SEATTLE-Bob Ratliff has left AT&T Wireless Services Inc. to return to active politics, but said he will continue to work beside cellular baron Craig McCaw.
For the next month, Ratliff will coordinate communication strategy for a political campaign, the Seattle Commons project, which seeks to build a 42-acre park in downtown Seattle.
After that issue is offered for a vote at the end of May, Ratliff will become involved in McCaw’s Eagle River investment group, performing communications consulting and working on projects with McCaw.
“It was just time to do something different,” Ratliff said. He has a background in finance and politics.
Ratliff met McCaw at a political fundraiser in 1986 and joined the cellular operator to handle acquisition development. Ratliff took on external affairs and lobbying as well, and in 1989 began to head up McCaw’s public relations efforts. After McCaw Cellular Communications Inc. was bought by AT&T Corp. in 1994, Ratliff became senior vice president of corporate communications for AT&T Wireless. Todd Wolfenbarger now is vice president of AT&T Wireless corporate communications.
