Ivan Seidenberg is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Verizon.
Under Seidenberg’s leadership, Verizon has become a premier network company, providing customers with the most advanced and innovative broadband experiences. Seidenberg was instrumental in forming Verizon through a number of mergers and acquisitions, including Bell Atlantic and NYNEX (1997), GTE (2000) and MCI (2006). He also helped create what is now Verizon Wireless in 1999 by bringing together the assets of Bell Atlantic Mobile, GTE Wireless and the U.S. properties of Vodafone AirTouch.
Seidenberg has led Verizon since its inception, first as co-CEO in 2000, then as sole CEO since 2002 and chairman of the board since 2004. Verizon now operates an advanced global Internet backbone, a premier national wireless network and – with the company’s deployment of its high-speed, fiber-optic FiOS technology – a next-generation broadband network. Verizon’s leadership in network innovation has earned the company numerous citations and awards, including being named to the BusinessWeek 50, which represents the “best in class” from each sector of the S&P 500.
Prior to the creation of Verizon, Seidenberg was chairman and CEO of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX. He began his communications career more than 40 years ago as a cable splicer’s assistant and has held numerous operations and engineering assignments, including various leadership positions at NYNEX and Bell Atlantic.
Seidenberg has a long-standing commitment to education and has made Verizon a leader in finding innovative ways to use communications technology to improve educational and literacy performance in the U.S. He also champions diversity both within and outside the company, and under his leadership Verizon’s commitment to diversity has been widely recognized.
In June 2009, Seidenberg was elected chairman of the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies. Previously, he had chaired the Roundtable’s Consumer Health and Retirement Initiative. Also in 2009, he became a member of the President’s Council of the New York Academy of Sciences. In 2007, President George W. Bush named Seidenberg to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, which advises the president on communications issues related to national security, emergency preparedness and the protection of critical infrastructure. Seidenberg also serves on the board of trustees of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, The New York Hall of Science, Pace University and the Paley Center for Media.
A New York City native, he earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Lehman College, part of the City University of New York, and a master’s degree in business administration and marketing from Pace. He and his wife, Phyllis, have two adult children and reside in New York.
