Lorraine Chickering to Leave Bell Atlantic

Lorraine Chickering to Leave Bell Atlantic

Led Payphone Business Through Merger, Deregulation

9 de noviembre de 1999

NEW YORK -- Lorraine Chickering, president of Bell Atlantic Public
Communications, has announced that she will leave the company to
pursue other interests.

Chickering, a veteran leader of both the payphone and operator services
enterprises at Bell Atlantic, has aggressively positioned the payphone line
of business to compete in an increasingly competitive market.

"Under Lorraine's leadership, our payphone business has maintained
its market leadership position in the face of enormous competition and the
challenges of deregulation," said Regina Novotny, Bell Atlantic
group president-General Business. "Her strong leadership skills
resulted in the smooth transition from two payphone organizations when
Bell Atlantic and NYNEX merged into a unified, powerful market
competitor. She will be missed."

In 1989 Chickering became the first female executive of Bell Atlantic to
hold an executive operations position and was the first woman to be
appointed president of a line of business.

Chickering holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Harvard
University. She joined Bell Atlantic's directory business in 1984 and held
a number of marketing and operations positions before being named vice
president-quality in 1993. Later that year, she was appointed president-
public and operator services and has led the payphone line of business
since the Bell Atlantic/NYNEX merger in 1997.

Bell Atlantic is at the forefront of the new communications and
information industry. With more than 43 million telephone access lines
and more than 10 million wireless customers worldwide, Bell Atlantic
companies are premier providers of advanced wireline voice and data
services, market leaders in wireless services and the world's largest
publishers of directory information. Bell Atlantic companies are also
among the world's largest investors in high-growth global communications
markets, with operations and investments in 23 countries.