Ralph de la Vega served as Vice Chairman of AT&T Inc. and CEO of Business Solutions & International. Prior to this, he was President and CEO of AT&T Mobile and Business Solutions, where he had overall responsibility for the company’s wireless and business services operations. Before that, he was President and CEO of AT&T Mobility. Under his leadership, AT&T Mobility became one of the world’s leading smartphone and mobile Internet providers and expanded into new growth areas such as connected cars, and home security and automation.
During his career Ralph has held numerous executive positions, including COO of Cingular Wireless and President of BellSouth Latin America. As the COO of Cingular Wireless, he was responsible for the integration of AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless, following the largest all-cash merger in U.S. history at the time. As President of BellSouth Latin America, Ralph was responsible for wireless operations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela and Uruguay.
Ralph serves on the boards of American Express Company, New York Life Insurance Company, and Amdocs Corporation. He served as Chairman of All-Markets Initiatives for the Boy Scouts of America and is a member of the board of Junior Achievement Worldwide. He has received numerous awards recognizing his leadership, including induction into the Atlanta Business Hall of Fame and the prestigious Global Innovation Award from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.
He is the author of the best-selling book Obstacles Welcome: Turn Adversity to Advantage in Business and Life (Thomas Nelson, 2009). Ralph received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Florida Atlantic University where he also received an honorary doctorate, and he has his MBA from Northern Illinois University. In 2016, he was inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame at the awards dinner in Las Vegas.