Boost Mobile

Company: Boost Mobile, Irvine, CA
Company Description: Boost Mobile, a division of Sprint Nextel, offers wireless phones and services with no contracts or activation fees, and was named 2009 North American Prepaid Mobile Service of the Year by analyst firm Frost & Sullivan. Boost had a net add of 777,000 customers in 2Q09, the highest quarterly net adds reported by any US carrier since 2005.
Nomination Category: Management Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Turnaround Executive of the Year

Nomination Title: Matt Carter, President, Boost Mobile

1. Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since January 1 2009 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

As a struggling division of Sprint prior to January 2009, Boost Mobile clearly
needed new leadership. When Sprint CEO Dan Hesse appointed Matt Carter to lead
Boost, how did he know Carter would be the key to the company’s turnaround?

Joining Boost from within the Sprint family, Carter previously served as Senior
Vice President of base management where he drove coordinated marketing efforts
to the customer base. With 20 years of consumer tech and marketing experience,
Carter’s innovative strategies have often proven game-changing. For example,
when Carter worked at Coca-Cola and Sprite was losing share to 7-Up, Carter
coined the phrase, "Obey Your Thirst,” bringing the brand roaring back.

When Carter joined Boost in 2008, the company was losing relevancy and hundreds
of thousands of customers each quarter due to a limited target market (urban
youth), a mediocre portfolio of products and services and a negative stigma
associated with prepaid cell phones being low-end or for the credit-
challenged. Carter started shaking things up by motivating the Boost
leadership team to come up with a bold, new service offering that would disrupt
the industry and attract new subscribers. In addition, he knew Boost had to
reposition itself to appeal to a broader demographic mix of customers, not just
youth. Carter spearheaded a new focus on value-seeking consumers, thus
propelling a 180° transformation of the brand. Today, Boost is the fastest
growing prepaid wireless company in the U.S.

Under Carter’s leadership, fueling Boost’s comeback in 2009, was the January
22, 2009 launch of the innovative ‘Monthly Unlimited’ plan with no hidden fees.
It was the first nationwide flat-rate offer with unlimited talk, text, Web and
Walkie-Talkie for only $50, and it indeed disrupted the wireless industry.
Since the launch, there have been multiple copycat plans in attempt to mirror
Boost’s success, but none have come close to matching the true value at a
predictable price each month.

The proof of Carter’s turnaround is in the numbers. In less than one year,
Carter steered Boost from losing over 300K subscribers in 4Q08 to acquiring 2.1
million net customer additions in the first three quarters of 2009, expanding
its customer base by 60%. No other U.S. prepaid wireless carrier has added
that many customers in a full year since 2003.

Concerning Web traffic, Compete, a web-analytic company, reports that while
traffic at prepaid wireless sites is up 12% over last year overall, Boost’s
traffic is up 185%, most likely at the expense of AT&T and T-Mobile whose
prepaid traffic is down 18% and 12%, respectively.

With Carter at the helm, Boost delivered its best performance in three years
and showed the industry that prepaid is a growing segment. In fact, due to
Carter’s and Boost’s success, Sprint is making a huge investment in prepaid by
acquiring Virgin Mobile, a deal that is slated to close by end-November.

2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://www.fiercewireless.com/special-reports/25-matt-carter-most-powerful-people-wireless
http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/06/sprint-boost-mobile-technology-wireless- sprint.html
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10497460/boost-ready-to-build-on-big-quarter.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090506-715500.html
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/92248b9c-38c2-11de-8cfe-00144feabdc0.html
http://video.foxbusiness.com/3276921/pre-paid-phones-boost-sales/?category_id=851482b18175db860f8b08257ac49e1bdee3cd1e#
http://www.boostmobile.com/about/mediacenter/news_releases/050509_2009_North_America_Service_of_year.html

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:

As President of Boost Mobile, the no contract division of Sprint, Matt Carter
brings passion for leading consumer-focused organizations. Carter’s leadership
and telecom experience spans more than 20 years with such companies as Bristol
Myers, Coca-Cola, Leap Wireless and BellSouth. Recognized as a thought-leader
in the wireless industry, Carter lends his expertise at global telecom events
and is often recognized in the media for his leadership in the transformation
of Boost Mobile from a perceived non-threatening wireless player into a
formidable competitor. Carter holds a Bachelor’s degree from Northwestern
University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.