AT&T Is New. It Needs a New Type of CEO.
As the company transforms into a media and wireless giant, its board shouldn't limit the search for Randall Stephenson's successor to internal candidates.
No longer just a phone company, AT&T could use a fresh pair of eyes in the C-Suite.
Photographer: Christopher Lee/BloombergAT&T Inc. is a very different company today from the wireless-service provider it was five years ago. CEO Randall Stephenson, who transformed AT&T by acquiring pay-TV and media assets such as HBO, is now eyeing retirement. It raises the question of whether the man who appears to be the next in line – John Stankey, another three-decade veteran of the phone business – is the right person for the job.
Stephenson, who has been at the helm since June 2007, is interested in stepping down as soon as next year, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing unnamed sources. For much of his 37 years at the telephone giant, Stephenson has worked alongside Stankey, who he’s been priming to take over as the next CEO. While speaking at an investor conference Tuesday morning, he praised Stankey’s leadership, saying that he would have to be on “the very short list of people” who could run AT&T’s diverse set of businesses. But Stankey has also emerged as a controversial figure within AT&T, so much so that his recent promotion to the role of chief operating officer is largely what motivated Elliott Management Corp. to press ahead with an activist investor campaign, according to people familiar with the shareholder’s thinking. (Last week, Elliott sent a public letter to AT&T’s board calling for it to review ways to improve earnings and the stock price.)