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AT&T names president
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November 28, 2000: 2:15 p.m. ET
Telecom giant names CEO of Concert, an AT&T and BT joint venture, president
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - AT&T Tuesday named David Dorman, chief executive of its joint venture Concert International, its president and said he will oversee the telecom's main consumer and business services units.
Dorman, 46, will be responsible for businesses that generate 75 percent of AT&T's $66 billion in annual revenue and lead roughly 82,000 employees. He will also oversee AT&T's network services group, international ventures, the AT&T/British Telecom Concert venture, and AT&T Labs.
 The appointment is the first for AT&T since it announced in late October that it will divide its holdings into four publicly-traded companies, giving shareholders the ability to invest in each of the four new units -- AT&T
Wireless, AT&T Broadband, AT&T Consumer and AT&T Business -- within the next two years.
The units under Dorman's control will be part of either AT&T Consumer or AT&T Business when the company's broad restructuring plan is completed.
Dorman fills the position of president which has been vacant since John Zeglis left in April to become chairman and CEO of AT&T Wireless Group (AWE: Research, Estimates).
AT&T Chairman Michael Armstrong will continue to oversee AT&T's wireless and broadband units in addition to orchestrating the company restructuring.
"With the workload to create the four equities, the spin-offs and restructuring, Mike's time has become increasingly difficult," Dorman said of Armstrong.
 Before becoming CEO of Concert in April 1999, Dorman was chairman, and CEO of PointCast, an Internet news and information service. In 1994, at the age of 39, he became the youngest CEO of a Bell operating company when he was tapped to head Pacific Bell.
Wall Street analysts viewed Dorman's appointment as positive and said the announcement is just the first of several executive hires the company needs to make as it transitions into its four separate divisions.
"This is a positive for AT&T," said Gary Jacobi an analyst at Deutsche Bank Alex Brown. "AT&T... is forming itself into four unique autonomous divisions. Dorman is coming on to handle business services. There are no negatives in this move."
Separately, AT&T and BT announced that Gerard Weis, 53, the venture's current president and chief operating officer, will take over as Concert's acting CEO.
In afternoon trading, shares of AT&T (T: Research, Estimates) fell 44 cents to $18.44.
--Reuters contributed to this story 
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