Bio

Dan Hesse currently serves as Chairman of Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) and as a board member of PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC) where he chairs the Technology Committee.

Dan served as President and CEO of Sprint Corporation from December 2007 to August 2014. Previously, Hesse was the Chairman and CEO of Embarq Corporation, Chairman, President and CEO of Terabeam Corporation, and he spent 23 years at AT&T, where from 1997 - 2000, he served as the President and CEO of AT&T Wireless Services, at the time the United States' largest wireless carrier.

He received a BA from Notre Dame, an MBA from Cornell, and an MS from MIT where he was awarded the Brooks Thesis Prize.

Inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame, Dan received Corporate Responsibility magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award and was named "Most Influential Person in Mobile Technology" by LAPTOP magazine (Steve Jobs was #2), Wireless Industry "Person of the Year" by RCR magazine, "Executive of the Year" by Wireless Business and Technology magazine, "CEO of the Year" by the National Eagle Leadership Institute, “Kansas City’s Best CEO” in a readership poll by Ingram’s Magazine, one of the five "Best Turnaround CEO's of All Time" by Fierce Wireless, one of "10 Inspirational Leaders who Turned Around Their Companies" by Entrepreneur magazine, and he has twice received Wireless Week magazine's Leadership Award. Glassdoor regularly named Hesse one of America’s highest rated CEO's by employees. He serves on the boards of directors of the Women Business Collaborative and the JUST Capital Foundation. Dan co-hosts The Mentors Radio which is carried on the major podcast platforms.

The 2014 American Customer Satisfaction Index recognized Sprint as the most improved U.S. company in overall customer satisfaction, across all 43 industries from 2008-2014. During Dan’s years at Sprint the company was recognized 20 times by J.D. Power and Associates for excellence in customer service, and the Reputation Institute recognized Sprint as the most improved company in overall corporate reputation among the world’s 1,500 largest public companies. For his last two full calendar years as CEO, Sprint’s Total Shareholder Return ranked #1 among all S&P 500 companies.

Updated November 2024