitan explained. "In this new structure, there is every incentive for us to share resources across borders and build the highly specialized virtual teams required to address a particular client's needs, regardless of where the opportunity exists or where a particular experienced resource resides."

Shaheen also announced that Alan A. Burgess, who has led the Communications Industry Group for the last eight years, will continue to play a major role in building the newly centralized global practice. In the new organization, Burgess will have responsibility for the programs that support global lines of business, including customer care, network management, wireless and enterprise management.

"Al Burgess has built the Communications Industry Group into a global powerhouse," Shaheen said. "Under his leadership since 1987, revenues have grown from $18 million to approximately $500 million. Al's vision for the group has enabled it to achieve the critical mass and critical skills needed to advance this new global practice. I am personally delighted that Al will continue to help spearhead many of the firm's critical initiatives."

With the move, Levitan will join the Andersen Consulting Executive Committee. A member of the firm's Global Management Council, he has most recently served as managing partner of the firm's U.S. practice for communications and utilities.

Levitan has previously served Andersen Consulting and its clients in a number of leadership roles, including Managing Partner of the Northeast and Southeast regions of its Americas practice, overseeing the firm's professional development programs, and heading its Technical Services organization. Levitan graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in accounting. He is a frequent speaker on the impact of technology on the future of business.

Andersen Consulting is a $3.45 billion global management and technology consulting organization whose mission is to help its clients change to be more successful. The organization works with clients from a wide range of industries to link their people, processes and technologies to their strategies. Andersen Consulting has more than 32,000 people in 152 offices and 47 countries. -0-

Editor's note: Andersen Consulting is not a division of accounting firm Arthur Andersen.

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Jim Sloan

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