John T. Stankey (born 1962) is an American businessman currently serving as CEO of AT&T Inc. and as a member of AT&T Inc.’s board of directors. He previously served as AT&T’s president and COO and was former CEO of

WarnerMedia Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

. Stankey led AT&T's acquisition of

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...

and Time Warner in 2015 and 2018, respectively. He assumed the CEO role of AT&T effective July 1, 2020, succeeding Randall L. Stephenson.

Early life and education

Stankey was raised in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, the youngest of three children. His father was an insurance underwriter and his mother a housewife. In the 1980s, he graduated with a B.B.A. in Finance from

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located ...

. In 1991, he earned an M.B.A. from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

Career

In 1985, Stankey took an entry-level position with

Pacific Bell The Pacific Bell Telephone Company (Pacific Bell or Pac Bell) is a telephone company that provides telephone service in California. The company is owned by AT&T through AT&T Teleholdings, and, though separate, is now marketed as “AT&T”. The ...

. which was acquired by SBC Communications in 1996. Stankey went on to serve as the Executive Vice President of Industry Markets beginning in 1998 becoming the Executive President of Industry Markets in 2000. In 2001 Stankey became the President and CEO for SBC Southwest. Stankey served as CIO of the "new AT&T" after the merger of SBC with

AT&T Corporation AT&T Corporation, originally the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is the subsidiary of AT&T Inc. that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agen ...

finalized in 2005, becoming the senior executive vice president and CTO for AT&T from 2008 to 2012, Stankey held various senior executive positions within the company and in January 2012, Stankey became the CSO and group president of AT&T. Stankey took a seat on the board of directors for UPS in 2014 (a position he would hold until 2020). In 2015, he became the CEO of AT&T Entertainment Group (AEG), taking control of the newly acquired DIRECTV business. Stankey then assumed control of the newly acquired Time Warner company (acquired by AT&T in 2018), which was quickly renamed WarnerMedia (WM). In 2018, Stankey was named CEO of

which owns various media and film corporations, including

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

, HBO,

Turner Broadcasting System Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (alternatively known as Turner Entertainment Networks from 2019 until 2022) was an American television and media conglomerate. Founded by Ted Turner and based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (lat ...

, and

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

. On October 1, 2019, Stankey became the COO of AT&T while continuing to serve as the CEO of WarnerMedia. Michael Sainato, writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', noted that AT&T had "lobbied aggressively in favor of the 2017 Trump tax cuts", committing to significant job creation (7,000 new positions), as well as to capital investment on the order of US$ $ 1-billion, further noting the significant tax savings the legislation provided—US$ 21-billion at time of passage of the bill, and a further ca. US$ 3-billion annually thereafter (arising from the lower corporate tax rate). He goes on to note that AT&T had "eliminated more than 42,000 jobs" since the passage of the tax cut legislation, in the period before it began its June 2020 retail store closures. As such, in the period between 2015 (when Stankey assumed control of DIRECTV and the AT&T Entertainment Group) and 2021, AT&T laid off over 42,000 U.S. workers. On April 1, 2020, AT&T announced that Stankey would be stepping down as CEO of WarnerMedia. Former Hulu CEO

Jason Kilar Jason Alan Kilar (; born April 26, 1971) is an American businessman. He was the CEO of WarnerMedia from May 2020 to April 2022. He was previously an Amazon executive, the founding CEO of the short-lived Vessel, and the CEO of Hulu. Early life ...

assumed the role effective May 1, 2020, reporting to Stankey. On July 1, 2020, Stankey replaced Randall L. Stephenson as CEO of AT&T Inc. In February 2021, Stankey oversaw the sale of a third of AT&T’s stake in DirecTV to

TPG Capital TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American investment company based in Fort Worth, Texas. The private equity firm is focused on leveraged buyouts and growth capital. TPG manages investment funds in growth c ...

for $16.25 billion. AT&T had paid 48 billion ($67 billion including debt) to purchase DirecTV in 2015. Stankey also oversaw WarnerMedia’s sale to

Discovery Inc. Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Cha ...

in May 2021, for $43 billion in cash, plus an estimated $59 billion in Discovery, Inc. stock. AT&T had paid $85 billion for WarnerMedia in 2018. On April 30, 2021, AT&T announced that a nonbinding shareholder vote had rejected AT&T's executive compensation proposal by a slight majority. This came after reports that AT&T had "lost S5.4 billion and cut thousands of jobs". Note, this quote presents in its entirety, the content of this article with regard to Mr. Stankey. The shareholder action sought to address pay issues in light of the impacts of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, and in light of the company's massive layoffs, poor service and subscriber results, continued subscriber losses, and middling stock returns.

Compensation

Stankey received US$ 22.5-million in compensation during the 2019 fiscal year, and US$ 21-million during the following year. In addition, AT&T executives Stankey and Jason Kilar were given significant stock awards for 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stankey, John 1962 births Media executives American chief executives American telecommunications industry businesspeople Living people Warner Bros. Discovery people AT&T people