AT&T has announced today that its CEO Randall Stephenson will be stepping down at the end of Q2 with COO John Stankey to fill the role. The wireless executive shakeup comes a bit earlier than expected based on Stephenson’s previous comments.
CNBC highlights that after seeing pressure from an activist fund last year for Stephenson to step down, he said back in February that he’d remain in the CEO position through this year. Today AT&T confirmed that those plans have changed as Stankey will take over and lead AT&T starting on July 1st. Stephenson will stay on as executive chairman of the board until January 2021.
Stephenson shared a statement on the change:
Stankey had this to say: