Ivan Seidenberg

Learn more about corporations VOTING to rewrite our laws.

Ivan Seidenberg is the Chairman of the Board and CEO of Verizon Communications Inc. He was paid $18.2 million in 2010.

• Director, Honeywell
• Director, BlackRock

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

Verizon has been a longtime member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Former General Counsel, Jerry Watson, is the Chairman Emeritus on ALEC's Corporate ("Private Enterprise") Board.

ALEC's current Executive Director, Ronald Scheberle, was formerly Vice President of Governmental Affairs at Verizon Communications Inc, (previously GTE/Verizon) and held that position with Verizon and predecessor companies for 30 years.

About ALEC

ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our ExposedbyCMD.org site.

Background

Seidenberg was Co-CEO in 2000 at Verizon's start, then became the sole CEO in 2002 and as Chairman since 2004. He "was instrumental in forming Verizon through a number of mergers and acquisitions, including Bell Atlantic and NYNEX (1997), GTE Corporation (2000) and MCI, Inc. (2006). He also helped create what is now Verizon Wireless in 1999 by bringing together the assets of Bell Atlantic Mobile, GTE Wireless and the U.S. properties of Vodafone AirTouch." He has also served as a director of Honeywell International Inc. and Wyeth.

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