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www.privateairny.com Private Air | Spring 2022 87 PHILANTHROPY I Used to Run AT&T: Here's Why I'm Giving Away Most of My Net Worth FORMER CHAIR AND CEO OF AT&T GIVES AWAY NET WORTH W hat would you do if you learned that you might have only a few years to live? It's a wild question, one I faced more than once. is question not only changed my outlook on life, but inspired me to try to help make the world a better place, especially for those in need. I was diagnosed with hairy cell leukemia in the 90s, during my tenure as CEO of Hughes Electronics. It was a relatively serious case, too, as it had gone undetected for quite a while. I enrolled in a promising clinical trial and hoped for the best, but I still had to confront the reality that cancer could kill me. I write all about this in my book Cancer With Hope. No sooner had the grueling chemotherapy treatment ended, I developed a life-threatening blood infection—a side effect of the treatment. With my immune system weakened from the chemo, it was spreading quickly. I spent several tense days in the ICU not knowing if I'd make it through. Fast forward to 2005. I had just retired from my position as chairman and CEO of AT&T when I was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. After surgery came months of radiation and then years of intense hormonal therapy. On top of that, I received a new diagnosis— Parsonage-Turner Syndrome (PTS)—an autoimmune disease that attacked my phrenic nerve, which controls the diaphragm, severely limiting my breathing. I battled the PTS and the prostate cancer simultaneously. Dismal odds of survival confronted me at every turn. My doctors said my chances of making it hovered between 33-50 percent. at's scary, right? I had no choice but to reflect on how to maximize the impact of whatever time I had left. I had already started by increasing my financial contributions to Johns Hopkins Medicine, where I'd received countless treatments, but I wanted to do more. My wife Anne and I came to the realization: Instead of just giving a portion of our savings and investments, we would give most of it away. We would donate the bulk of our net worth to projects that advance medicine, help the disadvantaged, and make the world a better place. Words By: Mike Armstrong

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