Leadership

Bill Morrow assumed the role of CEO, DIRECTV in February 2021 as DIRECTV began the transition to become a standalone company.

DIRECTV, which distributes DIRECTV, DIRECTV STREAM, and U-verse video service. Well known for his global experience in leading complex turnarounds and capital-intensive startups, Bill has served companies from the telecommunications industry to energy utilities. Prior to becoming the CEO of DIRECTV, Bill served as the Special Advisor while managing DIRECTV at AT&T Inc., leading company-wide transformation efforts and reporting to the CEO. Before joining AT&T in October 2019, Bill served many companies as CEO of including Clearwire in Seattle, WA; PG&E in San Francisco, CA; NBN Co and Vodafone Hutchison in Australia; Vodafone in London, UK; and Vodafone KK and Japan Telecom in Tokyo, Japan.

Bill is currently a non-executive director of IkeGPS and Daisee Inc., with previous non-executive roles in both public and non-profit boards including Broadcom, Openwave, and California Academy of Sciences.

Bill holds a bachelor’s in Business Administration and a degree in Electrical Engineering.

Ray Carpenter is responsible for all financial functions, real estate, and supply chain.

Prior to this role, Ray held leadership positions across the telecommunications and media industry including advertising, mergers and acquisitions, investor relations, and financial operations.

Ray is a CFA® Charterholder and holds an MBA from Texas Christian University along with a BA in Political Science from Sonoma State University. Ray serves on the board of 826NYC, a New York-based non-profit, and sits as a board observer with Simulmedia, an advertising technology company.

Henry Derovanessian leads architectural support, software engineering, and operational responsibilities for DIRECTV’s entertainment portfolio including DIRECTV, DIRECTV STREAM, U-verse, NFL Sunday Ticket, and Live Sports Video Services. His team manages both the product development lifecycle which accounts for design, productization, deployment, and field support of software and hardware solutions, and the operations responsibility which provides consistent and reliable delivery, and distribution of video services.

Prior to joining the company, Henry served as Vice President of Strategic Marketing for the Media Processor division at Conexant Systems, and before that, he held executive positions in engineering at Sony Electronics. While there, he managed the development of digital TVs for the Sony North American market, and the broadband cable set-top box for a major cable operator in U.S. Henry started his career at General Instrument developing the digital video compression technology for the first over-the-air digital video broadcast standard (ATSC).

Henry earned his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from San Diego State University.

Michael Hartman is responsible for overseeing all of DIRECTV’s legal, external affairs, and compliance matters.

Prior to this role, Michael served as Senior Vice President, Assistant General Counsel of AT&T Inc. responsible for overseeing legal affairs of AT&T Latin America’s pay television business.

Michael holds a BA from the University of Michigan, an MA from the University of California at Berkeley, and a JD from the Columbia University School of Law. He is also fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.

Amy Leifer is responsible for leading DIRECTV’s advertising sales business enterprise wide. With over 25 years of experience across sales, operations, and technology, she is widely recognized as a problem solver who drives results and a winning culture through teamwork and collaboration. From delivering addressable, digital and data enabled solutions across screens for a large portfolio of brands, to reaching specific audiences with relevant advertising, Amy carries the expertise needed to deliver a world-class experience both for consumers and brands.

Amy began her career in media buying and syndication before joining the Game Show Network, helping to launch a dedicated ad sales team during her tenure. After joining DIRECTV in 2011, she transformed performance-based media and digital practices in addition to launching and scaling DIRECTV’s addressable advertising TV offering in the market. Amy has also held leadership roles at Xandr as Executive Vice President of Operations and Services, and WarnerMedia as Executive Vice President of Pricing, Planning, and Operations. These experiences have provided her with valuable expertise in both the technology and content sides of the business.

When she isn’t forging a path in the evolving world of advertising, Amy enjoys spending her time with her husband and two children in New York.

Amy McCracken oversees the programs, tools, and communications that will position the company to achieve its stated objectives over the next several years including corporate communications, public affairs, company culture and brand, employee engagement, and separation management.

In her previous role, Amy led the Time Warner merger planning PMO and later the Warner Media Synergy Office for AT&T Inc., where she led the efforts to help the company achieve merger synergies. Prior to WarnerMedia, Amy served as Vice President of Investor Relations, where she represented AT&T to the investment community, including Wall Street research analysts and institutional investors.

Amy graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in Biomedical Science, and she earned her Master of Science in Health Care Administration from Trinity University. She enjoys supporting the community and is actively involved as a member of the Cabinet on the Board for Vogel Alcove.

Scott Smith is responsible for overseeing all of DIRECTV’s human resources functions.

Prior to this role, Scott served as Chief Human Resources Officer of AT&T Communications. He and his team implemented and supported human resource programs including labor relations, talent acquisition, training, compensation, business partners, and operations. Scott’s career spans over 30 years with AT&T Inc. and in addition to HR, he has also held a variety of positions over his career in finance, billing, auditing, and information technology.

Scott currently serves on advisory boards for the National Academy Foundation, Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp)/CHRO, Evanta, as well as the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. Scott has also been a member of several professional advisory boards during his career including Enactus and Dallas Workforce Solutions.

Scott holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and a Master of Business Administration from Baylor University.

Debbie will be responsible for leading DIRECTV’s IT services enterprise-wide.

Originally from New York, Debbie has spent the last 25 years developing her career in Australia. Most recently she was the Chief Information Officer of NBN Co. helping to build and operate Australia’s broadband access network. Debbie has extensive experience in IT strategy, digital transformation, simplifying company-wide system architectures, and technology design. Prior to her role at NBN Co, she held digital transformation positions at Vodafone Australia and as an IT strategist for PwC.

Rob Thun is responsible for all strategy, investments, negotiations, acquisitions and operations for DIRECTV programming.

Rob Thun is the Chief Content Officer of DIRECTV and is responsible for all strategy, investments, negotiations and operations for programming on DIRECTV, DIRECTV STREAM and U-verse TV. In addition to acquisitions, he oversees the DIRECTV Compliance, DIRECTV Content Product Development an d DIRECTV Productions teams. 

Rob holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Georgia, a Master of Accounting from the University of Southern California, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Los Angeles Anderson School of Management. Rob is a board member for the Los Angeles Sports Council where he serves as Vice Chairman, as well as, the T. Howard Foundation and Echo Horizon School boards.

Vince Torres leads product management and marketing across DIRECTV’s video services. Vince’s responsibilities include the management of subscriber trends, pricing and acquisition investments, retention marketing and operations, customer lifecycle management, digital sales, advertising, and the product and capital roadmap.

Vince has over 25 years of experience in the technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) industries, for both B2B and B2C customers. Over the last six years, he held various marketing leadership roles at AT&T Inc. across their video, broadband, and postpaid wireless businesses. Vince joined AT&T in 2015 through the acquisition of DIRECTV, where he was responsible for revenue strategy, planning, and marketing analytics. Prior to that, Vince worked for PwC LLP for 14 years where he was well known for his pricing, profitability improvement, and new business model advisory services.

Vince currently serves on the board of directors for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern California and the American Heart Association of Los Angeles. Vince holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and an MBA from Duke University, where he was designated a Fuqua Scholar at the Fuqua School of Business.

As Chief Operating Officer, Mike leads the operations organization across IT, Engineering, Customer Service, and Sales in support of the DIRECTV and DIRECTV STREAM video products. 

With over 30 years of experience in the pay-TV industry, and a combined 18 years with AT&T and DIRECTV, Mike Wittrock has proven to be a leader and servant amongst his peers throughout an ever-changing industry.

Prior to this role, Mike served as the Chief Sales & Service Officer, responsible for all sales & service touchpoints— residential and commercial—including Sales Operations, Contact Center Operations, & Field Services for all customer interactions managed by employees and dealers. Mike also led Research & Customer Experience strategy for the DIRECTV enterprise.

During his tenure with AT&T, Mike managed customer acquisition execution of AT&T’s broadband & video services, overseeing indirect channels and AT&T’s connected communities’ portfolio which included delivering fiber to multi-dwelling unit properties and driving penetration via new technologies. He was previously president of the AT&T Southeast Region, overseeing sales & distribution in 12 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He also served as Senior Vice President of Customer Care for AT&T Entertainment Group, responsible for leading the Tier 1 and 2 Technical Care functions for consumer video, IP broadband and wireless services.

Mike joined AT&T in 2015 as part of the DIRECTV acquisition, where he previously served as a Senior Vice President of Sales & Distribution at DIRECTV.

From 1989 to 2005, Mike served in United States Marine Corps Reserve and earned multiple awards and decorations, including one Navy and Marine Corps Commendation medal, four Navy and Marine Corps Achievement medals and two Combat Action ribbons. Under his guidance, Mike also serves as an advisor to the Veterans @ DIRECTV employee council, and spearheads the DIRECTV S.A.V.E. (Suicide Awareness Veterans Engaged) initiative, supporting the fight against military and veteran suicide.

Additionally, Mike is actively involved in community efforts and volunteers with multiple non-profit organizations. He is a dedicated servant-leader, supporting causes and raising awareness, both personally and professionally – Atlanta Area Council, Boy Scouts of America where he has served as Chair, Duke Brain Tumor Center, where he serves on the Board of Advisors & Business Executive Council, Wreaths Across America, and more.

Amongst his many accolades and achievements, Mike remains unwavering in his mission to motivate those around him to define and exceed their potential and drive continuous innovation into the future.

Mike is a proud father and grandfather. He and his wife, Jennifer, reside in Rockwall, TX.

As Chief Customer Officer, Laurie Giammona is responsible for leading DIRECTV’s customer-centric strategy, transforming its operating processes and driving synergies across the Customer Operations team.

In her role as Chief Customer Officer, she is charged with being a voice for the customer, leading enterprise contact centers – technical, service, loyalty, direct and specialty sales – and digital/social care, as well as field operations, customer experience and research, and supply chain & reverse logistic operations, while focusing on caring for customers across every step of the customer journey.

Before joining DIRECTV in 2021, Giammona served as Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) serving 16 million Californian’s where she was responsible for leading all customer-focused functional areas including contact centers & digital channels, meter to cash operations, billing & payments, local leadership engagement teams, transportation, physical & cyber security, and corporate real estate. Additionally, she was responsible for PG&Es extensive clean energy portfolio including Energy Efficiency, Roof Top Solar, Demand Response, Electric Vehicle program and New Revenue Development.

Prior to PG&E, Giammona held executive roles at Comcast Cable, AT&T Broadband and United Airlines.  She has served as the Board Chair for the Make A Wish Foundation.  

Laurie is a native of the Bay Area, where she currently resides with her husband and two children.