AT&T replaces Coughlin with Lee as company's CMO

AT&T (NYSE: T) promoted Lori Lee to CMO. Lee will replace Cathy Couglin, a 35-year AT&T veteran who had held the top marketing position for the past eight years.

AT&T Lori Lee

Lee

According to Ad Age, Lee, who previously served as the company's EVP of its Home Solutions Division, is expected to bring some additional fire power to the company as it pushes into new markets through its recent acquisition of Nextel Mexico and as it prepares to close on its DirecTV acquisition.

In 2012, Ad Age's Data Center said AT&T spent the most on ads, totaling $1.56 billion in measured media--more than Verizon, Chevrolet, McDonald's and Toyota.

Coughlin will remain with AT&T serving as a consultant for Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson. In 2013, FierceWireless named Coughlin one of the industry's most influential women for her role as an advocate for attracting more women into careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

David Christopher will remain CMO of AT&T Mobility. Christopher recently talked with FierceWireless about his views on competition in the U.S. wireless industry as well as the company's focus the connected car, the connected home and growing its M2M business.

AT&T isn't the only telecom company reshuffling its top marketing job. Sprint announced last November that CMO Jeff Hallock was leaving the company at the end of first quarter 2015. The company has not yet named his replacement. And last October Verizon named Diego Scotti to a newly created position of EVP and CMO of Verizon Communications.

For more:
- see this Ad Age article
- see this FierceTelecom article

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Cathy Coughlin, senior executive vice president and global marketing officer, AT&T - 2013 Women in Wireless
Sprint's Claure hires new execs, as veterans Hallock, Carter and White depart