A wave of CFO retirements is reshaping the Fortune 500—AT&T’s Pascal Desroches is the latest

Jennifer Biry was named AT&T's next CFO, bringing a blend of telecom, tech, and operational experience.

Good morning. CFO turnover continues across the Fortune 500, and AT&T’s latest leadership transition is another sign of a changing generation of finance chiefs.

AT&T (No. 35 on the Fortune 500) announced this week that Pascal Desroches, senior executive vice president and CFO since 2021, will retire effective Dec. 31. Jennifer Biry, a former longtime AT&T finance executive who most recently served as CFO and chief operating officer of McAfee, has been named deputy CFO effective July 6 and will succeed him as CFO on Jan. 1, 2027.

The timing aligns with a broader trend. Globally, 60% of outgoing CFOs retired or moved to board roles in the first quarter of 2026, up from 56% a year earlier and well above the seven-year first-quarter average of 39%, according to Russell Reynolds Associates’ Q1 2026 Global CFO Turnover Index.

Desroches eloquently described a paradox that leading CFOs encounter in their careers, especially in times of uncertainty.

“Along the way, I’ve learned that progress isn’t linear,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday announcing his planned retirement. “It takes discipline, resilience, and, at times, the willingness to make difficult decisions in service of something bigger and longer term. Some of the most defining moments of my career came in those periods of transformation—when the path forward wasn’t always clear, but the conviction to move forward had to be.”

Before joining AT&T, he was EVP and CFO of WarnerMedia and administrative officer of Turner Broadcasting System Inc., and previously served as Turner’s CFO and as global controller of Time Warner.

Desroches’ tenure at AT&T coincided with one of the most consequential strategic resets in the company’s recent history. AT&T separated DirecTV, divested its media assets through the WarnerMedia-Discovery transaction, reduced debt, reset its dividend, and renewed its focus on telecommunications infrastructure. At the same time, the company increased investment in 5G and fiber while simplifying its balance sheet and cost structure.

He has described those efforts as part of repositioning AT&T around its core telecommunications business. In conversations, I had with him over the years, Desroches consistently emphasized that finance leaders should be partners to the business rather than gatekeepers.

One leadership lesson he frequently returned to involved creating an environment where difficult conversations are encouraged.

“You can’t be in an organization where everybody’s terrified of the CFO—it just doesn’t work,” he told me last year. “As executives, we have to leave our door open, even for bad news, because it gives us an opportunity to problem-solve,” Desroches said, which was a lesson he learned from the late media executive Dick Parsons</a>.

In a LinkedIn post, Biry described her return to AT&T as a “full-circle moment that truly feels like coming home.” Her background reflects the increasingly broad expectations being placed on CFOs.

AT&T CEO John Stankey praised both leaders during the transition. In a statement, he credited Desroches with helping strengthen the company and sharpen its strategic focus, while expressing confidence that Biry’s breadth of experience will help drive the next phase of execution.

As one generation of CFOs retires, succession planning is becoming as important as strategy itself.

Desroches alluded to that in his message. “Colleagues who challenged my thinking, teams who delivered under pressure, and leaders who placed trust in me—those relationships are what I’ll carry with me most,” he wrote.

*Quick note: The next CFO Daily will be in your inbox on Monday. Have a good weekend.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.co

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com