Longtime AT&T Finance Chief John Stephens to Retire Next Spring -- Update
November 17 2020 - 4:50PM
Dow Jones News
By Nina Trentmann and Drew FitzGerald
AT&T Inc. hired a company insider to succeed longtime
finance chief John Stephens once he retires at the end of March, in
the latest change of guard within the company's leadership over the
past year.
The Dallas-based telecommunications company Tuesday said Pascal
Desroches would become chief financial officer April 1. Mr.
Desroches is now CFO of AT&T's WarnerMedia division and
previously worked in various finance roles at the entertainment
company.
Mr. Stephens has spent about 28 years at AT&T and its
predecessor companies and became finance chief in 2011. He oversaw
the company's finances as it made big bets on entertainment,
including a $49 billion purchase of DirecTV in 2015 followed by a
more than $80 billion purchase of Time Warner in 2018. AT&T
later renamed the film-and-television business WarnerMedia.
AT&T bolstered its balance sheet during Mr. Stephens's
tenure and refinanced a large chunk of debt it acquired with the
Time Warner deal. It also launched new financial instruments, such
as preferred shares marketed to mom-and-pop investors, in an effort
to diversify the company's sources of capital. Mr. Stephens in
recent months took advantage of low interest rates to extend
AT&T's debt maturities into later years.
His departure follows other recent changes in the company's
management, including the retirement of veteran Chief Executive
Randall Stephenson, who was succeeded by President and Chief
Operating Officer John Stankey. John Donovan, another contender for
the top post who ran AT&T's telecom business, quit in 2019 when
the company decided to name Mr. Stankey COO, a prelude to his
elevation in July.
Mr. Stephens's tenure at AT&T was significantly longer than
that of other CFOs at companies in the S&P 500 and Fortune 500,
according to the Crist Kolder Volatility Report, which tracks
executive moves. CFOs at those companies have been in their role
4.85 years on average, down from five years in 2019.
Also, those companies this year increasingly have turned to
insiders to fill CFO seats, with 61.2% of finance chiefs recruited
internally compared with 56.6% in 2019, according to the
report.
Mr. Desroches is one of a few top executives at AT&T who
started their careers outside the telephone business. The incoming
CFO will face a range of challenges caused by the coronavirus
pandemic, including closed movie theaters and weaker advertising
revenue.
Revenue in AT&T's latest quarter dropped 5% to $42.3 billion
compared with the year-ago period. The company attributed a roughly
$2.5 billion revenue loss to Covid-19, as theater closures shrank
box-office receipts from Warner Bros. movies and wireless roaming
fees dried up.
The company has cut thousands of jobs in recent months in
response to economic pressure as well as cost-savings targets
executives set earlier in the year.
AT&T declined to comment further on Mr. Desroches's future
responsibilities.
Write to Nina Trentmann at Nina.Trentmann@wsj.com and Drew
FitzGerald at andrew.fitzgerald@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 17, 2020 16:35 ET (21:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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