Lowell Clayton McAdam (born May 28, 1954) is an American businessman. He is the former chairman and CEO of

Verizon Communications Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas i ...

, a company he joined in 2000.

Early life

McAdam earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

and a master's degree in business administration (MBA) from the

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Chartered in July 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University (comprising the College for Men and Schoo ...

. He spent six years in the U.S. Navy's

Civil Engineer Corps The Civil Engineer Corps (CEC) is a staff corps of the United States Navy. CEC officers are professional engineers and architects, acquisitions specialists, and Seabee Combat Warfare Officers who qualify within Seabee units. They are responsib ...

and is a licensed

professional engineer Regulation and licensure in engineering is established by various jurisdictions of the world to encourage life, public welfare, safety, well-being, then environment and other interests of the general public and to define the licensure process thro ...

Career

In 2006, McAdam became the

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...

(COO) and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

(CEO) of

Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the divi ...

. On September 20, 2010, parent company

announced he would be president and COO beginning October 1, 2010, succeeding

Ivan Seidenberg Ivan Seidenberg (born December 10, 1946) is the former chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications Inc. His telecommunications career began more than 40 years ago when he joined New York Telephone, one of Verizon's predecessor companies, as a cabl ...

. He was made chairman of Verizon Communications on January 1, 2012, and its CEO on August 1, 2011. In June 2018, Verizon announced that McAdam would retire from his role as CEO on August 1, 2018, remaining executive chairman through the end of the year. He then concluded his tenure as non-executive chairman in March 2019. McAdam had previously been the CEO for PrimeCo Personal Communications, a joint venture of

Bell Atlantic Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in ...

and Vodafone AirTouch. He was vice president of international operations for AirTouch Communications and a lead technical partner for cellular ventures in Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Italy, Korea and Japan. He joined

AirTouch AirTouch Communications was an American wireless telephone service provider, created as a spin-off on Pacific Telesis on April 1, 1994. Its headquarters were in One California in the Financial District, San Francisco, California. After a series ...

as executive director of international applications and operations in 1993. From 1983 to 1993, he held various executive titles 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 ...

, including area vice president of Bay Area marketing and general manager of South Bay customer services. McAdam is past chairman of the board of directors of

CTIA – The Wireless Association CTIA is a trade association representing the wireless communications industry in the United States. The association was established in 1984 and is headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit membership organization, and repre ...

, a trade association. He is a director of the

National Academy Foundation NAF (formerly known as National Academy Foundation) is an industry-sponsored nonprofit with a national network of public-private partnerships that support career academies within traditional high schools. Each academy focuses on a theme that addre ...

, a partnership between business leaders and educators that aims to help high schools across the US establish and run technical and service academies. He is also co-chair of the

CEO Council on Health and Innovation A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

, which encourages affordable improvements in employee health. He is an emeritus member of the

Board of trustees.

External links

Official Verizon bio

References

Cornell University College of Engineering alumni University of San Diego alumni Living people Verizon Communications people 1954 births American technology chief executives American chairpersons of corporations 20th-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-1950s-stub