DALLAS – AT&T’s chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson is making more changes in the communications and entertainment giant’s upper management in the wake of the recently close Time Warner acquisition.
On Tuesday, Stephenson promoted AT&T veteran John Stankey to a new position: president and chief opreating officer. He remains head of WarnerMedia, the ne wname given to the variety of TimeWarner properties AT&T acquired.
The move puts Stankey “firmly in line to succeed the wireless giant’s CEO,” CNN reported.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Stephenson “hasn’t indicated plans to step down from the helm of the company any time soon.” But Monday’s appointment still cleared up the succession questions that always intrigue investors and Wall Street analysts. And Stephenson and AT&T’s board are clearly expressing confidence in Stankey.
Stankey, 56, who has worked at AT&T for more than three decades, was already seen as a likely contender to take over for Stephenson, 59. Another contender was John Donovan, the head of the AT&T Communications unit, but Donovan announced his retirement last week.
Jeff McElfresh will take over the sprawling wireless unit on October 1.
While Donovan previously reported to Stephenson, McElfresh will report to Stankey in this new arrangement. So will Brian Lesser, the head of Xandr, AT&T’s advanced advertising unit.
Both appointments are effective as of Oct. 1.
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“Now is the time to more tightly align our collection of world-class content, scaled consumer relationships, technical know-how and innovative advertising technology,” Stephenson said.
McElfresh will report to Stankey.
