 restructuring in October of 2000, Armstrong had brought Dave Dorman in as president of the company to run everything but the cable and wireless businesses. Most people expected Dorman to succeed Armstrong as CEO. But when, at the end of February 2001, the board announced that it had made Noski vice chairman and named both him and Dorman direc- tors, at least some AT&T employees thought that there would be a horserace for CEO. In fact, several directors had approached Noski about throwing his hat into the ring for the job. But Noski made it clear to Armstrong and the board that he was not interested in being one of the entries in a two-man beauty contest. For one thing, he desperately wanted to go home to his family. Criss- crossing the country twice a week for three years had been emotionally as well as physically exhausting. He had had practically no time with his wife and young daughters. In fact, on one of their house-hunting trips least in April of 200I, they were wandering through a prospective home in Short Hills, New Jersey, when his cell phone rang, summon- ing him back to the office to deal with a crisis at AtHome. He didn't see his family for the rest of the weekend. Tough Calls And although AT&T was in far better financial shape than it had been, Noski didn't think the company could handle a competition be- tween two of its most senior executives. He could imagine people picking sides and fighting in the hallways. But most of all, he had signed up to help run a media and communications colossus, not to head a declining long-distance company, wherever that eventually might lead. In fact, Noski had tried to resign in February 2002, but the board had convinced him to stay on the grounds that he was the only person who seemed to be able to deal with Brian Roberts. Dorman, on the other hand, laid proud claim to being Sprint's fifty- fifth employee and had spent most of his working career in the tele- communications industry. Graduating from Georgia Tech with a de- gree in industrial management, he had held