Thaddeus Arroyo

By Sandra McElwaine

As the chief information officer of Atlanta-based Cingular Wireless, Thaddeus Arroyo is one of the power brokers who engineered the $41 billion mega-merger with AT&T Wireless two years ago, a union that created the country’s largest voice and data network with now more than 58 million customers and over $30 billion in annual revenue. It also launched the soft-spoken, 43-year-old computer ace into the stratosphere of the business world, as one of the country’s most influential Hispanic executives.
Attuned to the tremendous potential of Latino markets—by the year 2010, every sixth person in the U.S. will be Hispanic, and the spending power of that community is projected to grow from $785 billion to $1 trillion, according to the Selig Center at the University of Georgia—Cingular is wooing those consumers by endorsing every aspect of diversity, setting up bilingual stores and reaching out to minorities through core strategizing, marketing and sponsorships.
“I think a lot of people are recognizing the trend now,” he observes. “You’re going to see a lot more companies expand their business model by targeting the Hispanic community.”
Born is San Francisco, the son of a Spanish father and a Mexican-American mother, Arroyo grew up in San Antonio and Dallas. He received a degree in mathematics from the University of Texas at Arlington, earned his MBA from Southern Methodist University and worked for Sabre and Southwestern Bell before joining Cingular in 2001.
With the finalized merger of SBC and AT&T, Thaddeus’ new challenge will be to lead a new chapter in technology integration as the CIO of AT& T.

Hispanic Trends: Were you a math whiz as a kid?
thaddeus arroyo: I had a strong propensity to math and logic skills, but it was more an ability of logical reasoning and the ability to break things down.

HT: How did you get into this field?
TA: Both my parents were immigrants and focused on education. They would never let me believe there was any barrier I couldn’t overcome. I think more than anything else it was believing in the art of the possibility.

HT: What was your original position when you started at Cingular?
TA: To bring together and unify their information technology by taking 11 different IT platforms and producing a single one. We established a plan within 90 days and went from 1,400 enterprise systems down to 300 in less than three years. We simplified the environment. It was a natural evolution of the industry. With the new merger of Cingular Wireless and AT&T Wireless we will be doing it all over again in a much larger scale.HT: Are you worldwide?
TA: Our network uses GSM, the most common global standard. That makes our phones compatible almost anywhere and allows our customers to use them when traveling overseas. We have partner relationships in more than 40 countries to further facilitate this.
HT: What intrigues you about current technology?
TA: There are few businesses today that can operate efficiently in the absence of a strong technological infrastructure. What really interests me is the aspect of innovation for customers based on their use of a product, and how companies make those products simpler for everyone.

HT: What do you worry about?
TA: Are we improving our customer experience? Are we doing the right things to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace and to build better relationships with our customers? And how we can leverage technology to improve that?

HT: Is there a frightening aspect to all of this technology?
TA: Our reliance on it. Virtually every company is so reliant on technology we have to keep it in the forefront of our investment decisions, and beyond that, our operability.

HT: What advice do you give?
TA: I think people have to understand the application and opportunity of technology and how it can change their business model. For emerging countries, it can be a huge way to close the gap in the way they serve their base of constituents. It’s part of society now. In Third World countries, wireless is a big part of the community, and ultimately it’s going to be the difference of whether or not they can compete in today’s global market.