AT&T; Mines Hughes for New CFO

AT&T; Corp. named Charles H. Noski, 47, its new chief financial officer and senior executive vice president. Noski was president and chief operating officer for El Segundo-based Hughes Electronics Corp. and worked with AT&T; Chairman C. Michael Armstrong during Armstrong’s previous tenure as Hughes’ chairman. Noski will start work for AT&T; next week, replacing Daniel Somers, who earlier this week was named to head AT&T;’s Broadband and Internet Services unit. Armstrong called Noski “ideally suited” to the CFO post because of his strong operating and acquisition skills and experience in the global telecommunications and video business. Hughes Electronics, a leading communications satellite maker and a unit of General Motors, runs the DirecTV satellite television service. Noski said he decided to leave Hughes because the high-level job at a corporate institution such as AT&T; was “too appealing to bypass,” and his departure has nothing to do with Hughes’ prospects. Hughes CEO Michael Smith will assume Noski’s duties, and the company has not announced plans for a replacement.