Edward Whitacre Jr.

Edward Whitacre, Jr. was born in Ennis, Texas into a middle class family to a railroad engineer. Much of his childhood was spent in nature—shooting rabbits in the fields and catching frogs from the creeks.

During his high school Whitacre used to play both football and baseball. After finishing high school, he was advised by his father to attend college and he got himself enrolled in the Texas Tech University.

Whilst pursuing his degree, Whitacre worked at the Dallas telephone company Southwestern Bell - he was so adamant on getting a job there that when they refused him he told them that he was ready to do even menial tasks.

After hammering in fence posts and measuring telephone wires for the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, Whitacre was absorbed into the company as a faculty engineer in 1963. The following year, he finished his industrial engineering degree.

He was doing very well with the company’s operational departments in Arkansas, Kansas and Texas and in 1977 and was made the assistant vice president of engineering and network services in Dallas, Texas.

Whitacre continued to progress with the company and was made the president of Southwestern Bell’s Kansas division in 1982 and within a few years he became the group president in charge of all of the company's non-telephone operations.

This was not it - in 1986 he was named vice president of public affairs and revenues and had responsibilities for Southwestern Bell's legislative initiatives, and in the same year he joined the board of directors and was named the vice chairman.

The most prominent work of Whitacre’s career is considered to be his position as the chief executive officer and chairman of the board in SBC. Under his leadership, the company was named the World's Most Admired Telecommunications Company by Fortune.