AT&T Wireless fills out board of directors

AT&T Wireless, which will officially split from parent AT&T on July 9, unveiled a group of directors from disparate industries, including three executives who currently serve on the parent company's board of directors.

Walter Elisha, Donald Fites and Ralph Larsen, all members of AT&T's board, will assume similar roles at AT&T Wireless along with Nobuharu Ono, an executive at NTT DoCoMo, John Madigan, CEO of the Tribune Company, Barry Rand, a retired executive from Avis Holdings, and Carolyn Ticknor, a retired executive from Hewlett-Packard.

Zeglis will serve as chairman of the board in addition to his duties as chief executive.

"It looks like an impressive group," said William Power, an analyst at Robert W. Baird, who maintains a "market outperform" rating on the stock. "These are all very savvy and experienced executives. Going forward, they will be making the decisions for AT&T Wireless as an independent company."

Once the split-off is complete, Zeglis, Elisha, Fites and Larsen will leave the AT&T board and immediately join the AT&T Wireless board. Masaki Yoshikawa, president and CEO of NTT DoCoMo USA, will step down from the AT&T board when Ono joins the AT&T Wireless board.

"AT&T Wireless is proud to have such an incredibly strong board at day one," Zeglis said in a statement. "Their broad experiences and unique perspectives will be a winning combination as we launch our new company."

AT&T Wireless shares had moved up 59 cents to $15.95 by the market close, down from a 52-week high of $29.56 established in July.

As part of AT&T's ongoing restructuring plan, the company will distribute 1.16 billion shares of AT&T Wireless common shares to its existing AT&T shareholders. AT&T shareholders will receive roughly one-third of a share of AT&T Wireless for each share of AT&T stock.