AT&T has appointed Bala Subramanian as its new Chief Digital Officer, succeeding Teresa Ostapower. Subramanian most recently served as the chief digital officer of Best Buy from February 2017 to April 2018 prior to his new role at the second largest network carrier in the United States. Brian Tilzer, the former chief digital officer of pharmaceutical company CVS Health, will take over Subramanian’s role at Best Buy.
With his new role at AT&T, Subramanian will be responsible for the company’s initiatives to offer a multi-channel experience to customers, according to Rasesh Patel, AT&T’s executive vice president of digital, retail and care. Based on Subramanian’s LinkedIn profile, he previously held the role as senior vice president and chief technology officer for global e-commerce and global architecture at Best Buy for more than four years, beginning in August 2012 to February 2017 before he was named the chief digital officer at the company. As SVP and CTO, Subramanian oversaw all aspects of technology, product development, product management, and operations in the global e-commerce portfolio, with added responsibilities in the technology direction and roadmaps for enterprise IT and enterprise architecture practices at Best Buy. He helped Best Buy adjust to the changing retail landscape through a digital strategy which enabled the company to keep its presence in an industry constantly threatened by the rise of online-based retail dominated by the likes of Amazon. While Amazon and Best Buy are generally perceived as rivals, the two companies recently announced a new partnership which will see a number of TV sets powered by Amazon’s Fire TV software to become available in Best Buy stores in the United States in the coming months, and in Canada before the end of the year.
Prior to joining Best Buy, he worked at T-Mobile as vice president of enterprise architecture, a position he held from January 2008 to August 2012 with responsibility in leading an organization of enterprise and product architects who work to layout the technology roadmap for the networking comprising 3G and 4G technologies and back-office systems including enterprise resource planning, SAP, customer lifecycle management, billing and customer care systems. Earlier in his stint at the Bonn, Germany-based mobile telecommunication company, Subramanian served as a senior director for technology strategy and enterprise architecture since September 1997 through January 2008, during which he led the company’s efforts to execute its core data and network infrastructure strategy.