- AT&T has announced that John Stankey was named the president and COO of AT&T and Jeff McElfresh as CEO of AT&T Communications LLC effective October 1.
AT&T Chief Communications Officer Larry Solomon announced that John Stankey has been appointed to president and chief operating officer of AT&T effective October 1st. This is a new position reporting to AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson. Stankey will also continue serving as WarnerMedia CEO.
Plus AT&T also announced that it named AT&T executive Jeff McElfresh as CEO of AT&T Communications LLC effective October 1st. McElfresh will be succeeding John Donovan — who announced his retirement earlier.
As the head of AT&T’s largest business unit, McElfresh will be overseeing a global telecom leader serving 100 million mobile, broadband, and pay-TV customers in the United States along with millions of business customers including nearly all of the Fortune 1000.
McElfresh and Xandr CEO Brian Lesser will be reporting to Stankey in his expanded role. Xandr is an ad and analytics division of AT&T — which is also known for running programmatic online advertising company AppNexus.
“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 in a statement. “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.
Stankey had joined AT&T in 1985 and served in a variety of leadership roles including corporate strategy and M&A, media and entertainment, operations, IT and technology, and enterprise business.
“John is an outstanding executive who has led nearly every area of our business, helped shape our strategy and excelled at operations throughout his career. The Board and I look forward to John hitting the ground running in his new role as president and COO,” Stephenson added.
And McElfresh has nearly 25 years of experience with AT&T in a variety of strategic, operational, and technology leadership roles. Prior to becoming the head of 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. Before that, he served as CEO of AT&T’s Vrio and its DIRECTV Latin America and SKY Brasil businesses. And he also worked as 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.
“And I’m excited to have Jeff leading our communications business into the future. He is an accomplished leader with experience across our business — from strategy, technology and network, to marketing, operations and customer experience. This past year, Jeff led the team that won AT&T recognition for having the best, fastest and most reliable wireless network in the country.”
