CIO at AT&T Wireless resigns as company starts cost-cutting

Computerworld - AT&T Wireless Services Inc.'s CIO, Michael Benson, resigned yesterday, just days after news reports that the Redmond, Wash.-based company planned to lay off 1,800 IT workers.
In his memo to all AT&T Wireless IT employees, Benson said he would be replaced April 21 by Chris Corrado, who previously headed the securities solutions practice of Wipro Technologies, a division of Bangalore, India-based IT services company Wipro Ltd. Before joining Wipro, Corrado was chief technology officer at Merrill Lynch & Co.
Benson said that he had been planning his departure for several months and that the timing "was driven by the need to find the appropriate replacement."
Benson's announcement was posted on InternalMemos.com and confirmed by AT&T Wireless spokesman Mark Siegel.
Siegel said Benson's departure was unrelated to news reports this week of layoffs in the company's IT department. Benson's memo did not indicate what his plans would be after leaving AT&T Wireless.
Siegel declined to comment on press reports of the IT department layoffs. But he said the company has "ambitious growth goals" and wants to turn the corner to positive cash flow. To accomplish this, Siegel said, AT&T Wireless plans to "drive down costs as far as possible."
Cost-cutting is being exercised companywide, including the IT department. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported last Wednesday that AT&T Wireless planned to lay off 1,800 of its 3,800 IT workers.
Although he declined to comment on the number of layoffs, Siegel characterized the total number that the company plans for its workforce of 33,000 as small.
Earlier this year, Michael Keith, president of AT&T Wireless Mobility Operations, said the company views its IT systems as a "strategic asset that differentiates our services and reduces our cost structure."
Siegel said the company still views its IT department as a strategic asset, but as do all the other departments in the company, the IT group needs to meet cost benchmarks so that AT&T Wireless can meet its objective of achieving "positive free cash flow" this year.
Siegel added that the cost-cutting effort is also an attempt to help the company achieve profitability, though he declined to say when that would occur.
David Caouette, another AT&T Wireless spokesman, said the company's capital expenditures this year remain on target and unaffected by cost cuts. He said it planned to spend $3 billion on building out and upgrading its networks. Those plans include a joint venture with Cingular Wireless LLC, announced March 13, to build GSM/GPRS networks serving 4,000 miles of rural highways in the continental U.S.
Ken Dulaney,