John Stankey

Stankey grew up in Los Angeles; his father was an insurance underwriter and his mother stayed home to care for the family’s three children, of whom he was the youngest. In the early 1980s he attended Loyola Marymount University, earning a degree in finance. As a student he earned spending money stringing tennis rackets at the now-defunct Oshman’s Sporting Goods store in Los Angeles, and later worked as a buyer for the store, purchasing tennis rackets and skis.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

He has recalled that after graduating he had intended to be a ski bum and play tennis: “About five months later, I figured I needed a real job.”⁠[1]

Stankey is a 1985 graduate of Loyola Marymount University, where he earned a B.B.A. in finance. That year he went to work for the phone company Pacific Bell and never left; AT&T counts 1985 as the start of his career with the company.⁠[2][3][1][4]

In 1991 Stankey earned an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and went on to rise through the management ranks, taking on increasingly complex assignments.⁠[3][1]

After holding a number of managerial positions at SBC, Stankey became a company officer in January 2000.⁠[5]

From 2003 to 2004 Stankey served as the company’s chief information officer; at SBC he was senior executive vice president and chief information officer from March 2004.⁠[4][5]

From 2004 to 2006 Stankey served as the company’s chief technology officer.⁠[4]

From October 2007 Stankey was Group President-Telecom Operations, and from 2008 to 2010 he was president and CEO of AT&T Operations, Inc.⁠[6][4]

From 2010 to 2011 Stankey was president and CEO of AT&T Business Solutions, which serves business customers.⁠[4]

From February 2012 Stankey served as AT&T’s group president and chief strategy officer, a role he held until 2015.⁠[7][4]

As the value of content became increasingly apparent, he teamed with Peter Chernin to bid for the streaming service HuluHuluHulu is a U.S. subscription streaming service offering series, films and original programming from the major television networks and studios, along with Hulu + Live TV, which includes live channels. It was founded in 2007 as a joint venture between NBCUniversal and News Corporation and opened to the public in March 2008; after a series of ownership changes, The Walt Disney Company took operational control in 2019 and full ownership in 2025, and is integrating Hulu into Disney+ as Disney’s global general entertainment brand.Open the full entry, but Hulu’s owner consortium decided not to sell; AT&T’s association with Chernin later led to a $500 million joint venture, Otter Media.⁠[1][1][1]

On July 24, 2015, AT&T completed its merger with the satellite TV company DIRECTV (under a merger agreement signed on May 18, 2014). Stankey was a key architect of the takeover, which made AT&T the largest pay-TV provider in the United States; from 2015 to 2017 he was CEO of AT&T Entertainment Group and managed the DirecTV business until early August 2017.⁠[8][1][4][1]

After the deal closed he had cranes in position almost immediately to remove the DirecTV signs from atop the office towers near Los Angeles International Airport and replace them with AT&T’s logo. In negotiations over carrying SportsNet LA, the TV channel owned by the Los Angeles DodgersLos Angeles DodgersThe Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball club in Los Angeles, playing in Major League Baseball’s National League at Dodger Stadium.Open the full entry, on DirecTV, he did not budge, arguing that the fans who wanted it were only a small share of subscribers and that “the other 21.7 million [subscribers] would have to pay something for it.”⁠[1][1][1][1]

On October 22, 2016, AT&T and Time Warner Inc. announced a definitive agreement under which AT&T would acquire Time Warner for $107.50 per share, consisting of $53.75 in cash and $53.75 in AT&T stock.⁠[9][9]

Stankey was designated to run Time Warner’s businesses after the deal closed, including the Warner Bros. studio and networks such as HBO, CNNCNNCNN (Cable News Network) is an Atlanta-based news organization founded by Ted Turner on June 1, 1980, as the world’s first 24-hour television news channel. It has been owned in turn by Turner Broadcasting System, Time Warner, AT&T and Warner Bros. Discovery, became part of Skydance Corporation along with Warner Bros. Discovery in October 2026, and is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry, TBS and TNT. In 2017 he said AT&T would be “very respectful” of the Time Warner team, adding: “These are successful businesses, and they have gotten to where they are because of the people and expertise that they have.”⁠[1][1][1]

On November 20, 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit under Section 7 of the Clayton Act seeking to block the vertical merger of AT&T and Time Warner.⁠[10][11]

After the federal district court declined to issue an injunction, AT&T completed its acquisition of Time Warner Inc. on June 14, 2018. From June 2018 to April 2020 Stankey served as CEO of Warner Media, LLC.⁠[11][12][4]

On February 26, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the Justice Department’s appeal and affirmed the district court’s denial of a permanent injunction against the merger.⁠[11][11]

From October 2019 Stankey served as AT&T’s president and chief operating officer, overseeing AT&T Communications, WarnerMedia and Xandr while continuing to lead WarnerMedia.⁠[4][13]

On April 23, 2020, AT&T’s board resolved to expand from 13 to 14 members and elected Stankey a director effective June 1, 2020, and appointed him chief executive officer and president effective July 1; former CEO Randall Stephenson became executive chairman until his retirement in January 2021. Stankey, then 57, had 33 years of service with the company.⁠[13][13][13][13][13]

In May 2020 WarnerMedia launched the streaming platform HBO Max, offered both directly to consumers and through traditional distributors.⁠[14][14]

On February 25, 2021, AT&T and TPG Capital announced they would form a new company named DIRECTV to own and operate AT&T’s U.S. video business (the DIRECTV, AT&T TV and U-verse video services), implying an enterprise value of $16.25 billion; after closing AT&T would own 70% of the common equity and TPG 30%. Stankey said that as the pay-TV industry evolved, forming a separate entity to run the U.S. video business would provide the needed flexibility and dedicated management focus; he also named 5G wireless, fiber and HBO Max as the strategic businesses for growing customer relationships.⁠[15][15][15][15][15]

On May 17, 2021, AT&T and Discovery, Inc. announced an all-stock Reverse Morris Trust transaction combining WarnerMedia and Discovery into a standalone entertainment company: AT&T would receive about $43 billion (subject to adjustment) in cash, debt securities and WarnerMedia’s retention of certain debt; AT&T shareholders would own 71% of the new company and Discovery shareholders 29%; and the new company would be led by Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav.⁠[16][16][16][16][16]

Stankey said: “For AT&T shareholders, this is an opportunity to unlock value and be one of the best capitalized broadband companies,” focused on investing in 5G and fiber.⁠[16]

On April 8, 2022, Discovery and AT&T announced the closing of the WarnerMedia transaction, and the combined Warner Bros. Discovery began trading on Nasdaq on April 11. Stankey said: “We are at the dawn of a new age of connectivity, and today marks the beginning of a new era for AT&T,” adding that the company expected to invest at record levels in 5G and fiber while reducing debt.⁠[17][17][17][17][17]

In February 2025 AT&T’s independent directors unanimously elected Stankey chairman of the board; the board said the decision followed an evaluation of the company’s strategic priorities, its competitive and regulatory environment and stockholder perspectives.⁠[4][4]

On May 21, 2025, AT&T announced an all-cash deal to acquire Lumen Technologies’ mass markets fiber business for $5.75 billion; the business had about 1 million fiber customers and reached more than 4 million fiber locations across 11 states, and the deal closed in the first quarter of 2026. Stankey said AT&T expected to roughly double where AT&T Fiber is available by the end of 2030.⁠[18][19][19][20][19]

On August 26, 2025, AT&T announced a $23 billion purchase of spectrum licenses from EchoStar, adding an average of about 50 MHz of low-band and mid-band spectrum, with AT&T’s network providing wholesale services for EchoStar’s Boost Mobile; the transaction closed in the third quarter of 2026.⁠[21][21][20]

In his letter to stockholders in the proxy statement issued in March 2026, Stankey said the company had returned $12.4 billion to stockholders in 2025 through dividends and share repurchases, more than 50% more than the prior year, and that “this is a great time to be in our industry.” At the annual meeting on May 14, 2026, he was re-elected as a director with 94.35% of votes in favor.⁠[4][4][4][22][22]

On October 13, 2026, AT&T announced an agreement to sell its wireless business in Mexico to Grupo Televisa and Fintech Holdings. Third-quarter results released on October 21 showed revenue of $32.3 billion, up 5.3% year over year, and the company reaffirmed its goal of reaching more than 60 million fiber locations by the end of 2030.⁠[23][20][20][20][20]

Commenting on the quarter, Stankey said: “Our asset base positions us well for the AI era, with a leading position in fiber – the best technology available.”⁠[20]

People who know Stankey describe him as a straightforward, no-nonsense manager who is not driven by his ego, and as an AT&T loyalist; Peter Chernin, who partnered with him, has said he is big with a very deep voice and can seem tough and intimidating at first, but is in fact very nice and funny.⁠[1][1][1][1]

AT&T’s board set Stankey’s 2025 total target compensation at $27.5 million, consisting of a $2.4 million base salary, a $5.6 million short-term incentive target and a $19.5 million long-term incentive target; on the proxy statement’s Summary Compensation Table basis, his 2025 total compensation was $29,906,872, 215 times that of the median employee.⁠[4][4][4]

Stankey and his wife, Shari Stankey, also a Loyola Marymount University alumna, established the John and Shari Stankey Fellowship at the university, a competitive award of up to $50,000 for one or two years rotating among tenure-line faculty for interdisciplinary research and creative work; the inaugural award combined journalism, media, computer science and business. He said that “almost every corporation in America has become less functional in how they’re structured and operate.”⁠[2][2][2][2]

AT&T: Official website: https://www.att.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[14]