AT&T vs Vodafone: Founders, CEOs and History

AT&T

Founded

1885

Headquarters

Dallas, Texas

Current CEO

John Stankey

Employees

133,030

Vodafone

Founded

1984

Headquarters

Newbury, Berkshire, United Kingdom

Current CEO

Margherita Della Valle

Employees

85,000

AT&T

• Alexander Graham Bell

  AT&T possesses the most influential founding mythology in the history of global communications. The company's origin is directly tied to the single most important invention of the 19th century: the telephone.

• Gardiner Greene Hubbard

  Gardiner Greene Hubbard gave the early Bell enterprise its business spine. He helped finance Bell's experiments, organized the commercial structure around the telephone patents, served as the first president of the Bell Telephone Company, and pushed the invent…

• Thomas Sanders

  Thomas Sanders helped turn the telephone from a laboratory promise into a fundable business opportunity. By backing Bell's experiments, he accepted the risk that voice transmission might remain a novelty or be crushed by stronger incumbents.

Vodafone

• Sir Ernest Harrison

  Sir Ernest Harrison (1926-2009) was chairman of Racal Electronics. He backed Racal's 1982 bid for one of the UK's two cellular licences and funded the network that launched as Vodafone in 1985.

• Gerry Whent

  Sir Gerald 'Gerry' Whent (1927-2002) led Racal's cellular business from the 1982 licence win through the 1985 network launch, and became chief executive of Vodafone Group after its 1991 demerger from Racal.

AT&T

1. Theodore N. Vail1885–1887

   President (CEO)

   Vail built his reputation running the US Railway Mail Service, becoming its general superintendent in 1876 and modernizing its logistics, before Bell Telephone recruited him in 1878 as general manager specifically because of that operational expertise.

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2. John E. Hudson1887–1900

   President, AT&T Corporation

   Chief executive of AT&T Corporation, the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, from 1887 to 1900. SBC Communications bought AT&T Corporation in 2005 and took the AT&T name.

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3. Frederick Perry Fish1901–1907

   President, AT&T Corporation

   Chief executive of AT&T Corporation, the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, from 1901 to 1907. SBC Communications bought AT&T Corporation in 2005 and took the AT&T name.

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4. Theodore N. Vail1907–1919

   President (second term), AT&T Corporation

   Chief executive of AT&T Corporation, the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, from 1907 to 1919. SBC Communications bought AT&T Corporation in 2005 and took the AT&T name.

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5. Harry Bates Thayer1919–1925

   President, AT&T Corporation

   Chief executive of AT&T Corporation, the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, from 1919 to 1925. SBC Communications bought AT&T Corporation in 2005 and took the AT&T name.

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6. Walter Sherman Gifford1925–1948

   President, AT&T Corporation

   Chief executive of AT&T Corporation, the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, from 1925 to 1948. SBC Communications bought AT&T Corporation in 2005 and took the AT&T name.

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7. Leroy A. Wilson1948–1951

   President, AT&T Corporation

   Chief executive of AT&T Corporation, the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, from 1948 to 1951. SBC Communications bought AT&T Corporation in 2005 and took the AT&T name.

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8. Cleo F. Craig1951–1956

   President, AT&T Corporation

   Chief executive of AT&T Corporation, the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, from 1951 to 1956. SBC Communications bought AT&T Corporation in 2005 and took the AT&T name.

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9. Frederick Kappel1956–1967

   President, then Chairman from 1961, AT&T Corporation

   Chief executive of AT&T Corporation, the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, from 1956 to 1967. SBC Communications bought AT&T Corporation in 2005 and took the AT&T name.

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10. H. I. Romnes1967–1972

    Chairman, AT&T Corporation

    Chief executive of AT&T Corporation, the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, from 1967 to 1972. SBC Communications bought AT&T Corporation in 2005 and took the AT&T name.

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11. John D. deButts1972–1979

    Chairman, AT&T Corporation

    Chief executive of AT&T Corporation, the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, from 1972 to 1979. SBC Communications bought AT&T Corporation in 2005 and took the AT&T name.

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12. Charles L. Brown1979–1986

    Chairman, AT&T Corporation

    Chief executive of AT&T Corporation, the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, from 1979 to 1986. SBC Communications bought AT&T Corporation in 2005 and took the AT&T name.

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13. James E. Olson1986–1988

    Chairman, AT&T Corporation

    Chief executive of AT&T Corporation, the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, from 1986 to 1988. SBC Communications bought AT&T Corporation in 2005 and took the AT&T name.

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14. Robert E. Allen1988–1997

    Chairman, AT&T Corporation

    Chief executive of AT&T Corporation, the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, from 1988 to 1997. SBC Communications bought AT&T Corporation in 2005 and took the AT&T name.

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15. Edward Whitacre Jr.1990–2007

    CEO

    Whitacre earned an industrial-engineering degree from Texas Tech University in 1964 and joined Southwestern Bell that same year as a facility engineer in Lubbock, Texas, spending his entire four-decade career at the company and its successors.

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16. C. Michael Armstrong1997–2002

    Chairman, AT&T Corporation

    Chief executive of AT&T Corporation, the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, from 1997 to 2002. SBC Communications bought AT&T Corporation in 2005 and took the AT&T name.

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17. David Dorman2002–2005

    Chairman, AT&T Corporation

    Chief executive of AT&T Corporation, the original American Telephone and Telegraph Company, from 2002 to 2005. SBC Communications bought AT&T Corporation in 2005 and took the AT&T name.

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18. Randall L. Stephenson2007–2020

    CEO

    Stephenson earned an accounting degree from the University of Central Oklahoma and a master's in accountancy from the University of Oklahoma before joining Southwestern Bell in 1982, rising through finance roles including CFO before becoming AT&T's COO under W…

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19. John T. Stankey2020–present

    CEO

    Stankey earned a finance degree from Loyola Marymount University in 1985 and an MBA from UCLA in 1991, then spent his entire career at Pacific Bell, SBC, and AT&T, rising through operations and technology roles before running AT&T's entertainment group during…

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Vodafone

1. Gerry Whent1984–1996

   Founding Chief Executive Officer (1984-1996)

   The pioneering founder who birthed the Vodafone brand and laid the operational foundation of British mobile telephony.

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2. Sir Christopher Gent1997–2003

   Chief Executive Officer (1997-2003)

   Built the international footprint, including Germany and Italy, that later CEOs reshaped.

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3. Arun Sarin2003–2008

   Chief Executive Officer

   Arun Sarin served as chief executive of Vodafone Group Plc from 2003 to 2008.

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4. Vittorio Colao2008–2018

   Group Chief Executive

   He sold the stake in Verizon Wireless for $130 billion in 2014 and bought cable companies in Germany and Spain. Nick Read succeeded him in October 2018.

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5. Margherita Della Valle2023–present

   Group Chief Executive Officer

   Reduced the number of markets Vodafone operates in and shifted investment to Germany, the UK, Vodafone Business and Africa.

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AT&T

• Lumen Mass Markets Fiber Business2026$5.8B
• Time Warner2018$85.4B
• DirecTV2015$48.5B
• BellSouth2006$86B
• AT&T Corporation2005$16B

Vodafone

• Three UK (merger forming VodafoneThree)2025Undisclosed
• Liberty Global European Assets (Unitymedia)2019$18.4B
• Ono (Grupo Corporativo Ono)2014$7.2B
• Mannesmann AG (Hostile Takeover)2000Undisclosed