David W. Dorman (born 1954) is an American Telecommunications executive and founding partner of Centerview Capital Technology Partners. Dorman is currently Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of CVS Health Corporation and serves on the boards of

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support E-commerce payment system, online money transfers; it serves as an electronic alter ...

Holdings, Inc.,

Yum! Brands Yum! Brands, Inc. (sometimes called simply Yum!) is an American multinational fast food corporation. It is a spin-off of PepsiCo, after they acquired KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. PepsiCo divested the brands in 1997, and these consolidated as ...

, Inc. and the

Georgia Tech Foundation The Georgia Tech Foundation provides financial assistance to the Georgia Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1932 and chartered under the tax laws of the United States as a non-profit 501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States c ...

. Dorman was a board member of Motorola, Inc. since 2006, was elected Non-Executive Chairman of the Board in 2008 and retired from his board position in May 2015. Dorman also was a board member of

Scientific Atlanta Scientific Atlanta, Inc. was a Georgia, United States–based manufacturer of cable television, telecommunications, and broadband equipment. Scientific Atlanta was founded in 1951 by a group of engineers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, ...

until the company was acquired by Cisco Systems in 2006.

Early life and education

Dorman was born in Georgia, and graduated from the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

in 1975 with a bachelor's degree in industrial management.

Early career

Dorman joined a company that was to become

Sprint Communications Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before being acquired by T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 54.3 million customers as of June 30, 2019. Th ...

in 1981 as employee number 55. He climbed the corporate ladder to become President of Sprint Business - with 10,000 employees and revenues of $4.5Bn by the time he was 35. Dorman became the youngest CEO of a Baby Bell company at the age of 39 following the decision to join Pacific Bell as President & CEO in 1994. The company was acquired by

SBC Communications AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the ...

in 1997, and Dorman resigned shortly thereafter to join early news aggregation service PointCast as CEO. Despite lofty expectations PointCast failed to deliver on its potential, and Dorman subsequently left to become CEO of Concert Communications Services, a joint venture between BT and

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

Tenure at AT&T

Dorman became CEO of AT&T after his predecessor, C. Michael Armstrong, joined Comcast as part of the company's acquisition of AT&T's broadband assets during the summer of 2002. The broadband disposition was one of many high-profile transactions made during Armstrong's tenure. Other notable moves include the acquisition of TCI, Inc in 1998 for $48 billion, and the spin-off of the wireless business into Cingular in 2001. The early part of Dorman's tenure as CEO was spent restructuring a stressed balance sheet, and re-positioning the company's product mix in response to dramatic changes in the competitive environment. Ultimately, the decision was made to position AT&T as an enterprise services company in the hope that such a move would make the business more attractive to potential acquirers. After an attempt to sell the business to BellSouth fell through, Dorman was able to reach terms with SBC to acquire AT&T during late 2004. Although he initially agreed to join SBC as a President, Dorman ultimately elected to pursue other opportunities and parted ways with the business shortly after the acquisition was finalized.

References

External links

David Dorman Bio at Reference for Business
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorman, David 1954 births Living people Businesspeople from Georgia (U.S. state) Georgia Tech alumni Sprint Corporation people AT&T people American chairpersons of corporations American technology chief executives American telecommunications industry businesspeople