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When Ray Carpenter retraces his steps to the CFO office at Xandr\u2014an analytics and advertising company formed by AT&T\u2019s WarnerMedia\u2014he singles out two earlier roles as having been outside AT&T\u2019s traditional finance track.

\u201cI actually got kicked out of finance for one role,\u201d says Carpenter, referring to a stint as a marketer inside a start-up launched by AT&T\u2019s emerging business markets group. \u201cWe did things that were uniquely different from what AT&T typically does when it launches a new business,\u201d continues Carpenter, who in addition to marketing was responsible for the start-up\u2019s pricing strategy. \xa0\xa0

Next, Carpenter joined AT&T\u2019s mergers integration group, where he helped to lead integration planning efforts for different corporate functions, a role that made him keenly aware of the integration challenges such future acquisitions as DirectTV would present.

From his stint in the mergers group, Carpenter stepped back inside AT&T\u2019s more traditional finance and accounting ranks and was soon named CFO of its Entertainment and Internet Services division.

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a forgone conclusion and still never is.\xa0AT&T has a habit of moving people around,\u201d explains Carpenter, who mentions a number of different functional areas recently led by executives who in the past had held traditional finance roles.

Says Carpenter: \u201cI always knew that I\u2019d be close to numbers, data, and analytics, and I felt that this would typically put me in the finance camp, but I wasn\u2019t surprised when other opportunities surfaced.\u201d\xa0\u2013Jack Sweeney