CANYON, Texas — One of the most powerful women in telecommunications will headline West Texas A&M University’s Stan Sigman Leadership and Innovation Series in an Oct. 12 event.
Jennifer Van Buskirk, executive vice president and general manager–mid-markets for AT&T, will speak at 10 a.m. Oct. 12 in Legacy Hall inside the Jack B. Kelley Student Center on the Canyon campus.
The event is free and open to the public.
“Jennifer Van Buskirk is a powerful and inspiring technology leader at AT&T, a leading telecommunications company with worldwide reach,” said Dr. Amjad Abdullat, dean of the Paul and Virginia Engler College of Business. “While Jennifer’s journey is inspiring for all of our students, her experiences in growing the reach and impact of technology will be particularly inspiring for women. Jennifer has many insights on leadership and innovation that are sure to resonate with the Texas Panhandle and campus communities.”
The series, named for a late alumnus and supporter of WT, was made possible through gifts from Sigman’s former AT&T colleagues. The gifts also established the Stan Sigman Scholarship Endowment and the Stan Sigman Endowed Professorship in Business, held by Dr. Jeffry Babb.
Van Buskirk also will hold a private session with College of Business faculty and students and record an episode of the Sigman Leadership and Innovation podcast.
Van Buskirk, a Dallas resident, is responsible for growing AT&T’s share of the small- and medium-size business market, driving transformation by simplifying to create focus, establishing accountability, executing distribution strategies to improve reach and yield, and re-igniting the culture.
Previously, she was senior vice president of Wireless Marketing, executing customer-friendly strategies to improve the value proposition and return the business to growth. She launched the industry-changing program Best Deals for Everyone and simplified the business with Unlimited Your Way.
Before that, Van Buskirk was senior vice president of operations for AT&T, supporting the company’s consumer sales and service channels. She led digital transformation efforts, eliminating more than 10 million calls a year, and accelerated store openings by reducing build costs by 75 percent. She helped create an innovative new sales channel that now produces more than 10% of AT&T’s wireless sales.
Van Buskirk also previously served as president of Cricket Wireless, a subsidiary of AT&T. She is credited with building AT&T’s premium prepaid wireless business from the ground up, including launching the start-up Aio Wireless and managing the merger integration and brand transition of Cricket after AT&T acquired Leap Communications in 2014.
She also served as senior vice president of strategy for AT&T Mobility and played key roles in some of the most significant events that shaped the wireless industry, including the first iPhone launch and Cingular’s acquisition of AT&T Wireless.
Van Buskirk was inducted into the 2015 Womenetics POW! Hall of Fame and was named one of the 2015 Influential Women in Wireless by Fierce Wireless. She also was among the National Diversity Council’s Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology and was named to the DiversityMBA Top 100 Under 50. She also received a Bronze Stevie Award from Women in Business for Female Executive of the Year.
The Sigman Leadership and Innovation Series spotlights WT’s commitment to providing a nurturing yet rigorous educational environment for its students, faculty, alumni and communities across the Panhandle, as laid out in the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.
That plan is fueled by the historic, $125 million One West comprehensive fundraising campaign. To date, the campaign — which publicly launched in September 2021— has raised more than $125 million and will continue through 2025.
