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SoonerShark
6/5/2007, 11:08 AM
This has nothing to do with football, but it is a great coup for OU...and UCO. Randall L. Stephenson is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of AT&T Inc. as of June 2007. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from the University of Central Oklahoma and a Master of Accountancy degree from the University of Oklahoma.

http://www.att.com/gen/investor-relations?pid=7824

Randall L. Stephenson is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of AT&T Inc. He was appointed to the position in June 2007.

Before being named chairman and CEO, Mr. Stephenson served as chief operating officer and was responsible for all wireless and wireline operations. He was named chief operating officer for SBC Communications Inc. in April 2004 and continued as COO after the acquisitions of AT&T Corp. in November 2005 and BellSouth in December 2006.

During his tenure as COO, the company outperformed its peers in nearly every category. Today, AT&T leads the industry in wireless, business, broadband, voice and directory and is gaining momentum in the TV market.

Born in Oklahoma City, Mr. Stephenson began his career with Southwestern Bell Telephone in 1982 in the information technology organization in Oklahoma. He then progressed through a series of leadership positions in finance, including an international assignment in Mexico City, and in 1996 was named controller for SBC Communications. Additionally, Mr. Stephenson has served as senior vice president-Performance Assurance and senior vice president-Consumer Marketing.

Before becoming COO, Mr. Stephenson was senior executive vice president and chief financial officer for SBC. During this time, the company reduced its net debt from $30 billion to almost zero by early 2004 and was in position to make strategic acquisitions of AT&T Wireless, AT&T Corp. and BellSouth.

In 2005, Mr. Stephenson was appointed to the new AT&T’s board of directors.

Additionally, he served on the Cingular Wireless board of directors from 2001 to 2006 and was chairman in 2003 – 2004.

He is also a member of the board of directors of Emerson and serves as vice chairman of the White House’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.

In the community, Mr. Stephenson serves on the board of directors of the San Antonio Metropolitan Missions Board and on the San Antonio United Way Executive Committee and Audit Committee.

Mr. Stephenson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from the University of Central Oklahoma and a Master of Accountancy degree from the University of Oklahoma.

SoonerShark
6/5/2007, 11:09 AM
It is nice to see local folks make good.

SoonerShark
6/5/2007, 11:11 AM
http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/27/news/newsmakers/pluggedin_mehta_stephenson.fortune/index.htm

The new face of AT&T
CEO-elect Stephenson is younger, hipper, and yes, he has a computer in his office.
FORTUNE Magazine
By Stephanie N. Mehta, Fortune senior writer
April 27 2007: 2:19 PM EDT

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The first thing I noticed when I walked into Randall Stephenson's office at AT&T headquarters in San Antonio a few months ago was the computer sitting on his desk. There was nothing remarkable about the computer, mind you, but just the fact that he has one at all is sort of a big deal.

AT&T (Charts, Fortune 500) today said Stephenson, 47, would become its new chairman and CEO. He succeeds 65-year-old Edward E. Whitacre Jr., the flinty, iconic telecom executive who built AT&T into the world's largest phone company - all without the benefit of a computer in his office.

Okay, the whole computer-in-the-office thing isn't that huge, but it underscores the generational shift taking place at AT&T. Stephenson will assume the top job at AT&T at a time when the company is trying to stay relevant to a new generation of consumers who aren't necessarily loyal to the kinds of phone services AT&T traditionally has supplied.

AT&T remains the country's largest provider of landline voice service, with more than 64 million phone lines, and it continues to get lots of profits from workhorse products such as call waiting and caller ID. But those are yesterday's products. Whitacre, who completed dozens of acquisitions during his 17-year-tenure as a CEO, smartly pushed the company into new areas such as broadband and television; it also is the No. 1 wireless operator in the United States with more than 62 million subscribers.

Now it falls on Stephenson to manage and grow those assets even as AT&T faces fierce competition from cable operators selling phone service, plus the challenges of keeping up with fast-changing technologies such as Google's (Charts, Fortune 500) YouTube, which use a lot of capacity on AT&T's network.

Stephenson, an easy-going Oklahoma native seems eager for the challenge. During my visit, our chat started not with talk of dry merger integration statistics but with a spirited debate about American Idol. "Did you vote last night?" he asked. "I voted for LaKisha." (To be sure, Stephenson has more than a passing interest in the Fox television program: AT&T is a major sponsor.)

Stephenson's pop-culture literacy - he also boasts a 100-inch-screen television in his home - will come in handy as AT&T pushes into the pay television business dominated by cable and satellite companies. AT&T is rolling out a service that delivers cable-like content over its phone lines.

"Randall understands content and technology, and he has a lot of credibility," says AT&T marketing executive Scott Helbing. "He is very good at articulating why we're in this business."

Stephenson likes the TV business because it has the potential to be big. And at AT&T's size, it needs to go after only the biggest opportunities out there. "We need to think about $2 billion to $4 billion revenue streams," Stephenson says. "IPTV is a multibillion revenue source for us." (A company with $120 billion a year in sales needs big streams of revenue to grow even 3% or 4% a year, which is what AT&T is promising.)

Stephenson may be focused on growth now, but much of his career has been spent cutting costs. He got his start in the business working part-time as a "tape monkey" loading tapes for billing systems at Southwestern Bell in Oklahoma City as a college student in the 1970s. (Southwestern Bell was later named SBC, and when SBC acquired AT&T in 2005 it took on the AT&T name.) His older brother, who still works as an installation technician in Norman, Oklahoma, for AT&T, got him the gig.

He served as SBC's chief financial officer from 2001 and 2004, lean years in the telecom sector. SBC kept up its profitability by cutting capital spending to the bone and it drastically reduced its net debt from $30 billion to near zero by early 2004, moves that positioned the company to acquire AT&T wireless, AT&T and BellSouth.

It was around this time analysts started to talk about Stephenson as Whitacre's heir apparent.

During our interview, which took place well before the succession announcement, Stephenson was mum on the topic of the CEO job, but he was quick to praise Whitacre and single him out as an influence. The cost cutting measures a few years back, he says, were Whitacre's idea. "We talked about what we ought to do," Stephenson says. Whitacre knew that despite the challenges the telecom sector faced, that another wave of consolidation was coming, and he wanted his company to be leading the charge. ("We don't talk about it much," Stephenson says, "but our moves tend to be industry shaping.")

Recalling his conversations with Whitacre, Stephenson turns reverent: "He had bold objectives," Stephenson said, "and he stayed true to his vision."

SoonerShark
6/5/2007, 11:13 AM
I will expect an immediate discount on my cellular bill.

I just want to talk to a human when I have a problem. The old AT&T would never allow that.

OUDoc
6/5/2007, 01:38 PM
His older brother, who still works as an installation technician in Norman, Oklahoma, for AT&T, got him the gig.
This guy will get a discount.

BajaOklahoma
6/5/2007, 02:08 PM
Or a promotion!

FlatheadSooner
6/5/2007, 04:38 PM
Hope he throws some of that AT&T sponsorship and $$$ to OU and a new
Gi-Hugic-Tron for both endzones.

:)

BigRedJed
6/5/2007, 04:53 PM
This has nothing to do with football...
Exactly.

85Sooner
6/5/2007, 05:32 PM
cool

OklahomaTuba
6/5/2007, 05:40 PM
Good move on the whole Cingular branding thing. After spending billions trying to build a brand, to just yank it overnite seems stupid.

SoonerShark
6/5/2007, 08:52 PM
Exactly.

Of course, some folks would never get to read anything unless it was in the sports pages or on a sheet of toilet paper. Educate where you can, correct? Why doth the heathen rage? Only the village idiot would take offense at this being where it is more readily read. This is a much bigger deal than AD going to the Vikings.

critical_phil
6/5/2007, 08:56 PM
Of course, some folks would never get to read anything unless it was in the sports pages or on a sheet of toilet paper. Educate where you can, correct? Why doth the heathen rage? Only the village idiot would take offense at this being where it is more readily read. This is a much bigger deal than AD going to the Vikings.


see if he's paying attention now.....

BigRedJed
6/5/2007, 10:57 PM
You think it's "more readily read" in the FOOTBALL FORUM, IN JUNE?? Have you compared the overall number of posts the SO has vs. the football board? Or looked at the date/time stamps on all of the threads on the front page of the SO vs. the front page of the football forum? Or, perhaps, looked at the number of people viewing each respective forum at any given time? Oh, and I also left a redirect on the football board. I did this thread a favor. I breathed new life into it.

I am this thread's salvation.

TheHumanAlphabet
6/6/2007, 08:35 AM
Hope he throws some of that AT&T sponsorship and $$$ to OU and a new
Gi-Hugic-Tron for both endzones.

:)

Instead of the Godzillatron it could be the MaBell-tron...

crawfish
6/6/2007, 08:38 AM
It's really going to disappoint me when AT&T remains evil.

Frozen Sooner
6/6/2007, 10:34 AM
Only the village idiot would take offense at this being where it is more readily read.

QED.

Stoop Dawg
6/6/2007, 11:13 AM
It's really going to disappoint me when AT&T remains evil.

Werd

CoSooner
6/11/2007, 09:28 AM
Does anyone know which high school Randall Stephenson attended?