John S. Mayo


John Sullivan Mayo is an American engineer, AT&T executive and seventh president of Bell Labs, known from contributions to the computer and telecommunications industry.

Biography

Born in Greenville, North Carolina, he earned B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University.
Following this, Mayo joined Bell Labs, now Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, where he first worked on early computers as the TRADIC and Leprechaun, the Telstar satellite, ocean sonar systems and various switching systems. He was elected vice president at Bell Labs and eventually became the seventh president until his retirement. He is credited with globalizing Bell Labs and forging closer ties between its research and development and business units.

Awards