Year Inducted: 1994
Sam Ginn, a 1959 graduate of Auburn University with a degree in industrial management, began his career as a student engineer with AT&T in Cincinnati. This proved to be the launching pad for a distinguished professional life in which Mr. Ginn would have great impact on the nation’s telecommunications industry. His management expertise, bolstered by a Sloan Fellowship at Stanford University’s School of Business in 1969 and an M.B.A. from that same school, has spanned every phase of the telecommunications field, including marketing, accounting, planning, and developmental functions. He has been heavily involved in the strategic planning and overall administration of telephone companies, work which has had a direct impact on U.S. telephone operations.
At AT&T, Mr. Ginn eventually served in various executive positions, including vice- president, network operations, for AT&T Long Lines and director of rates and tariffs at AT&T headquarters in New York. He also served as area chief engineer for AT&T Long Lines, Chicago, with responsibilities for Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan, and handled other assignments in the plant, marketing, and accounting areas. Following his work at AT&T, Mr. Ginn served as vice-chairman of Pacific Telesis Group and as president and chief executive officer of PacTel Corporation, as well as group president of Diversified Businesses (with PacTel Companies). With Pacific Telephone, he served as vice-chairman for strategic planning and administration; executive vice-president/strategic planning officer; executive vice-president for network services; and vice-president for the Los Angeles sector.
In 1988, Mr. Ginn was named chairman and CEO of Pacific Telesis Group, having served earlier as the vice-chairman of the company’s board of directors and as president. The company is involved in ex- change telecommunications and exchange access service, mobile communication services, tele- communications equipment and directory-related ventures. Business volume for 1989 was more than $9.5 billion. The company employs 68,000 people. Mr. Ginn served as a vice chair- man of the Pacific Telesis board of directors from 1983 through 1987. He works out of the corporation’s headquarters at the Pacific Telesis Center in San Francisco.
Mr. Ginn’s vision and leadership have had a profound impact in virtually every phase of telecommunications operations as they affect not only Alabama but many other states as well. Active in numerous civic and professional organizations in the San Francisco area, Mr. Ginn holds memberships on the board of trustees of Mills College, the Business Roundtable, the Business Council, the Bay Area Council, the Conference Board, the World Affairs Council, and on the California Business Roundtable, which he serves as chairman of the Education Task Force. His corporate board memberships are with Pacific Telesis Group, Pacific Bell, First Interstate Bancorp, Transamerica Corporation, and Chevron Corporation.
Mr. Ginn and his wife, Ann, have two sons and a daughter.
