John Stankey
American businessman (born 1962)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John T. Stankey (born 1962) is an American businessman who is the chairman and CEO of AT&T. He previously was AT&T's president and COO and before that CEO of WarnerMedia.[1][2][3] He assumed the CEO role of AT&T in July 2020, succeeding Randall L. Stephenson.[4]
_(cropped).jpg)
John Stankey | |
|---|---|
Stankey in 2025 | |
| Born | 1962 (age 63–64) |
| Education | Loyola Marymount University (BBA) University of California, Los Angeles (MBA) |
| Occupations | Chairman and CEO of AT&T |
Early life and education
Stankey was raised in Los Angeles, the youngest of three children.[5] His father was an insurance underwriter and his mother a housewife.[5]
Stankey received a Bachelor of Business Administration with a major in finance from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles in 1985.[6][7] He received a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1991.[5][4]
Career
In 1985, Stankey took an entry-level position with Pacific Bell,[2][5][8] which was acquired by SBC Communications in 1996.[9] He went on to serve as the executive vice president of industry markets beginning in 1998, and became the executive president of industry markets in 2000.[8] In 2001, he became the president and CEO of SBC Southwest.[8]
Stankey served as CIO of the "new AT&T" after the merger of SBC with AT&T Corporation finalized in 2005.[10] He was the senior executive vice president and CTO for AT&T from 2008 to 2012. In January 2012, he became the CSO and group president of AT&T.[8]
In 2018,[11] Stankey was named CEO of WarnerMedia,[12] which owned various media and film corporations, including Warner Bros., HBO, Turner Broadcasting System, and CNN.[13] On October 1, 2019, he became president and COO of AT&T, while continuing to serve as the CEO of WarnerMedia.[14]
AT&T CEO
On April 1, 2020, AT&T announced that Stankey would be stepping down as CEO of WarnerMedia.[15] On July 1, 2020, he replaced Randall L. Stephenson as CEO of AT&T Inc.,[2][16][17][18] then was elected chairman in February 2025.[19][20]
In February 2021, Stankey oversaw the sale of a third of AT&T's stake in DirecTV to TPG Capital for $16.25 billion.[21] AT&T had paid 48 billion ($67 billion including debt) to purchase DirecTV in 2015[22] under Stephenson.[18] AT&T's remaining 70% stake in DirecTV was sold to TPG for $7.6 billion, announced in September 2024 and closing in 2025.[23] Stankey also oversaw WarnerMedia's sale to Discovery Inc. in May 2021, for $43 billion in cash, plus an estimated $59 billion in Discovery, Inc. stock.[24] AT&T had paid $85 billion for WarnerMedia in 2018 under Stephenson.[25]
On April 30, 2021, AT&T announced that a nonbinding shareholder vote had rejected AT&T's executive compensation proposal by a slight majority,[26] which came after reports that AT&T had "lost $5.4 billion and cut thousands of jobs".[27] In 2023, Stankey's total compensation from AT&T was $25.7 million, representing a CEO-to-median worker pay ratio of 193-to-1.[28]
Stankey refocused AT&T on broadband and cellular availability, connectivity, and speed, including partnering with AST SpaceMobile to provide mobile phone service to remote areas via satellite.[29] Under his leadership, AT&T expanded its network of fiber-optic cables, including to places it didn't already provide broadband, reaching the milestone of 30 million fiber locations in 2025.[30] In 2023, the company entered a joint venture with BlackRock, called Gigapower, to build fiber-optic networks in metro areas around the country.[31] After the US government ceased funding the Affordable Connectivity Program, in April 2024, Stankey announced that AT&T would direct $3 billion to address the digital divide of high-speed-internet access in the United States,[32] including increasing the number of its Connected Learning Centers, which offer free computer and internet use and skills training, from 37 to 50 in 2024.[33]
In 2025, he led the AT&T $5.75 billion acquisition deal for most of Lumen's mass markets Quantum Fiber business, and the $23 billion acquisition of wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar, with both slated to close in 2026.[34][30]
Additional posts
Stankey served on the board of directors for UPS from 2014 until 2020.[35]