Ralph de la Vega

Ralph de la Vega is the former Vice Chairman of AT&T Inc. and CEO of AT&T Business Solutions and AT&T International. He has previously served as President & CEO of AT&T Mobile & Business Solutions; President and CEO of AT&T Mobility; COO of Cingular Wireless; President of BellSouth Latin America Operations; and the President of Broadband and Internet Services for BellSouth.[1][2] He is also the author of the 2009 book Obstacles Welcome: How to Turn Adversity to Advantage in Business and Life. Ralph de la Vega retired December 31, 2016, after a 42-year career with AT&T.

Ralph de la Vega
Ralph de la Vega
Born
Cuba
EducationMBA
Alma materMiami Dade College
Florida Atlantic University
Northern Illinois University
University of Virginia
OccupationBusiness executive
Years active1974–present
Notable work
Obstacles Welcome: How to Turn Adversity to Advantage in Business and Life
TitleFormer Vice Chairman of AT&T Inc. and CEO of AT&T Business Solutions and AT&T International
Board member ofAmerican Express
New York Life
Amdocs Corporation
Ubicquia
JA Worldwide
AwardsEmory University's Global Innovation Award
Honorary Doctorate from Florida Atlantic University

Early life and education

Ralph de la Vega was born in Cuba, and emigrated to the United States in 1962, at the age of ten. In an effort to flee the Castro dictatorship in that country, his family attempted to board a plane to Miami; however the border official stated that only Ralph's papers were in order. He was sent to the US alone, where he stayed with the friend of an aunt. It took four years for his parents to join him.[3] Once his parents arrived, de la Vega took an after-school job sweeping the floors of a garment factory to help support the family. He was then promoted, and started making money selling the clothing made by the company.[4]

De la Vega eventually enrolled in a pre-engineering curriculum at Miami Dade College, and worked part-time as a draftsman at an engineering firm.[4] He then received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Florida Atlantic University. He later received an MBA from Northern Illinois University.[5][6] He also completed the Executive Program at the University of Virginia and received an honorary doctorate from Florida Atlantic.[7]

BellSouth

De la Vega started his career in 1974 with BellSouth (then Southern Bell) as a management assistant.[8] Over the years he held positions in Network Planning, Consumer Services, Engineering, and DSL and Operations.[5] In 1985 he became a director at the Bell's Communications Research Technical Education Center (Bellcore TEC).[4] He was later made responsible for all BellSouth Telecommunications Network Operations in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.[5] Afterwards he became the president of BellSouth Broadband Internet Services.[5][9] De la Vega eventually became the president of BellSouth Latin America, a role he held from 2002 to 2003.[10] In this job he was in charge of the wireless subsidiaries in eleven countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The CEOs of each company reported to de la Vega, who restructured the decision-making infrastructure of the group in order to create cooperative strategies and policies between the different firms. At the end of his first year as president, BellSouth Latin America turned a profit for the first time.[11]

AT&T

De la Vega served as the chief operating officer of Cingular Wireless,[12] starting in 2004.[10] In 2007 Cingular was acquired by SBC (itself later renamed AT&T),[13] and he was named CEO of AT&T Mobility.[14] De la Vega was one of the leaders of the merger.[3] At AT&T de la Vega formed relationships between the company's mobile unit and automobile manufacturers, including General Motors, in order to grow the company's market for car connectivity. He also pushed for promotions intended to draw subscribers away from AT&T's competitors.[14] He also brought the iPhone to the company.[15] De la Vega was the CEO of AT&T Mobility until 2014, when he was promoted to president and CEO of AT&T's combined Mobile & Business Solutions group.[13] One of the main goals of de la Vega in this position is to develop AT&T's role in the Internet of Things and to deliver integrated services to business customers.[16] In 2016 he became the Vice Chairman of AT&T Inc. and CEO of AT&T Business Solutions and AT&T International.[17][18] Ralph De la Vega retired from this position on 31 December 2016.

Obstacles Welcome

In 2009 de la Vega coauthored the book Obstacles Welcome: How to Turn Adversity to Advantage in Business and Life, with Paul Brown. De la Vega decided to write the work due to the response he was receiving after the speeches he delivered at speaking engagements. The goal of the book was to provide career and life advice to youth and young professionals.[19] The book contains "four pillars of success" and "six pivotal points" in which he uses his personal story to structure his advice.[4] De la Vega has also written for periodicals including Cnet.[20]

Recognition

De la Vega was selected Executive of the Year by the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting and has been listed as one of America's "50 Most Important Hispanics in Technology and Business." He is a past member of the board of Junior Achievement of Georgia, where he serves as the chairman of the JA Hispanic Initiative, a program to encourage Hispanic students to remain in school and prepare for success in the U.S. business world. In addition, he has served on the board of directors for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra[10] and the Georgia Aquarium.[21] He is a member of the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America, the organization's governing body[22] and is a board member for the Georgia chapter of the Boy Scouts of America. De la Vega was featured in HBO's The Latino List pt.2 where he discussed his background along with other impactful Latinos. In 2011 he was awarded the Emory University's Global Innovation Award. He has also been a Trustee of Morehouse College.[23][24][25]

See also

References
  1. Perdomo, Y. (November 2004) "Ralph De La Vega" Hispanic 17(11): pp. 28-9.
  2. Belson, K., et al., (Sept. 2004) "For Cingular, Becoming No. 1 Also Poses Risks" New York Times (Late New York Edition) (September 27, 2004) pp. C1, C4.
  3. Lavette, Lavaille (2011-03-25). 86400. ISBN 9780446584012.
  4. "Leadership Books: Reading 'Obstacles Welcome' - getAbstract".
  5. Group, Career Communications. "Hispanic Engineer & IT".
  6. "Ralph de la Vega". Wireless Services from AT&T, Formerly Cingular. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  7. "KSU - Division of Global Affairs - International Achievement Awards".
  8. "Ralph de la Vega Profile - Forbes.com".
  9. "Taking the telecom industry by storm".
  10. "List of Public Companies Worldwide, Letter - Businessweek - Businessweek". Businessweek.com.
  11. Ralph de la Vega (20 August 2015). "How to Give Constructive Criticism - Fortune". Fortune.
  12. "Ralph De La Vega, Author & Executive says, "Obstacles Welcome"".
  13. "AT&T Mobility gets new CEO, de la Vega becomes Mobile & Business Solutions group head". Tech Times.
  14. Juan Martinez. "AT&T's de la Vega to lead newly merged wireless and business units". TechRadar.
  15. "3. Ralph de la Vega, CEO, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Market". FierceWireless.
  16. Stacey Higginbotham (15 September 2015). "AT&T's plan for the Internet of things goes way beyond the network - Fortune". Fortune.
  17. Cheng, Roger. "AT&T shuffles leadership to tie video, mobile services together". CNET.
  18. "Leadership". investors.att.com.
  19. http://www.leadersmag.com/issues/2010.2_Apr/PDFs/delaVega.pdf
  20. "Ralph de la Vega - Getting to the future first". CNET.
  21. Richard Martin. "Ralph de la Vega, President/CEO of AT&T Mobility, to Speak at Hispanic Chamber's Gala Event". Archived from the original on 2016-02-20.
  22. Boy Scouts of America Annual Report 2011 Archived 2012-11-14 at the Wayback Machine
  23. "HBO: The Latino List: Volume Two: Images". HBO.
  24. "AT&T Executive Receives Innovation Award". EmoryBusiness.com.
  25. Morehouse College. "Morehouse".
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