Daniel R. Hesse

Daniel R. Hesse joined Akamai as a director in August 2016 and became Chair of the Board of Directors in June 2021. A veteran telecommunications and Internet executive, Hesse served as President and CEO of Sprint Corporation from December 2007 to August 2014.

Previously, Mr. Hesse served as Chairman and CEO of Embarq Corporation, a $6 billion telecommunications services company, and he was Chairman, President and CEO of Terabeam Corporation, a wireless telecommunications technology company. Hesse spent over two decades at AT&T, having led AT&T’s Online Services Group and the launch of the company’s first Internet service, WorldNet, and served as President and CEO of AT&T Wireless Services, the United States’ largest wireless carrier at the time.

In addition to receiving Corporate Responsibility magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Mr. Hesse has been named “Most Influential Person in Mobile Technology” by LAPTOP magazine, Wireless Industry “Person of the Year” by RCR magazine, “Executive of the Year” by Wireless Business and Technology magazine, “CEO of the Year” by the National Eagle Leadership Institute, one of the five “Best Turnaround CEO’s of All Time” by Fierce Wireless, one of “10 Inspirational Leaders who Turned Around Their Companies” by Entrepreneur magazine, and he has twice received Wireless Week magazine’s Leadership Award. Glassdoor regularly named Hesse one of America’s highest rated CEO’s by employees. For Mr. Hesse’s last two full calendar years as CEO, Sprint’s Total Shareholder Return (assuming reinvested dividends) ranked #1 among all S&P 500 companies.

Mr. Hesse serves on the National Board of Governors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and on the boards of The PNC Financial Services Group and JUST Capital. He has been awarded a CERT Certificate in Cybersecurity Oversight from the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.

He received a BA from Notre Dame, an MBA from Cornell, and an MS from MIT where he was awarded the Brooks Thesis Prize.