Daniel O'Brien Named CFO of Hawaiian Telcom, Executive Has 25 Years of Financial Management and Reporting Experience

Honolulu, HI – Hawaiian Telcom today named Daniel P. O’Brien its Chief Financial Officer. Mr. O’Brien comes to Hawaiian Telcom from his most recent position with Global Crossing where he was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. O’Brien will begin his duties on May 9, 2005 and will be based in Honolulu. The Carlyle Group’s purchase of Verizon Hawaii, renamed Hawaiian Telcom, is expected to close in early May.

Michael Ruley, Chief Executive Officer of Hawaiian Telcom, said, "We are quite pleased Dan will be a member of Hawaiian Telcom’s senior management team. He has the perfect mix of experience, integrity, skills and temperament to succeed in this critical position."

Mr. O’Brien said, "This is a rare opportunity to help create a state of the art telephone company. My team and I will develop and implement the financial systems and reporting structures that will ensure Hawaiian Telcom is a highly efficient provider of services and model of financial integrity. I look forward to serving our investors, our employees and the people of Hawaii."

As CFO, Mr. O’Brien will oversee all of Hawaiian Telcom’s financial operations, including treasury, financial analysis and reporting, corporate and regulatory accounting, tax and investor relations. He will be a member of the senior management team, helping to develop and execute Hawaiian Telcom’s strategic plan.

Mr. O’Brien served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Global Crossing from 2003 to 2005. In that capacity, he led the financial team through intensive external audits and SEC filings and managed shareholder and creditor relations resulting in the company’s public listing with NASDAQ in 2004. He also established or strengthened several financial functions (treasury, internal audit, M&Amp;A financial support and investor relations) for effective management of Global Crossing as a public company.

From 2000 to 2003, Mr. O’Brien was the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Genuity Corporation, a public company established with the formation of Verizon in 2000. He was the executive lead for the initial public offering that raised $2 billion under difficult capital market conditions in June 2000 and facilitated the company’s sale to Level 3 Communications in early 2003.

Prior to Genuity, Mr. O’Brien spent 17 years in various roles at GTE Corporation. From May 1998 to June 2000, he was GTE’s executive vice president and chief financial officer. In that capacity, Mr. O’Brien was centrally involved in the strategic evaluations and the integration and structuring activities leading to the merger of GTE and Bell Atlantic, which formed Verizon. Before joining GTE in a corporate capacity, Mr. O’Brien held several positions with the Electrical Products Group of GTE, including vice president and controller of GTE European Lighting in Geneva, Switzerland. Before joining GTE, Mr. O’Brien served in various financial and management capacities in the manufacturing and chemical industries.

Mr. O’Brien, 50, earned his BS in chemistry from Boston College and his MBA with concentrations in finance and accounting from the University of Chicago.