AT&T; Lures Top Executive from Rival Sprint
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AT&T; hired a top executive from long-distance rival Sprint to oversee its information systems, the company said Thursday.
Ron J. Ponder, 50, will become senior vice president and chief information officer of AT&T.; He had been chief information officer at Sprint since 1991 and at Federal Express before that.
Ponder will report to AT&T;’s chief financial officer, Alex J. Mandl, at the company’s headquarters in Basking Ridge, N.J.
Until now, AT&T;, one of the world’s largest information and technology companies, had left the management of its own systems in the hands of executives at a lower level. The company has never had a chief information officer.
Ponder will directly oversee 8,000 employees and a budget of $2 billion.
He is the second high-level executive to leave Kansas City-based Sprint this week. At the company’s shareholder meeting Tuesday, John Frazee, president and chief operating officer, said he would retire.
Frazee was chief executive of Centel Corp. before its merger with Sprint last year.
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