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Good morning. AT&T’s Pascal Desroches has spent his career thinking of his professional life as a series of chapters, each shaped, he says, “by change, challenge, and the opportunity to help navigate moments that mattered.”
On Dec. 31, he’ll close the AT&T chapter, retiring as CFO after more than five years in the role and nearly four decades in finance. Jennifer Biry, a longtime AT&T finance executive and most recently CFO and COO of McAfee, was named deputy CFO in July and will succeed Desroches on Jan. 1, 2027. There has been a wave of CFO transitions at Fortune 500 companies this year.
When I sat down with Desroches in New York City earlier this month, he explained that he stepped into the CFO role in 2021, during one of the most consequential moments in AT&T’s recent history. During his tenure, AT&T separated DirecTV, divested WarnerMedia, cut its dividend, and refocused on telecom infrastructure—5G and fiber.
“When you’re in the middle of making really hard decisions, you’re never quite sure how it’s going to work out,” Desroches told me. The lesson, he said, was about speed. AT&T sold DirecTV and its Time Warner assets early, before the Federal Reserve’s 2022 rate hikes impacted the value of those deals.
“Had we not done it as early as we did, proceeds would have been less, and the amount that we have to invest back into businesses would have been less,” he said. “That’s probably the thing I am most proud of. We didn’t hesitate.”
That willingness to make difficult decisions was paired with an emphasis on communication. Desroches singled out AT&T CEO John Stankey for communicating both the company’s wins and what it still needed to improve. He called communication “something that is underappreciated.” Stankey said in a recent LinkedIn post that Desroches has been an “exceptional partner and a principled leader.”
The leaders who shaped his career
Born in Haiti and raised in Queens, N.Y., after his family immigrated when he was five, Desroches grew up in a household where excelling in education was non-negotiable. He graduated from St. John’s University and earned his MBA at Columbia Business School.
“From where I started, it was really hard to envision something like this—it was never what I saw as a possibility,” Desroches said. “There weren’t a lot of people who looked like me in these jobs.” He hopes to pay that forward: “I really do hope that people look up and say, ‘Okay, you know what? I want to be like him.'”
Desroches started his career at KPMG, where Lemar Swinney, the first Black person to make partner in KPMG’s New York office, led by example and became his mentor and sponsor.
He went on to Time Warner, serving in roles including EVP and CFO of WarnerMedia, CFO of Turner Broadcasting, and global controller of Time Warner. The late Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons also became Desroches’ mentor. From Parsons, he learned to “be comfortable operating in ambiguity” and to “leave your door open for bad news.”
Those lessons shaped how Desroches approached the biggest financial choices of his AT&T tenure.
The math behind $150 billion
AT&T (No. 35 on the Fortune 500) invested more than $150 billion in wireless and wireline networks, including spectrum, largely over Desroches’ tenure. Sequencing that investment against an aggressive deleveraging plan meant treating capital spending as non-negotiable, he said.
“You can’t save your way to prosperity,” he said.
The dividend cut was the harder call. AT&T’s annual payout fell from more than $15 billion in 2020 to about $8 billion, freeing cash for reinvestment and debt reduction. Last year, AT&T generated more than $16 billion in free cash flow and invested more than $22 billion in the business. Investors have rewarded the strategy: AT&T’s stock has returned roughly 65% over five years and nearly 95% over the past three, including dividends, outpacing the S&P 500 over the three-year stretch.
“You have to have the agility to make changes to your plan,” while knowing “you can’t abandon a project midway,” he said.
As he prepares to close the AT&T chapter, Desroches isn’t stepping away from corporate life entirely. He sits on the board of Honeywell Aerospace, where he chairs the audit committee, and expects to join one or two additional boards or take on advisory work.
His advice to mentees and finance professionals reflects the long view that has shaped his career: Treat your career as “a marathon, not a sprint”—sustained by sleep, exercise, eating well, spending time with loved ones, and finding enjoyment.
“If you don’t make time for things that bring you joy, that replenish you, you’re not going to be your optimal self,” he said.
Sheryl Estrada
Sheryl.Estrada@fortune.com
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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