AT&T announced today that CEO of WarnerMedia John Stankey, has been appointed president and chief operating officer of AT&T Inc., effective Oct. 1. He will be reporting to AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson while also continuing his role as CEO of WarnerMedia. As COO of AT&T, Stankey will be responsible for AT&T Communications—including the company’s mobile and pay-TV businesses, as well as advertising unit Xandr.
Stankey, joined AT&T back in 1985 and has held leadership positions in corporate strategy and M&A; media and entertainment; operations, IT and technology; consumer mobility, broadband and TV; and enterprise business.
“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.”
The company also named AT&T executive Jeff McElfresh CEO of AT&T Communications effective Oct. 1. McElfresh will be replacing John Donovan, who announced his retirement last week. McElfresh, who will be reporting to Stankey, has been with the company for nearly 25 years and has held positions as the president of AT&T Communications’ Technology and Operations group, CEO of AT&T’s Vrio and its DIRECTV Latin America and SKY Brasil businesses, and President of AT&T Mexico. He takes over the AT&T Communications branch, which serves 100 million mobile, broadband and pay-TV customers in the United States, and millions of business customers, including nearly all of the Fortune 1000.