Richard J. Callahan (born December 4, 1941) is an American communications industry businessman. He is best known for his role as the head of US West International, and for starting or leading cable and wireless projects in 18 different countries. Callahan has been a recipient of various awards from organizations such as the

University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

College of Business Administration Lifetime Achievement award (2015) and the

Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen LLP was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corpo ...

Lifetime Achievement in Communications award (2001).

Early life and education

Callahan was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the

in 1964, where he was a scholastic-

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

player. He later obtained an MBA degree from

Creighton University Creighton University () is a private research university in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1878, the university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2015 the university enrolled 8,393 graduate ...

in 1972.

Career

Callahan's career began as a telephone

lineworker A lineworker (also called a lineman or powerline worker) constructs and maintains the electric power transmission, electric transmission and electricity distribution, distribution facilities that deliver electrical energy to industrial, commerci ...

before rising up through the ranks in telephone companies where he held positions in operations, marketing, commercial, and regulatory affairs. He held several senior management positions including president of US West's International division, where he oversaw dozens of companies providing services in 18 different countries. He managed this division from a London office. After leaving US West in 1996, he launched his own holding company, Callahan Associates International LLC (CAI), which acquired various cable and wireless operators internationally. With financial backing from

GE Capital GE Capital was the financial services division of General Electric. Its various units were sold between 2013 and 2021, including the notable spin-off of the North American consumer finance division as Synchrony Financial. Ultimately, only one div ...

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...

, and

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (, CDPQ; ) is an institutional investor that manages several public and parapublic pension plans and insurance programs in the Canadian province of Quebec. It was established in 1965 by an act of the ...

, CAI acquired a 55% share of

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It was formed in 199 ...

's "ish" brand cable operations in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

, shortly after picking up ONO, a Spanish cable TV operator. Callahan's team also purchased

Telenet Telenet was an American commercial packet-switched network which went into service in 1975. It was the first FCC-licensed public data network in the United States. Various commercial and government interests paid monthly fees for dedicated lin ...

, Belgium's largest cable provider and a system that Callahan had developed while at US West, valued at $969 million at the time.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Callahan, Richard J. 1941 births University of Nebraska alumni American telecommunications industry businesspeople Living people American technology company founders