AT&T Promotes Longtime Execs to Lead Channel Sales, Development

AT&T has promoted two longtime company executives to even bigger channel roles.

Will Harvey, vice president of AT&T Business Solutions, becomes vice president, business planning and development – indirect channels. The new role focuses on indirect channel investment programs supporting the solution provider community. Randall Porter, vice president of strategic alliances at AT&T Business, becomes VP, indirect channel lead. He will oversee the sales teams for AT&T Partner Exchange, AT&T Alliance Channel and ACC Business.

“We are excited to announce the next evolution of AT&T Partner Solutions,” the company wrote on LinkedIn. “Our goal is to best serve our solution provider partners and to keep growing our presence in the market with the right products, services and partner experience.”

AT&T’s Sarita Rao

Sarita Rao is senior vice president, integrated and partner solutions at AT&T.

“We are at a critical time in our evolution as a company. As we enter this new age, we are doing so in a way that recognizes the importance and value of our partners,” Rao said. “Because of our success as a channel and our sharpened focus on becoming America’s best broadband provider, we made a strategic decision to invest in scaling indirect.”

Rao added that the company is aligning resources for both the execution of its sales strategy, and the investment in the right business and technology development to benefit the channel. These latest personnel changes reflect the growth in this channel, she said. They also reflect the company’s desire to keep growing with its partners and investing in channel needs.

Two Tenures at AT&T

Harvey has worked for AT&T for 30 years. Before becoming vice president of AT&T Alliance Channel in 2020, he was AT&T’s vice president of network integration. He led a team of more than 800 employees and was responsible for $2 billion in revenue. Harvey established and developed AT&T’s managed application and hosting business that was acquired by IBM in 2015. He was granted four U.S. patents in his first position with AT&T has a product developer.

AT&T’s Will Harvey

Porter has also risen through AT&T’s ranks during his 24-year tenure. He began his career in several finance and marketing roles before eventually becoming assistant vice president, marketing, where he was responsible for marketing the company’s $22 billion wireless, applications and IP portfolio. He also supported more than 4,000 global wholesale customers and an $8 billion wholesale data and IP portfolio. Prior to his current position, he was assistant vice president at the company’s ForHealth Solutions, vice president for partner management and business development and vice president of select accounts — AT&T National Business.

He’s also an AT&T channel veteran. Four years ago, Porter reflected on AT&T’s Partner Exchange in an interview with Channel Futures. The program had recently celebrated its five-year anniversary.

AT&T’s Randall Porter

“We’ve invested a tremendous amount in the last three years around the solutions, around the APIs, on the front end from an ordering standpoint,” he said at the time. “We’re also making significant investments around service management and assurance. That’s one of the keys that the solution providers are looking for once they’ve sold them and implemented [them]; they want to understand that the carrier is backing them from a management standpoint as well.”