Assignment is to get units to work together

In the latest executive shuffle at AT&T and its WarnerMedia unit, former Xandr president Rick Welday was named executive VP-AT&T Business and WarnerMedia Go-To Market.

The move comes weeks after John Stankey, the long-time phone company executives who was put in charge of the Time Warner asset acquired by AT&T, was named COO of AT&T with responsibilities for the company’s content, advertising and distribution businesses.

In a memo, Gerhard Zeiler, chief revenue officer of WarnerMedia, said that Welday will be responsible for working with teams across Warner Media and AT&T Business to help identify new joint solution and products.

Welday will report to both Zeiler and Ann Chow, CEO of AT&T Business.

He will also sit on the AT&T Operating Council.

Welday has been with AT&T for nearly 30 years. He was CMO for AT&T consumer segment when it launched Uverse, head of ad sales for DirecTV and most recently president of Xandr, AT&T advertising and data unit.

Here’s the memo from Zeiler:

Colleagues,

AT&T & WarnerMedia are both united in finding unique and novel ways to deliver additional value to consumers through our technology, distribution and content. Both organizations also work directly with businesses to solve their problems including infrastructure, wireless, Internet of Things, custom content, and marketing, to name a few. Executives from across AT&T Business and WarnerMedia are developing new products & services for their clients.

Thanks to the tremendous leadership of Joe Hogan, EVP of Sales and Marketing, WarnerMedia; Sarita Rao, SVP of Marketing, Analytics, & Alliances, AT&T Business and Shiraz Hasan, VP - Global Business and Industry Solutions - Channel Marketing, AT&T Business, we have established that the combination of our content & business solutions will unlock new opportunities for us to better serve the market.

In recognition of this opportunity, we are pleased to appoint Rick Welday as EVP - AT&T Business and WarnerMedia Go-to-Market. Rick will be responsible for working with teams across WarnerMedia and AT&T Business to help identify new joint solutions and products that drive incremental revenue in the business market. He will help deepen B2B relationships for AT&T by maximizing the unique assets of WarnerMedia such as advertising solutions, content and creative capabilities, with best in class AT&T business assets such as mobility, 5G, Internet of Things and data security.

Rick will report into both of us to ensure we drive synergies and collaboration across both organizations. In addition, Rick will sit on AT&T’s Operating Council. He will be located at Hudson Yards in New York.

For those who have not had an opportunity to work with Rick previously, he most recently served as President of Xandr Media, the advertising sales division of Xandr. In his nearly 30 year career with AT&T, he has had exposure to many parts of the business, including Chief Marketing Officer for AT&T’s consumer segment during the launch of U-verse, leading all advertising activity, responsible for all customer care, driving digital transformation and a variety of other senior roles across marketing and network services in the U.S. and internationally. Rick has made significant contributions to the business and we are excited for him to lead this effort.

Please join us in congratulating Rick in this new role.

Best regards,

Anne and Gerhard