AT&T names Jennifer Biry as next chief financial officer

AT&T is handing its next finance chief a balance sheet that still carries $138.4 billion of debt and a capital plan built around heavy network spending, not flashy dealmaking. By choosing Jennifer Biry, a longtime internal executive with deep ties to both the telecom and media sides of the business, the company signaled that its next phase will be defined by disciplined execution, not a change in strategic direction.

Pascal Desroches will retire as chief financial officer effective Dec. 31, 2026, after telling the company on June 11 that he planned to step down. AT&T said Biry will become deputy CFO on July 6, 2026, and then take the top finance job on Jan. 1, 2027. The long runway gives AT&T nearly six months after Biry’s deputy appointment and more than six months after the retirement announcement to stage the transition before the handoff becomes official.

Biry, 52, has been with AT&T since 1999 and has held senior leadership roles across finance, sales and strategy. She was AT&T’s executive vice president and CFO of WarnerMedia from 2020 to 2022, when that business was still part of the company, and later served as CFO and chief operating officer of McAfee since 2022. AT&T’s filing also said her stepdaughter works for an AT&T subsidiary, underscoring how closely Biry’s career has remained linked to the company.

The succession matters because AT&T’s next finance chief will be stewarding a business that has already spent years trimming costs, simplifying its balance sheet and pouring money into 5G and fiber. In the first quarter of 2026, AT&T reported $31.5 billion in revenue, $11.8 billion in adjusted EBITDA, $2.5 billion in free cash flow and $4.9 billion in capital expenditures. The company also reiterated plans to return more than $45 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases from 2026 through 2028, after returning over $12 billion in 2025.

That combination of debt, spending and payouts explains why the choice of CFO is being read as more than routine succession planning. AT&T said it invested more than $150 billion in its wireless and wireline networks between 2021 and 2025, and the next finance chief will be expected to preserve that investment pace while keeping leverage in check and supporting shareholder returns. For a telecom industry that has largely moved beyond the merger era, the message from AT&T is clear: the hard work now is balance-sheet management, capital allocation and steady delivery.