AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson retiring in June

AppleInsider

AT&T chairman Randall Stephenson has announced that he is stepping down as CEO, and long-time executive John Stankey will take his place on July 1.

Outgoing AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson

Stephenson made the announcement himself at the company's annual meeting, held online on Friday morning. He will remain as Executive Chairman of the Board until January 2021, to "ensure a smooth leadership transition" according to the company.

In his place, the board of directors has elected AT&T President and Chief Operating Officer John Stankey as CEO, effective July 1. Stankey was named, following a five-month vetting and search process, according to AT&T Director Beth Mooney.

Stephenson retires after 13 years of service as AT&T Chairman and CEO, after a stint as the company's CEO. Stephenson was previously the COO of SBC, and was integrated into AT&T in the same role after SBC was acquired in 2005.

Under Stephenson's leadership, AT&T acquired DirecTV in 2015, and Time Warner in 2018.

"I congratulate John, and I look forward to partnering with him as the leadership team moves forward on our strategic initiatives while navigating the difficult economic and health challenges currently facing our country and the world," said Stephenson. "John has the right experiences and skills, and the unflinching determination every CEO needs to act on his convictions. He has a terrific leadership team onboard to ensure AT&T remains strong and continues to deliver for customers and shareholders for years to come."

Stankey joined AT&T in 1985. Stankey has served in a variety of roles at AT&T, including CEO of WarnerMedia, CEO of AT&T Entertainment Group, Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Technology Officer, CEO of AT&T Operations, and CEO of AT&T Business Solutions. He has been president and the company's chief operating officer since October 2019.

"I'm honored to be elected the next CEO of AT&T, a company with a rich history and a bright future," said Stankey. "My thanks go to Randall for his vision and outstanding leadership during a period of tremendous change and investment in the core capabilities needed to position AT&T well for the years ahead."

jeffythequick

Can he take a squadron of salesmen... err... product support people with him?

I left AT&T because each time I called for support, I was barraged by at least 4 propositions* for "increasing my satisfaction with ..." something that would take more money from my wallel.

*Not only the on hold suggestions, but the "hello, I'm Joe, I see you're having issues with getting phone calls at home.  Is this true?  Would you like to have HBO Go added to your account?"

"Yeah.  I'm having problems with having phone calls at home."

"So you'd like to have HBO Go added?"

"No"

"No, you're not having problems with phone calls at home?"

"Yes, I am having problems with phone calls at home."

"OK, I'll add HBO Go to your account, and transfer you to someone who can help!"

sounds of phone call being transferred and then disconnection.

Call back.

After listening to the phone menu that I must listen to, because "it has changed since the last call"
"Hello, this is Betty, I see that you don't want HBO Go, is this true?  Also Do you want to add Showtime to your account?" 

ugh...

cornchip

jeffythequick said:

I left AT&T because each time I called for support, I was barraged by at least 4 propositions* for "increasing my satisfaction with ..." something that would take more money from my wallel.

Leaving AT&T was one of the best days of my life. Them and Comcast.

I can’t even describe how happy it makes me. 

ApplePoor

Can not wait to get a commercial Verizon compatible modem at my place and remove the $60 monthly charge for internet only by AT&T. I have unlimited data with Verizon. 

carthusia

An ATT rep intentionally and without my consent signed me up for their DirecTV service when I called for a phone upgrade. I literally said "No" a couple times. I was charged over $50 twice and spent hours on the phone to be removed rom the service and refunded my money. I read a story about that fraud several months later. It seems they were trying to juice their subscriber numbers and recoup some cash from that horrible DirecTV acquisition. Stevenson is out because he was a failure. Good riddance.

anantksundaram

Thoroughly useless CEO. 

lkrupp

AT&T is on the slow road to insolvency. And I say this as a former employee (retired with 34 years of service). They have never quite gotten over the idea that they are no longer a monopoly. They continue to act as though people have no choice but to do business with them. Since retiring I have lived with a 12mb/s DSL connection to the internet. Granted, I get a steep discount as a retiree but Spectrum offers 200mb/s service for a few dollars more. Meanwhile AT&T offers nothing else but DSL, no fiber, no u-verse, no nothing in my neighborhood. AT&T cherrypicks where they deploy their services, leaving entire communities without connections. They are desperately trying to kill off what’s left of the landline POTS business. Friends of mine who still work for them are telling me the company thinks their future is 5G for everything, mainly because it would drastically reduce the need for outside repairmen, linemen, and any outside infrastructure expenses. 

Will that ever come to pass? Who knows, they are constantly shifting gears trying to sense where the market is going. They are suffering tremendous subscriber losses in their Direct TV business. So what do they do? They feebly announce AT&T TV Now as a streaming service. Is AT&T TV Now an app for Apple TV or Roku? Nope. You have to use their proprietary set-top box with bundled internet service. They are trying to fool you into thinking your are cutting the cord.

Finally, when I retired I had the option to take my pension as a monthly annuity or as a lump sum for me to invest on my own. I chose the lump sum because I have no idea what the future holds for the company. If GM could go bankrupt and try to screw over their pensioners then so could AT&T. 

ApplePoor

Yes, their DSL service speed sucks in both Bloomington, IN and here on the east edge of Phoenix. When this subdivision was being built in 2002, AT & T had hired a hit man for 5 million. to fire as many folks as possible. They thus lacked the necessary funds to pay for the DSL cards in the subdivision master phone boxes at the edge of the subdivision. The local cable company (actually AT&T hiding behind a shell name) made all of the internet connections. I needed an independent second ISP capability so tried their DSL and never got great service. We are still using AT& T (now called ClearLink until we get a new commercial 4G LTE modem for our phone service. That modem may also handle the streaming for the TV and we could cancel the cable company as well. 

the monk

Want to know how much of dunce this guy is? Read this from 2012:

“Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s chief executive, spoke about the state of the wireless industry at a conference this week, he shared some surprisingly frank comments about the iPhone. In particular, he said that he wished the company had never offered an unlimited data plan for the device and that he loses sleep over free texting services like Apple’s iMessage.”

Yes, Apple saved this company and made AT&T competitive against Verizon. Instead of being thankful, he whines that he couldn’t charge 25 cents per text message for their own SMS or that the company actually had to spend money to upgrade their infrastructure.

https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/att-randall-stephenson/?smid=tw-nytimesbits&seid=auto

SpamSandwich

He has done a terrible job at the company. Glad to see him go.

His replacement sounds just as bad. A no-vision insider.