James W. Cicconi is Senior Executive Vice President – External & Legislative Affairs at AT&T, Inc., responsible for the public policy organization, and is chair of the AT&T Foundation.  He has served in this capacity since November 2005, following the close of the merger between SBC Communications and AT&T Corp.  As General Counsel and Executive Vice President for Law and Government Affairs at AT&T Corp., he managed one of the largest corporate legal and regulatory organizations in the country.

Mr. Cicconi joined AT&T in 1998 after nine years as a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, L.L.P., where he specialized in administrative and regulatory law, as well as federal legislation.  His clients included Mobil, Pfizer, The Bank of New York, and AT&T.  He was involved in the public sale of Conrail, the restructuring of Executive Life Insurance, the acquisitions of Vought Aircraft and of Square D, and the restructuring of Lloyd’s of London.

He served for two years in the White House as Deputy Chief of Staff to President George H. W. Bush and as the Senior Issues Advisor to President Bush’s 1988 and 1992 election campaigns.  He has coordinated the drafting of the party platform, assisted in debate preparation for the last three GOP presidential nominees, and served on the transition staffs of President-elect G. H. W. Bush and Secretary of State-designate James A. Baker III.

Mr. Cicconi served previously as Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan and Special Assistant to Chief of Staff James A. Baker III, with responsibility for policy matters ranging from judicial selections to preparation for Cabinet meetings.  Prior to that, he worked as Administrative Assistant to the Governor of Texas and as General Counsel to the Texas Secretary of State.

Mr. Cicconi has served as a presidential appointee to the Administrative Conference of the United States;  has been a consultant to the U.S. State Department on international organization matters;  served as a member of the U.S. Reform Observation Panel for UNESCO and as a U.S. delegate to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). 

Mr. Cicconi currently serves as a director of El Paso Electric Company and the American Council on Germany; is Secretary - USTelecom Board of Directors, a member of the University of Texas at Austin Development Board, the LBJ School advisory council, and a trustee of The Brookings Institution. He is also vice president of the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation; a member of the NXTcomm Board of Directors; and is Chairman of the Finance Committee for the commissioning of PCU GEORGE H.W. BUSH (CVN 77).  He has also served as a presidential appointee to the Review Advisory Committee for UNESCO and to the Administrative Conference of the United States.

Mr. Cicconi received a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law.  He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the State Bar of Texas.  He is married and has three daughters.