AT&T Senior Leadership Spotlight: Rayford Wilkins, Jr.

Ray Wilkins, CEO-Diversified Businesses, is responsible for international investments, AT&T Interactive, AT&T Advertising Solutions, and Customer Information Services.

Previously, Mr. Wilkins served as group president and chief executive officer-SBC Enterprise Business Services, with responsibility for serving the company's 12,000 largest business customers and overseeing sales, customer care, data solutions engineering, consulting and operations of the company's advanced data and Internet Protocol (IP) networks.

Before that, Mr. Wilkins served as group president-SBC Marketing and Sales, with responsibility for all marketing and sales, including product development, sales support, business communications services and global and consumer markets, which then represented a $30 billion revenue stream.

In September 2000, he served as president and CEO of SBC Pacific Bell, where he was responsible for all business and consumer market sales, customer service, network services and external affairs in California and Nevada.

Mr. Wilkins has held several other leadership positions at AT&T and its predecessor companies including president-SBC Business Communications Services, president and CEO of Southwestern Bell Telephone, president of Pacific Bell Business Communications Services, and president for the Kansas/Western Missouri market area.

Mr. Wilkins began his career as a commercial assistant with Southwestern Bell Telephone in Houston in 1974.

Mr. Wilkins is a member of the boards of Valero Energy Corporation, América Móvil, The Tiger Woods Foundation and the National Urban League. He is also a member of the Advisory Council of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin and the Executive Leadership Council.

He has received numerous honors and recognition for his contributions both inside and outside of the company. Savoy magazine named him as one of the "2010 Top 100 Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America" and in 2009, he was recognized as one of the "100 Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America" by Black Enterprise magazine. He was recognized as one of "The 100 Most Important Blacks in Technology" by U.S. Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine and was named one of "The Top 100 Blacks in Corporate America" by Black Professionals magazine in 2006. In 2005 he was named one of "The 75 Most Powerful African Americans in Corporate America" by Black Enterprise magazine. Also in 2005, as well as in 2002, he was named one of "The 50 Most Important African Americans in Technology" by eAccess Corp., an online publisher.

In 2002, Mr. Wilkins was named by Fortune magazine as one of the "Nation's 50 Most Powerful Black Executives" and was honored as a "distinguished alumnus" of the Waco Independent School District in 2000. Black Enterprise magazine named him one of the "Top 50 African Americans" in 1999, and in 1997, he received the Eagle Award from the National Eagles Leadership Institute and was named CEO of the Year by the Minority Supplier Council.

Mr. Wilkins earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin in 1974. He attended the University of Pittsburgh's management program for executives in October 1987.