News
Long-serving exec to oversee U.S. telco’s Mexican operations; John Stankey to head up consumer business.
AT&T this week reorganised its senior management, appointing Ralph de la Vega as vice chairman.
De la Vega has headed up the U.S. telco’s combined wireless and business units since they were merged in 2014. He will continue to do so in his new role as CEO of business solutions and international, but now also takes overall responsibility for AT&T’s Mexican mobile operations and DirecTV Latin America.
John Stankey, who until now has headed up DirecTV as CEO of AT&T’s entertainment and Internet services unit, has been appointed CEO of the company’s entertainment group, which comprises DirecTV, U-Verse, and the consumer mobility division. AT&T Mobility CEO Glenn Lurie will report to Stankey.
An AT&T spokesman explained in an email to Total Telecom that the changes are part of the telco’s strategy to organise all of its consumer-facing businesses – mobile, TV and fixed broadband – into a single organisation.
"Increasingly, consumers want all three services to work together seamlessly so they can access their favourite content on any device, anywhere, anytime. That’s an unmet need in the market and a big opportunity for us because we are the only company with all the assets and people to make it happen," the spokesman said.
"With a single organisation, great customer service and distribution channels, and an array of services that no competitor can match, we can deliver the fully integrated entertainment, mobile and broadband solutions consumers want," he said.
In addition, AT&T also promoted John Donovan to chief strategy officer and group president of AT&T’s technology and operations unit. Until now, he served as senior executive vice president of the division.
"Donovan will continue to lead our corporate strategy function, technology development, network deployment and operations, and our transition to a software-defined network (SDN)," AT&T’s spokesman said.
