Company: NII Holdings, Inc.
Company Description: NII Holdings, Inc. is a leading provider of mobile communications for business customers in Latin America. NII Holdings, Inc. has operations in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Peru, offering a fully integrated wireless communications tool with digital cellular service, text/numeric paging, wireless Internet access and Nextel Direct Connect®, a digital two-way radio feature.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Finance Executive

Nomination Title: Byron Siliezar, CFO

Tell the story about what this nominee achieved in the past year (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:

                            “The Value of Great Leadership”

The vision, commitment to results and innovative financial processes designed and
implemented by Byron Siliezar, NII Holdings Chief Financial Officer, have had a
profound impact on the company’s successful financial performance. Since his
tenure began in January 1999, the company’s customer base has increased to
more than 1.4 million subscribers and its annual revenues have grown to more
than US$700 million.

Under Siliezar’s leadership, NII has been able to prove that its technology, product
differentiation and business plan provide an outstanding ROI to the company’s
stakeholders.  A remarkable turn-around story, NII has been one of the strongest
performers in the telecommunications industry on all key measures. In fact, the
company became profitable during the 1Q 2003, and has seen a $440MM swing
during the first six months of 2003. NII’s stock has increased over 12 times since
it initially began trading during November 2002.

Beyond strong financial metrics, Siliezar has consistently demonstrated his
business savvy by assuring that the company benefits from a strong cash position
and a healthy debt level.  During 2001, the Latin American region was undergoing
a serious economic downturn and sources of capital were scarce.  Along with the
rest of the company’s leadership team, Siliezar played a key role in the process of
objectively assessing NII’s alternatives and deciding to seek protection from the
US Bankruptcy Court. This, in turn, allowed the company to reorganize its debt
and regain the ability to execute its business plan.
 
Siliezar’s vision and negotiation skills were pivotal for NII to secure an approved
Reorganization Plan which resulted in an 83% debt reduction and $190 million in
additional capital.  More recently, he planned and executed an equity offering,
which brought NII’s overall net debt to cash flow ratio down to .3x.

Since, Siliezar’s priority has been to steadily establish a strong cash position
crucial to furthering the solid growth of the company.  He has secured an
exceptionally low “bad debt” measurement (approximately 1%) in the volatile Latin
American market while meeting sales targets and revenue generation goals.
Siliezar is also charged with ensuring that current and potential investors learn the
company’s story and understand its sound business plan.  He was responsible for
establishing a top level investor relations program to attract institutional investors. 
As a result of this program:
- the company was added to the Russell 2000 market index on July 1st
- Morgan Stanley has given the company an overweight rating with a
price target of US$77.00 per share
- Legg Mason has included the company in its select list with a target
price of $82, indicating that NII Holdings offers investors a better competitive
dynamic, no WLNP exposure, and lower addressable market penetration than in
the U.S. wireless market

Furthermore, Siliezar serves the function of ensuring that the NII executive team
understands the importance of financial communications and of dealing with Wall
Street. 

Siliezar’s contributions to NII Holdings’ success are evident, and without a doubt,
his performance and leadership have been key to NII Holdings’ turnaround.

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]:

                                    Making Headlines in 2003

The media coverage highlighted below provides a snapshot of Byron Siliezar’s
vision and leadership, as well as of the company’s success in becoming
financially solid company and an extraordinary value to its stakeholders, including
clients, stockholders and employees.

• Nextel Latin America Offspring Pushes Cross-Border Plan, Dow Jones
Newswires, October 29, 2003
• Coming out of the freezer: memories are receding of the chill that iced
over the Latin American capital markets, LatinFinance, October 2003
• Q&A, Byron Siliezar, CFO NII Holdings, Inc., Business News
Americas, August 14, 2003
• NII Ups Growth Outlook For Latin American Wireless Ops, Dow Jones
International News, Dow Jones, July 30, 2003
• SuperModels: Would You Buy This Stock, Modelman?, June 5, 2003
• NII Holdings reports steady growth for 1Q03, Business News Americas,
April 30, 2003
• NII Posts Higher Sales Amid Restructuring: Reston Wireless Carrier
Filed for Chapter 11 in May, Exited in November, The Washington Post, February
13, 2003

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about this nominee:

                                        Byron R. Siliezar
                   Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Byron R. Siliezar has been NII Holding’s Chief Financial Officer since January,
1999.  Mr. Siliezar was NII’s first Vice President and Controller joining the Company in June 1998 in anticipation of the Company’s launch of its all digital wireless network throughout markets in Latin America and Asia.

Mr. Siliezar has more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications
industry.  Prior to joining NII Holdings, (formerly  Nextel International), Mr. Siliezar was Vice President of Finance at Centrobe (formerly Neodata), a subsidiary of
EDS Corporation based in Boulder, Colorado, with operations in the U.S.,  UK,
Asia and Latin America.  Previously, he has held executive positions at GTE
Corporation and Pagenet Inc. in the U.S. and abroad.  His international experience
includes start-up, development and integration of various international ventures with
telecommunications companies in Spain, Canada, Brazil and Argentina,
Venezuela and China. 

Mr. Siliezar is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles where he
received two master degrees, an MBA with an emphasis in Corporate Finance and
Accounting and a Master of Architecture and Urban Planning.  He received his
undergraduate degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara.