CORAL GABLES, Fla., Dec. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MasTec, Inc. (NYSE: MTZ) today announced that it has appointed Robert E. Apple as its Chief Operating Officer. He will be responsible for all MasTec's operations and report to the Chief Executive Officer.

Since 2005, Robert E. Apple has served as group president for MasTec's Energy services operation. Under his leadership at MasTec, the Energy Group had double-digit growth in both revenue and earnings.

Mr. Apple has over 20 years of operational and management experience in commercial, technical and service-based corporations. Prior to joining MasTec in February of 2005, Mr. Apple served in several senior executive positions with Hughes Electronics and DIRECTV, including Senior Vice President of DIRECTV's Home Services, Supply Chain and Denver Operations and as Chief Operating Officer of Via Digital-Spain, a Spanish joint venture between Telefonica S.A., DIRECTV Latin America and several media corporations.

Mr. Apple is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, served as a Lieutenant Colonel Naval Aviator in the United States Marine Corps and was a Navy "Top Gun" and Weapon Tactics Instructor School graduate.

Jose Mas, MasTec's Vice Chairman and Executive Vice President-Business Development, who was recently appointed to succeed Austin Shanfelter as President and CEO, stated, "We are very fortunate to have Bob Apple in this role of increased responsibility at MasTec. His turnaround in the Company's Energy Group speaks well of his managerial and operational talents. In his new role, he will be responsible for helping MasTec achieve its goals of increasing margins, growing revenue and improving overall operations execution. I am excited to have him on our executive management team."

MasTec [http://www.mastec.com] is a leading specialty contractor operating throughout the United States and in Canada across a range of industries. The Company's core activities are the building, installation, maintenance and upgrade of communication and utility infrastructure systems.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, including that our revenue and earnings per share may differ from that projected, that we may be impacted by business and economic conditions affecting our customers, material changes in estimates for legal costs or case settlements, the highly competitive nature of our industry, dependence on a limited number of customers, the adequacy of our insurance and other reserves and allowances for doubtful accounts, restrictions imposed by our credit facility and senior notes, the closing of the discontinued state DOT assets and projects sale on the anticipated terms and timing, as well as other risks detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ significantly from results expressed or implied in these statements. We do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements.

SOURCE MasTec, Inc.

CONTACT: J. Marc Lewis, Vice President, Investor Relations of MasTec, Inc., +1-305-406-1815, or fax +1-305-406-1886, or marc.lewis@mastec.com