Anne Chow has hit the corporate job to the hilt.
Gone are the endless meetings, extensive travel, 24/7 pressure and oversight of over 35,000 global employees and 3.5 million customers.
Also gone are the executive compensation package and the prestigious title that defined it.
The former CEO of Dallas-based AT&T Business is now the owner of The Rewired CEO, which she operates from her home in Southlake.
Her only “staff” is her retired IT executive husband of 29 years, Bob Moore, who does everything from tending the books to taking out the trash.
Two years after “resetting” Chow, the 58-year-old daughter of Taiwanese immigrants says it’s the best exchange she’s ever made.
Once known as a corporate superhero, Chow is now the master of her own universe.
She is still hyperactive, but her days are of her choosing: corporate directorships, senior teaching, and op-eds for national magazines, including wealth.
Her first solo book, The Biggest Bullet: The Transformative Power of Inclusion, published by Simon & Schuster, just hit the bookshelves and is gaining national traction.
“Yes, this is what reconnection looks like,” Chow said in a recent interview.
Just a tired dog
Most people were shocked when the Gen Xer fast lane suddenly went away in August 2022 — just three years after it was promoted.
But the pandemic had destroyed Chow’s mind, body and spirit.
She was named CEO of AT&T Business just a year before COVID sent the world into chaos with people needing connectivity more than ever. Its global staff was stretched to the limit dealing with company and personal matters.
“We were in the thick of it,” she said. “A lot of people have forgotten about COVID, but it was a turning point for the world.”
During this time, Chow also served for years as the first female chair of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas’s all-important annual workplace fundraising campaign. This was especially challenging since workers were not coming into the office.
“Yes, I was only 55 when I made my announcement and 56 when I left. But I had been with AT&T for 32 years, and three of those years were COVID years, which was really like 21 dog years, wasn’t it?” she said.
“Many of my friends used the COVID period as a time to get fit. Mine was quite the opposite. I was at work so much that I gave up my health. I would like to live a little more than 60 or 65 years. I haven’t done enough about it yet.”
Perfect time to go out
Chow says she could have stayed for a few years, but the company was ready to chart a course after the pandemic.
“There was no way I wanted to be there in five years to see the results,” she said. “I did my time. There was a new strategy coming in, so the timing, frankly, was perfect.”
Chow googled the word “retirement” and saw that it meant leaving the workforce.
“I wanted to retire from AT&T, but I wanted to be in the workforce in a very different way,” she said. “I wanted more control over my life. I wanted more choices in my life. I wanted to recreate my identity.
“After two and a half years, I know I was right.”
Moore says his wife was not good at running corporate policy and could be labeled a renegade.
“Now she doesn’t have to work for anyone but herself,” said Moore, who managed the family’s day-to-day affairs while Chow was tied to executive duties. “She thoroughly enjoys having her autonomy. She is much happier. She realizes that no matter how crazy she is right now, it’s her choice.
“She’s actually settled into a routine that makes sense to her.”
Her ‘something with a comma’
But the reboot was more difficult than Chow expected.
For the first three months, she struggled with a sense of mourning.
She was no longer “Anne Chow, AT&T…” She calls it “something with a comma.”
“I went from ‘VIP Anne Chow, wait for something’ to a ‘PIP’ – previously important person – like that,” she said, snapping her fingers.
It took another three months before her opportunities began to come together.
“PIP now stands for ‘person of intentional influence,'” she said. “Everything I choose to do is because of a purpose. I’m super committed to [three public] the boards I serve on. I am super committed to the next generation of leaders. I have great passion for the science and art of leadership.
“When people ask what I’m doing, I say I have a portfolio life. The beautiful thing is that if something comes my way and I don’t want to do it for whatever reason, I just don’t do it.”
She soon discovered her true friends and what relationships were tied to her title.
“I only messed with a handful of people who disappointed me deeply – people I thought were my friends but really weren’t. It’s their loss,” she said. “There’s actually an advantage to that, because you’re really able to seek out and spend time with those who really matter.”
There are also people who have come out of the woodwork asking for favors.
“It’s like, ‘Duke, where were you when we could have built a relationship? And now you want help with your career?’” she said mockingly. “As you grow older, you become wiser. I feel like my vision has never been more laser sharp. It’s super liberating.”
Making way for youth
When Chow was in her 20s, she saw longtime AT&T employees hang on to their jobs after being with the company for 30, 35, 40 years. This stifled creativity and left little room for upward mobility.
“I saw extremely talented and super frustrated young people leave because there was no vitality. I remember saying to myself, ‘I don’t ever want him to be me. I don’t want to waste my time.’”
Chow recently returned to her former workplace for the first time in two years. Five employee resource groups hosted a book signing event at the AT&T Discovery District in downtown Dallas.
“In a way, it felt like a homecoming, but I definitely felt like an outsider. No badge. I purposely did not enter [headquarters] construction because it was not a company event,” she said. “It was very familiar and comfortable, but I felt like I wasn’t a part of it anymore.”
Once inside, surrounded by former colleagues, she realized she still was.
The AT&T Experience store was filled to capacity with 150 people, while another 200 watched virtually.
The five employee groups were advocates for AT&T employees who are female, Asian, over 50, disabled or young professionals.
“Everything came together because everyone loves Anne and loves working for her,” said Deniz Kustu, national president of AT&T’s InspirASIAN and one of the organizers. “She knew everyone on a first name basis, which is extremely rare for someone at her level. This book is about profiting through inclusion. She embodied that when she was here. That’s why her legacy lives on.”
A bully pulpit
One of the first opportunities was her Simon & Schuster book deal.
Best-selling author Stephen MR Covey, son of the late management guru Stephen R. Covey, has known Chow for nearly 25 years.
“Anne never gives airs,” the 62-year-old said from his office in Salt Lake City. “She’s just being herself, and that’s great.”
His two books, Speed of Faith AND Believe to inspirewere also published by Simon & Schuster through FranklinCovey Co. Chow is currently the lead director of its public board.
Covey encouraged him to write Lead Bigger because he likes the concept of stepping up and doing something beyond your expectations.
“There is more within us if we use our highest, best selves to bring out the best in the rest of us,” he said. “The contrast with that is getting smaller – which is small and brings out the worst.”
Covey also believes Chow has a unique platform to bully the pulpit. “Anne is a former top-level corporate CEO who is also a unique and insightful thought leader. That’s a rare combination.”
Cynt Marshall, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, says most people have heard of inclusive leadership and what it means.
“Anne brings the ‘how’ and shows us the steps to make sure every voice counts and everyone belongs. Insights from Anne and other leaders [interviewed for in the book] provide a guide to the greater journey—the journey to lead in a more caring, authentic, and impactful way.”
Family first, last
Spending more quality time with her family was the main driving force.
“I’m not proud of it, but for 32 years, I’ve taken my laptop on vacation,” Chow said. During her decade-plus as an executive at AT&T, Chow spent up to 70% of her time traveling.
“Both my daughters [25 and 22] are in the very formative ages of starting their adult lives,” she said. “My parents [who moved here from New Jersey in 2018] they’re getting old.”
Moore says his wife wasn’t a soccer mom, but she always went above and beyond to be there for “no-do” moments like dressing the girls for their prom.
In 2014, Chow hosted clients at the Kentucky Derby morning on the same afternoon her daughters were testing for their second-degree black belts in taekwondo.
She left early to return to Dallas and told her clients why. Some still tell her they were impressed with her priorities.
Her book is dedicated to her parents, Ming-Chwan and Joann Chao-Chu Chow, who showed her that bigger is always possible.
Chow gave thousands of presentations for AT&T and often relied on “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey and “Firework” by Katie Perry as her go-to songs.
Today she often turns to “High Hopes” by Panic! at the Disco.
She relates to everything about the 2018 song, but her parting lines especially resonate: “They say it’s all done, but they haven’t seen the best of me. So I got another run and it’s going to be a sight to see.”
Anne Chow
Age: 58
Title: Founder and sole owner of The Rewired CEO
Personal: Married to Bob Moore for almost 30 years. They have two daughters, 25 and 22 years old.
Lives: Southlake
Previous career: Retired from AT&T after 32 years, most recently as CEO of AT&T Business; co-author of Unconscious Bias: How to Reframe Bias, Cultivate Connections, and Create High-Performing Teams
Affiliation: Board member of 3M Co. and CSX Corp.; principal director of FranklinCovey Co.; assistant professor of executive education at Northwestern Kellogg School of Management; speaker and author of the newly published Greater leadership: The transformative power of inclusion