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Good morning. AT&T\u2019s Pascal Desroches has spent his career thinking of his professional life as a series of chapters, each shaped, he says, \u201cby change, challenge, and the opportunity to help navigate moments that mattered.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Dec. 31, he\u2019ll close the AT&T chapter, retiring as CFO after more than five years in the role and nearly four decades in finance. Jennifer Biry, a longtime AT&T finance executive and most recently CFO and COO of McAfee, was named deputy CFO in July and will succeed Desroches on Jan. 1, 2027. There has been a wave of CFO transitions at Fortune 500 companies this year.<\/p>\n
When I sat down with Desroches in New York City earlier this month, he explained that he stepped into the CFO role in 2021, during one of the most consequential moments in AT&T\u2019s recent history. During his tenure, AT&T separated DirecTV, divested WarnerMedia, cut its dividend, and refocused on telecom infrastructure\u20145G and fiber.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re in the middle of making really hard decisions, you\u2019re never quite sure how it\u2019s going to work out,\u201d Desroches told me. The lesson, he said, was about speed. AT&T sold DirecTV and its Time Warner assets early, before the Federal Reserve\u2019s 2022 rate hikes impacted the value of those deals.<\/p>\n
\u201cHad we not done it as early as we did, proceeds would have been less, and the amount that we have to invest back into businesses would have been less,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s probably the thing I am most proud of. We didn\u2019t hesitate.\u201d<\/p>\n
That willingness to make difficult decisions was paired with an emphasis on communication. Desroches singled out AT&T CEO John Stankey for communicating both the company\u2019s wins and what it still needed to improve. He called communication \u201csomething that is underappreciated.\u201d Stankey said in a recent LinkedIn post that Desroches has been an \u201cexceptional partner and a principled leader.\u201d<\/p>\n
The leaders who shaped his career<\/p>\n
Born in Haiti and raised in Queens, N.Y., after his family immigrated when he was five, Desroches grew up in a household where excelling in education was non-negotiable. He graduated from St. John\u2019s University and earned his MBA at Columbia Business School.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom where I started, it was really hard to envision something like this\u2014it was never what I saw as a possibility,\u201d Desroches said. \u201cThere weren\u2019t a lot of people who looked like me in these jobs.\u201d He hopes to pay that forward: \u201cI really do hope that people look up and say, \u2018Okay, you know what? I want to be like him.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Desroches started his career at KPMG, where Lemar Swinney, the first Black person to make partner in KPMG\u2019s New York office, led by example and became his mentor and sponsor.<\/p>\n
He went on to Time Warner, serving in roles including EVP and CFO of WarnerMedia, CFO of Turner Broadcasting, and global controller of Time Warner. The late Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons also became Desroches\u2019 mentor. From Parsons, he learned to \u201cbe comfortable operating in ambiguity\u201d and to \u201cleave your door open for bad news.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those lessons shaped how Desroches approached the biggest financial choices of his AT&T tenure.<\/p>\n
The math behind $150 billion<\/p>\n
AT&T (No. 35 on the Fortune 500) invested more than $150 billion in wireless and wireline networks, including spectrum, largely over Desroches\u2019 tenure. Sequencing that investment against an aggressive deleveraging plan meant treating capital spending as non-negotiable, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t save your way to prosperity,\u201d Desroches said.<\/p>\n
The dividend cut was the harder call. AT&T\u2019s annual payout fell from more than $15 billion in 2020 to about $8 billion, freeing cash for reinvestment and debt reduction. Last year, AT&T generated more than $16 billion in free cash flow and invested more than $22 billion in the business. Investors have rewarded the strategy: AT&T\u2019s stock has returned roughly 65% over five years and nearly 95% over the past three, including dividends, outpacing the S&P 500 over the three-year stretch.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to have the agility to make changes to your plan,\u201d while knowing \u201cyou can\u2019t abandon a project midway,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As he prepares to close the AT&T chapter, Desroches isn\u2019t stepping away from corporate life entirely. He sits on the board of Honeywell Aerospace, where he chairs the audit committee, and expects to join one or two additional boards or take on advisory work.<\/p>\n
His advice to mentees and finance professionals reflects the long view that has shaped his career: Treat your career as \u201ca marathon, not a sprint\u201d\u2014sustained by sleep, exercise, eating well, spending time with loved ones, and finding enjoyment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t make time for things that bring you joy, that replenish you, you\u2019re not going to be your optimal self,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sheryl\u00a0Estrada
Sheryl.Estrada@fortune.com<\/p>\n
Leaderboard<\/p>\n
Notable moves this week:<\/p>\n
Amy B. Schwetz\u00a0was appointed CFO of\u00a0Flex\u00a0(Nasdaq: FLEX), a manufacturing company, joining Oct. 5 to lead the company’s Regulated Manufacturing Services and Integrated Technology Services segments, and is expected to become full company CFO once Flex completes the planned separation of its cloud and power Infrastructure segment into a new independent company, Axiom Solutions International. She succeeds Kevin Krumm, who is expected to transition to CFO of Axiom upon completion of the split, projected for the first quarter of 2027.<\/p>\n
Jerry Leonard\u00a0was appointed CFO of\u00a0Vyome Holdings\u00a0(Nasdaq: HIND), effective Sept. 1, succeeding Robert Dickey, who resigned as interim CFO. Leonard will serve on a fractional basis through a consulting agreement between Vyome and ClearBridgeCFO, the fractional CFO firm he founded and leads as CEO. He previously served as CFO and secretary of VSee Health, and held a CFO role at iDoc Telehealth Solutions. Earlier in his career, Leonard held finance leadership roles at Voya Financial, IBM, and Colgate-Palmolive.<\/p>\n
Jim Young\u00a0was appointed chief financial and administrative officer of\u00a0Zelis, a health care technology company, succeeding Brian Gladden, who is retiring. Young, who has more than 20 years of finance leadership experience, joins from Coalition, Inc., the cybersecurity insurer, where he served as CFO. He previously spent nearly a decade as CFO of Broadridge Financial Solutions, and earlier held senior finance roles at Visa Inc. Gladden and Young will work together through a transition period ending Dec. 31.<\/p>\n
Jamie Anderson\u00a0has been promoted to president of\u00a0First Financial Bancorp.\u00a0(Nasdaq: FFBC) and First Financial Bank, effective immediately, while retaining his title of CFO Anderson, who has more than 26 years of banking experience and previously served as CFO of MainSource Financial Group, will now oversee the bank’s operational management and financial performance in addition to his finance duties.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Steve Delahunt, currently VP and corporate treasurer at\u00a0Cabot Corporation\u00a0(NYSE: CBT), has been named interim CFO, effective Oct. 1. He steps in as Erica McLaughlin, currently EVP, CFO, and head of corporate strategy, ascends to president and CEO, succeeding Sean Keohane. Cabot is conducting a search for its next permanent CFO. Delahunt brings more than 30 years of finance and treasury experience, including nine years leading Cabot’s investor relations function through January 2026.<\/p>\n
Brian Ezzell\u00a0was promoted to CFO of\u00a0Flowserve Corporation\u00a0(NYSE: FLS), a manufacturing company, effective Oct. 1. Ezzell, who currently serves as Flowserve’s VP of financial planning and analysis (FP&A), treasurer, and investor relations, previously spent four years as VP of enterprise FP&A at Kimberly-Clark, where he had finance responsibility for its $14 billion global supply chain. He succeeds Amy Schwetz, who is departing for a leadership role at another company.<\/p>\n
Big Deal<\/p>\n
A new high of 27% of U.S. workers now worry that technology could soon make their jobs obsolete, according to a new Gallup report. That’s up 7 percentage points from last year and roughly double the 13% Gallup recorded when it first asked the question in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This rising worry about technology contrasts with a more stable trend: workers’ concern about traditional threats to employment and income\u2014layoffs, reduced hours, lower wages, and benefit cuts\u2014has held largely steady over the past year. The findings are from Gallup’s Aug. 3-24 Work and Education survey.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Gallup
\nGoing deeper<\/p>\n
Here are four\u00a0Fortune weekend reads:<\/p>\n
“In transparency push, OpenAI discloses six more incidents of agents going rogue\u2014including one removing the \u2018obligation to be subservient\u2019” \u2014Emily Forlini<\/p>\n
“Billionaire TikTok founder is now the richest person in all of Asia, with a $105 billion net worth\u2014he\u2019s gained $92 billion since 2019 thanks to AI” \u2014Emma Burleigh<\/p>\n
“Salesforce\u2019s Marc Benioff to AI industry: Regulate yourselves or get sued” \u2014Sebastian Herrera<\/p>\n
“GM CEO Mary Barra says America has a \u2018societal problem\u2019 with skilled trades\u2014and is putting $200 million behind training Gen Z to work with their hands” \u2014Preston Fore<\/p>\n
Overheard<\/p>\n
\u201cIf younger investors are looking for ways to get ahead faster, the most valuable thing they can invest in is themselves, their skills, careers, and earning potential. A bet ends when the game does; a real investment can compound for years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Dan Egan, Betterment\u2019s VP of behavioral finance and investing, told Fortune in an interview regarding young people becoming increasingly involved in sports betting. “Sports betting and investing may look similar on the surface, but they\u2019re fundamentally different,” Egan said.<\/p>\n
#ATT #CFO #Pascal #Desroches #reflects #40year #finance #career #retiring<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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