AT&T appointed John Stankey as president and chief operating officer of AT&T Inc., reporting to Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO. Stankey will also continue serving as CEO of WarnerMedia. Stankey, 56, joined AT&T in 1985 and has served in a variety of leadership roles, including corporate strategy and M&A; media and entertainment; operations, IT and technology; consumer mobility, broadband and TV; and enterprise business.
Jeff McElfresh was appointed CEO of AT&T Communications, the company’s largest business unit serving 100 million mobile, broadband and pay-TV customers in the U.S. McElfresh, 48, has nearly 25 years of experience with AT&T in a variety of strategic, operational and technology leadership roles. Before being named to lead AT&T Communications, McElfresh was president of AT&T Communications’ Technology and Operations group where he was responsible for the company’s network, technology, cybersecurity, data and labs operations. Prior to that, he served as CEO of AT&T’s Vrio and its DIRECTV Latin America and SKY Brasil businesses; and President of AT&T Mexico and a member of the board of directors and executive committee of Telmex and América Móvil, overseeing AT&T’s since-divested minority interest in the two companies.He replaces John Donovan, who earlier announced his retirement.
“Now is the time to more tightly align our collection of world-class content, scaled consumer relationships, technical know-how and innovative advertising technology,” said Stephenson. “It’s the natural next step in bringing together the distinct and complimentary capabilities of AT&T Communications, WarnerMedia and Xandr to deliver for consumers the benefits of a modern media company. AT&T is alone in the industry in being able to bring together these three great businesses for the launch of innovative consumer offers, relevant advertising and new entertainment services like HBO Max.”
