John Donovan (Businessperson)
John Donovan (Businessperson)
John Donovan is an American technology entrepreneur and author based in Dallas, Texas. He is the CEO of AT&T. [1] [2]
Education
John Donovan (Businessperson) graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1982 with a Bachelor's degree in Electrical engineering. He later attended grad school at Carlson School of Management, where he received a Master's degree in finance. [1]
Career
Before joining AT&T in 2008, Donovan was executive vice president of product, sales, marketing and operations at Verisign Inc., an internet infrastructure company. He also was chairman and CEO of inCode Telecom Group Inc., where he helped shape strategy for wireless carriers worldwide. And he was a partner with Deloitte Consulting, where he was the telecommunications practice director for the Americas.
AT&T
Prior to his current role, Donovan served as chief strategy officer and group president of AT&T Technology and Operations. In that role, he led strategic planning for the company overall. Donovan also led the company’s networks and technologies team, which has driven AT&T’s global leadership in the transition to software-defined networking – with a focus on virtualized or cloud-based network controls – as well as the company’s leadership in the move to 5G networks. In that role, he also oversaw the company’s global information, software development, supply chain, network operations, and big data organizations, as well as AT&T’s Intellectual Property group, Labs and Foundries.
Prior to that, Donovan served as AT&T’s CTO, overseeing the company's global technology direction and innovation roadmap.
He also serves on the board of directors for Palo Alto Networks.
Books
Donovan has authored three books:
The Value Enterprise (published in 1998)
Value Creating Growth (published in 1999)
Building the Network of the Future: Getting Smarter, Faster, and More Flexible with a Software Centric Approach (published in 2017)