|
 |
|
|||
|
|
||
|
|||
March 2006 • Volume 3, Issue 3 This issue home | Past issues | Chamber home Chamber Holds Biggest Annual Banquet In Its 60-Year History AT&T Chairman & CEO Ed Whitacre Keynotes Event, Predicts Revival Of Telecom Corridor® Area
A sell-out crowd of nearly 800 people attended the biggest Richardson Chamber of Commerce Annual Banquet ever on Feb. 9, with keynote speaker AT&T Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre. The event was held at the Renaissance Richardson Hotel and also featured the presentation of the 2005 Citizen of the Year award, which went to Frank and Gerry Leftwich. (See related story.) As chief executive of one of the biggest telecom companies in the world, Whitacre offered words of encouragement for attendees living and working in or around the Telecom Corridor® area. “I commend all of you for your perseverance. It wasn’t easy to stick with the name through the lean years,” Whitacre said. “But now your patience is about to be rewarded. Telecom is something to brag about once again… New technology is kicking in and investors are starting to notice. Excitement is returning to the telecom business. And Richardson and the Telecom Corridor are once again right back in the thick of things.” Whitacre became chairman and CEO of AT&T Inc. in November 2005 when SBC Communications closed its acquisition of AT&T Corp. and adopted the AT&T Inc. name. Whitacre, a native of Ennis, Texas, said AT&T currently employs about 33,000 people in Texas, including 13,000 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. “We invest heavily in the state … last year to the tune of more than $760 million to keep our networks humming … and another $835 million on goods and services to support our operations here. We do all this because we believe in Texas. We have a lot of history together. And I know we have great times ahead.”
Charles W. Eisemann, 2005 Richardson Chamber Chairman of the Board and banquet chairman, said of the event: “Tonight was a very special and memorable evening for the Richardson Chamber of Commerce, and the entire city. We were all inspired by the words of Mr. Whitacre regarding the future of telecom and the huge potential that lies ahead for this community.” Also at the banquet, Eisemann officially handed over chairmanship duties to the 2006 Chairman of the Board Paul Voelker, Americas Marketing Manager for Hewlett-Packard. This year's banquet sponsor was Hewlett-Packard. Chairman's sponsors were AT&T Inc. and EMC2. The president's sponsor was Fujitsu. Alcatel was a director's sponsor. Table sponsors were: Alexander Wright & Associates, Atmos Energy, AT&T Inc., Bank of Texas, BEA Systems Inc., Bell Insurance, Boeing Company, Brown & Hofmeister, LLP, Cingular Wireless, Cisco Systems, City of Richardson, Colliers International, Constructors & Associates Inc., Deloitte, Ericsson Inc., First Bank of Canyon Creek, Galatyn Park Corporation, Goodman Networks Inc., Haynes and Boone, LLP, Hewlett-Packard Company, HumCap, InfoVision Consultants, Intel, LegacyTexas Bank, Level 3 Communications, Nortel, Oracle Corporation, Owens Sausage, RCC Signature Luncheon Series, Regions Bank, Reliable Chevrolet, Richardson ISD, Richardson Regional Medical Center, Richland College of the DCCCD, Samsung, Sun Microsystems Inc., Symon Communications, Tektronix, Texas Instruments Inc., The Richardson Hotel, TXU Electric Delivery, UTD - School of Management, Verizon Wireless, ViewPoint Bank, Wells Fargo Bank and White Rock Networks. In-kind sponsors were: Gunter’s Greenhouse, On The Mark Printing and Renaissance Richardson Hotel. |
|
Top Stories
More Top Stories In Every Issue
|
Action News is a monthly publication of the Richardson Chamber of Commerce Communications Department. Contact the editor. To unsubscribe, e-mail administrator@telecomcorridor.com. Please provide your name, company, phone number and e-mail address. |
