AT&T Profile   >  Senior Leadership Team

Senior Leadership Team

Betsy J. Bernard | James W. Cicconi | David W. Dorman | Hossein Eslambolchi | Mirian Graddick-Weir | Thomas W. Horton | Frank Ianna | John C. Petrillo | John Polumbo | Kenneth E. Sichau | Constance Weaver

Betsy J. Bernard
President — AT&T Corporation

Betsy Bernard is president of AT&T, where she leads AT&T Business, a nearly $27 billion organization serving the needs of more than 4 million business customers. She also is responsible for the company’s network services group, international ventures and AT&T Labs. Bernard also is a member of AT&T’s Operations Group, the company’s governing executive panel led by AT&T Chairman David Dorman.

From April 2001 to September 2002, Betsy led AT&T Consumer, which provides residential customers with an array of services including long distance, local, local toll and Internet access. The unit serves nearly 60 million consumers and contributed $15 billion to AT&T’s normalized revenue in 2001.

One of the highest-ranking female executives in the telecommunications industry, she is on Fortune Magazine’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business. She assumed her current position in October 2002.

Bernard began her career at AT&T, where she held a variety of management positions in business sales, marketing and operations over the course of 18 years.

She then went on to become vice president, Business Market Group at Pacific Telesis, and later, president and CEO of its long distance subsidiary, Pacific Bell Communications.

From 1997 to 1998, she served as president and CEO of Avirnex Communications Group, an advanced international telecommunications services company, where she achieved triple-digit growth and IPO-readiness.

She then joined U S West as executive vice president of retail markets. During her two-year tenure at U S West she led a team of 14,000 and grew revenues more than 15 percent.

After U S West merged with Qwest Communications International, Bernard became executive vice president, National Mass Markets, at Qwest, where she was responsible for delivering telecommunications, data and Internet services to regional and national consumers and small businesses.

Bernard serves on the Board of Directors of the Principal Financial Group. She holds an MS degree in management from Stanford University’s Sloan Fellowship Program, an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a BS degree from St. Lawrence University.

November 2002

James W. Cicconi
General Counsel and Executive Vice President for Law and Government Affairs

James W. Cicconi is General Counsel and Executive Vice President for Law & Government Affairs at AT&T. In that capacity, he oversees one of the largest corporate legal and regulatory organizations in the U.S. Mr. Cicconi joined AT&T in September 1998 after nine years as a partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, L.L.P., the nation's tenth largest law firm. While practicing law at Akin Gump, Mr. Cicconi specialized in administrative and regulatory law, as well as federal legislation, representing a range of corporate clients, including Mobil, Pfizer, The Bank of New York, and AT&T. He was also involved in a number of significant transactions, including the public sale of Conrail, the restructuring of Executive Life Insurance, the acquisition of Vought Aircraft, the acquisition of Square D, and the restructuring of Lloyd's of London.

Mr. Cicconi interrupted his legal practice in January 1989 to serve for two years in the White House as Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bush. In that capacity, he was one of the President's closest aides, overseeing the flow of information to and from the Oval Office and coordinating the decision-making process within the White House. Mr. Cicconi served as the Senior Issues Advisor to President Bush's 1988 and 1992 election campaigns, and has coordinated the drafting of the party platform and assisted in debate preparation for the last three Republican presidential nominees. He also served on the transition staffs of President-elect Bush and Secretary of State-designate James A. Baker III in 1988.

Mr. Cicconi served previously in the White House from 1981 to 1985 as Special Assistant to the President and Special Assistant to Chief of Staff James A. Baker III, with responsibility for policy matters ranging from judicial selections to preparation for Cabinet meetings.

Before joining the White House staff in 1981, Mr. Cicconi worked as Administrative Assistant to the Governor of Texas, and as General Counsel to the Texas Secretary of State.

Mr. Cicconi has served as a presidential appointee to the Administrative Conference of the United States, 1990-92. He has also been a consultant to the U.S. State Department on international organization matters, and served as a member of the U.S. Reform Observation Panel for UNESCO, 1985-88, and as a U.S. delegate to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). Mr. Cicconi has been a commentator on political and public policy issues, and has appeared on numerous television broadcasts, including ABC's Nightline, the CBS Evening News, CNN's NewsDay and Crossfire, and the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.

Mr. Cicconi currently serves as a director of the El Paso Electric Company, and the American Council on Germany. He is a member of the Association of General Counsel, the ABA's Committee of Corporate General Counsel, the Board of Governors of Ford's Theatre, and the University of Texas at Austin Development Board, and is vice president of the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation. He was elected to the Board of Trustees of The Brookings Institution in 2000, and is a member of the Brookings Council.

Mr. Cicconi received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1974, and a doctor of jurisprudence degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 1977. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the State Bar of Texas.

March 2002

David W. Dorman
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer — AT&T

David W. Dorman is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of AT&T.

Dorman, 48, joined AT&T Corp. as president in December 2000. Prior to coming to AT&T, Dorman was CEO of Concert, the global venture created by AT&T and British Telecommunications. Dorman’s career in telecommunications began in 1981, after early jobs in software development, sales and marketing, when he became the 55th employee of the then-fledgling long-distance carrier now known as Sprint.

By 1990, Dorman was president of Sprint Business. In that role, he managed businesses that grew from $5 million to $4.5 billion in revenue and oversaw 10,000 employees. In 1994, at age 39, Dorman became the youngest chief executive officer of a Bell operating company when he was named CEO of Pacific Bell. As chairman, president and CEO, he led an $11 billion business with 50,000 employees serving 10 million households and 1 million business customers.

Dorman became an executive vice president of SBC Communications when it acquired Pacific Bell. He was responsible for strategic planning, long distance and Internet business. He left SBC to serve as chairman, president and CEO of PointCast, an Internet-based news and information service, before becoming CEO of Concert.

Appointed to AT&T’s Board of Directors in February 2002, Dorman also serves on the boards of The Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va. and the Georgia Tech Foundation.
 
Dorman received a bachelor’s degree in industrial management from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He completed the four-year program in three years with high honors.

November 2002

Hossein Eslambolchi
President - AT&T Laboratories,
AT&T CTO & AT&T Business CIO

As CTO and Business CIO, Hossein advises the Chairman and AT&T senior leaders on technology issues, and chairs a company-wide Technology Strategy and Development Council. 

As President of AT&T Labs, Hossein leads a team of the world's best scientists and engineers and Labs Research personnel.  They direct a focused, innovative research program to invent next-generation Internet Protocol (IP) - based communications, entertainment and information services. This team also includes the Development and Business Operations teams who develop new services and invent tools to manage secure, reliable networks for AT&T and its customers, as well as develop and deploy new technology to automate and streamline the way AT&T interacts with customers. 

Hossein has a track record of developing new IP and broadband technologies to work for the benefit of AT&T customers.  In his previous position as Senior Vice President of Data and Internet Network Services, Hossein helped make AT&T's IP network the most reliable in the world.  He was responsible for the development, engineering, operations and reliability of AT&T's packet networks, as well as the Global Network Operations Center that is the company's network nerve center. 

Hossein served as the interim President of Excite@Home Broadband Networks Services, a network operator serving more than three million cable modem subscribers across North America.  In that role, Hossein and his team helped stabilize the performance, quality, reliability, and scalability of Excite@Home's Internet services.  Under his leadership, the number of subscribers grew by 30% and network reliability improved from 66% to 99.999%. 

Hossein is an expert in network reliability who joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1985, studying metropolitan network applications and ultra-reliable communication systems.  He was the program manager for the Fast Automated Restoration System (FASTAR), which makes it possible to quickly restore service when high-capacity fiber optic cables are damaged.  FASTAR was successfully deployed in the AT&T network in 1992. As a member of the FASTAR inventor team, he was honored as a finalist in the 1997 United States National Inventor of the Year competition.

Hossein holds over 200 patents and is widely recognized as a technology leader.  In October 1999, he received AT&T's highest technical honor when he was appointed an AT&T Fellow and most recently received the 2001 NJ Inventors Hall of Fame Inventor of the Year Award.  In 1997, he received the Thomas Alva Edison award and the 1997 AT&T Labs Science and Technology Medal. 

He is on the board of Directors for Conexant, as well as the advisory board of the National Alliance of Business (NAB).  Hossein’s work has been published in 18 technical publications and is on the IEEE editorial board of the Journal of Network and Systems Management.   Hossein currently serves as AT&T’s accessibility Champion.

Hossein graduated with highest honors from the University of California - San Diego with a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and in 2002 was elected as UCSD’s alumnus of the year.  He received his M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California - San Diego.

He maintains offices in Menlo Park, California and Bedminster, New Jersey. 

January 2003

Mirian Graddick-Weir
Executive Vice President – Human Resources

Mirian Graddick-Weir is Executive Vice President – Human Resources at AT&T and a member of the company’s senior leadership team.

Dr. Graddick-Weir is responsible for the design, planning and administration of Human Resources programs – including compensation, benefits, recruiting and training – for AT&T’s 114,000 employees in the United States and around the world.

She was most recently Vice President – Executive Human Resources for AT&T’s Consumer Services unit. In that position, she led the HR systems integration of cable communications leader TCI with AT&T that became AT&T Broadband. She also managed AT&T’s most successful voluntary workforce reduction program.

Dr. Graddick-Weir joined AT&T in 1981 and held a variety of assignments in Human Resources. She then moved to AT&T’s Consumer Services unit where she directed five AT&T Customer Service Centers in the eastern United States, serving the company’s millions of residential customers.

Dr. Graddick-Weir received her B.A. degree in Psychology from Hampton University. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. from Penn State in Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

In 1990, Dr. Graddick-Weir received AT&T’s Catherine B. Cleary Management Award, which is given to a senior manager who exemplifies excellence in leadership and management. She serves on the boards of The Harleysville Insurance Companies, the National Medical Fellowships, Inc., and the Joint Center for Political & Economic Studies. In addition, she is a board trustee for Hampton University, and is a member of the Personnel Round Table, the HR Roundtable Group, and the Cowdrick Group.

Dr. Graddick-Weir was named as a 2001 Fellow to the National Academy of Human Resources, and was also named 2000 “HR Executive of the Year” by HR Executive magazine.

September 2002

Thomas W. Horton
Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer — AT&T

Thomas W. Horton joined AT&T in June 2002 as Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of AT&T.  Horton is a member of AT&T’s Office of the Chairman.

Prior to joining AT&T, Horton was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of AMR Corporation, the parent company of American Airlines.  He was responsible for the company’s financial planning, treasury, corporate development accounting and investor relations since his appointment in January 2000.

Horton joined American in 1985 as a financial analyst.  In addition to holding a wide range of financial positions at American, he also had full general management responsibility for the airline’s European operations based in London from 1998 to 2000.  Prior to joining American, Horton, a CPA, worked in public accounting at Peat Marwick.

A native of Hampton, Va., Horton is a 1983 graduate of Baylor University.  He received his master’s degree in business administration in 1985 from Southern Methodist University.  He is a member of the board of governors of the United Way of Tri State.

 January 2003

Frank Ianna
President – AT&T Network Services

Frank Ianna, president of AT&T Network Services, is responsible for the design, development, deployment, and operation of AT&T's local and long-distance communications networks. In addition, he leads the company's Business Customer Care operation, the Customer Relationship Management group, and the Connectivity Services organization that has responsibility for product management of AT&T's data and voice services.

Ianna also serves as AT&T's Chief Quality Officer. In that role he is responsible for integrating quality with the management of the AT&T business, as well as providing direction, support, and assessment of the company-wide quality and customer-satisfaction programs.

He began his telecommunications career in 1972 at the Bell Telephone Laboratories and later transferred to AT&T, where he served in various assignments in marketing, operations, and sales of domestic and international services. In 1991, he was appointed vice president and chief quality officer for the Network Services Division. He then served as vice president and general manager of Network and Computing Services and as the company's chief quality officer, prior to being promoted to executive vice president in May 1997. In September of 1998, he became president of AT&T Network Services.

A veteran of 30 years in the communications industry, Ianna earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey and his master's degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also completed the Program for Management Development at the Harvard School of Business.

Ianna is a member of Tau Beta Pi, the Stevens Institute Board of Trustees, and the advisory board of the Stevens Alliance for Technology Management. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Cancer Hope Network, and Wytec, Inc., and is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Prosperity New Jersey, Inc.

April 2002

John C. Petrillo
Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Development — AT&T

John C. Petrillo is Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Development for AT&T. Prior to his assignment, John was responsible for overall business strategy and the development of AT&T's online service and electronic messaging businesses.

From 1993 to 1995, Mr. Petrillo was President of AT&T's Business Communications Services unit providing worldwide long distance network services for business customers.

He began his career at AT&T in 1971 as an operations manager in New York City. He subsequently held a wide variety of positions in market planning and market management. In 1982 he was named Sales Vice President for the 11-state Western Region of the United States based in Los Angeles. He then served as AT&T's Director of Personnel, 1986; Services Vice President, 1987; Vice President, Business Communications Services, 1990; and Vice President, Strategic Planning, from 1991 to 1993.

Mr. Petrillo was graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1971 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. He earned a law degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1976. He also attended AT&T's Advanced Management Program at Harvard University's Graduate School of Business Administration in 1985 and he was a fellow in international studies at the Salzburg Institute in Austria.

Mr. Petrillo serves as a member of the Board of Directors of AT&T Latin America and is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Tallberg Foundation in Tallberg, Sweden.

March 2002

John Polumbo
President and Chief Executive Officer — AT&T Consumer

John Polumbo, 50, leads AT&T Consumer, which provides residential customers with an array of long distance, local and Internet services. The unit maintains some 50 million consumer relationships and contributed $15 billion of AT&T's pro forma revenue in 2001. Polumbo is also a member of AT&T's Operations Group, the company's governing executive panel, and reports directly to AT&T Chairman David W. Dorman.

Polumbo assumed his current position in October 2002 after a previous assignment as senior vice president of AT&T Business Global Ventures, Global Marketing and Global Wholesale organizations. In those roles, he managed all international investments including those in AT&T Canada, AT&T Latin America, Alestra and Unisiti (Shanghai Symphony Telecom), and provided oversight for all AT&T Business Services marketing and sales support activities. As head of the Wholesale organization, he managed relationships with carriers worldwide, as well as domestic and global wholesale marketing, sales and operations.

Polumbo’s leadership experience began in 1983 when he founded and served as president of National Telephone System. NTS served small and medium-sized companies and consumers with domestic and international communications services.

He then moved to ISACOMM, a communications company, as a director of marketing, and later on to Sprint Communications. During eight years at Sprint, he served as senior executive for all sales and service activities on the West Coast, and also held senior roles in marketing communications and sales. He then joined Sybase Inc. as vice president for worldwide customer service and support, managing all aspects of global customer service and support.

In June 1995, he moved to Pacific Bell as president of the Consumer Markets Group, where he was responsible for product management, marketing, sales, service, ethnic markets and finance. He added to his experience in the consumer arena with a stint at Pacific Bell Mobile Services (now known as Cingular Wireless), where he served as president and CEO.

Subsequently Polumbo was named president and chief operating officer of Excite, leading all of the company's operational activities as well as content-related areas, including applications, e-commerce, communications products and PIM (Personal Information Management).

Before officially joining AT&T in 2001, he served as president of Concert's Global Services, with responsibility for the wholesale business, international carrier relationships and worldwide roster of distributors.

A resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, he graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and received an MS degree in management from Stanford University's Sloan Fellowship Program. In his leisure time, he enjoys hiking, biking and traveling internationally with his family.

November 2002

Kenneth E. Sichau
Executive Vice President, AT&T President, AT&T Business Sales

As Executive Vice President of AT&T, Ken Sichau is a member of AT&T's Operations Group, the company's senior-most leadership council. He also leads AT&T's nationwide sales organization, which includes more than 8,000 employees and 1,200 agents/channel partners.

Mr. Sichau is successfully leading the transformation of AT&T's sales force into a high-performing team with an aggressive focus on fast-growing data, Internet, hosting, managed services, outsourcing and professional services. In addition to driving the company's multi-channel distribution strategy, he also leads pricing and contracting for AT&T Business. Mr. Sichau's organization generates $18 billion in revenue by serving the networking needs of businesses of all sizes - from sole proprietorships to fast-growing e-businesses to the world's largest multinational companies. The organization recently ranked highest in customer satisfaction in the J.D. Power and Associates Small Business Telecommunications Study.

A 16-year veteran of the company, Mr. Sichau has held assignments in sales, global marketing, product management and operations. He has created successful new business units to launch AT&T into emerging markets such as contact centers, integrated value-added solutions, managed data networks and electronic commerce. He directed development of AT&T Digital Link, the company's first local service offering for business customers. He also has led major re-engineering programs that resulted in significant cost reductions, increased revenues, improved customer experience and market-share growth. His leadership of a massive product and platform simplification effort led to AT&T Business Network, an integrated offer with market-leading e-servicing capabilities. He is currently leading the implementation of a Customer Relationship Management platform across AT&T Business.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Sichau was President of AT&T Growth Markets, a $7-billion-dollar unit serving mid-sized and emerging businesses. Under his leadership, the organization completed a comprehensive transformation, achieving double-digit revenue growth in data and local communication services and over 60% in Internet services, while reducing SG&A by over 15%.

Prior to joining AT&T, Mr. Sichau served in the United States Navy as a naval aviator. During his service, he was awarded a Navy Achievement Medal in recognition of his outstanding performance. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard University and a B.S. in Analytical Management from the United States Naval Academy.

January 2002

Constance (Connie) Weaver
Executive Vice President, Public Relations and Brand Management — AT&T

Connie Weaver is Executive Vice President of AT&T and a member of the company's senior leadership team. She is responsible for the company's public relations and management of the AT&T brand around the world.

Previously, Weaver was Vice President of Investor Relations for AT&T, responsible for developing and managing the company's relationships with the investment community.

As a member of AT&T's executive team, Weaver played a central role in executing the company's strategy through an extended period of corporate restructuring. Weaver was part of the team that planned and executed the spin-offs of Lucent Technologies and NCR Corporation and the acquisitions of Teleport Communications Group (TCG), Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) and MediaOne. In 2000, Weaver was a member of the leadership team directing the initial public offering (IPO) of the AT&T Wireless Group tracking stock. The offering raised over $10 billion, making it the largest IPO in U.S. history. In 2001, Weaver played a key role in executing the $10 billion AT&T Global Bond Offering. Most recently, Weaver was actively involved in planning and executing the final stages of the restructuring of AT&T, including the closing of the AT&T Broadband/Comcast merger, which is expected to occur by year-end.

As Vice President of Investor Relations, Weaver increased the quantity and value of information provided to the financial community. In 1999, Investor Relations Magazine recognized Weaver's overall improvements to AT&T's investor relations practices with their award for the Most Improved Investor Relations Program.

Before joining AT&T in 1996, Weaver held leadership positions with responsibility for Investor Relations and Financial Communications for Microsoft Corp. and MCI Communications. She spent 10 years at McGraw Hill in a number of management positions in product management, marketing and corporate planning, most recently serving as Executive Director for a unit of Business Week.

Weaver holds a B.S. from the University of Maryland and has completed post-graduate financial management, marketing and strategic planning courses at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, Columbia University and Imede (Switzerland).

Weaver has authored numerous college and high school textbooks and white papers on topics ranging from investor relations and value management to electronic office procedures.

Weaver serves on the board of directors of Applied Digital Solutions, Inc., is a member and former director of the National Investor Relations Institute and is a former director of Primark Corp., which merged with The Thomson Corp.

October 2002