Sonia Perez

Sonia A. Perez (Bellaire, TX), AT&T Senior Vice President, is responsible for the company’s initiatives in Houston and Southeast Texas. A San Antonio native, she came to Houston after having served as General Manager for South Texas.

Ms. Perez serves on the Executive Committee of the Greater Houston Partnership, and on the boards of the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Senate Hispanic Research Council. She is also a member of the Memorial Hermann Hospital System Board of Directors.

Her involvement includes serving as Past Chairman of the Board of the Texas Exes, the alumni association of The University of Texas at Austin. Ms. Perez has also held positions on the Executive Committee of The University’s Commission of 125 and also on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the College of Communication. She and her husband are Life Member Texas Exes; and members of the Longhorn Foundation, Littlefield Society and Chancellor’s Council.

Prior to her move to Houston, she was a board member of the Rio Grande Valley Partnership. She has also served a six-year term on the national board of the Public Broadcasting Service, and was the first woman elected president of the McAllen Chamber of Commerce. In 1996, Ms. Perez received a Presidential appointment to the Advisory Council of the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission, helping develop solutions to environmental concerns in the U.S./Mexico border region. In 1993, Gov. Ann Richards appointed her to the board of the Texas Department of Commerce.

Ms. Perez was also the founding president of the McAllen Communities-in-Schools program, and is past chairman of the Valley Initiative for Development and Advancement (VIDA), an innovative program designed to assist others in training for high-skill jobs. She has experience in raising funds for community and church initiatives, including co-chairing a successful capital campaign which raised $6.5 million for the Museum of South Texas History where she was board chairman.

Ms. Perez has been recognized for her contributions to the community. She was named Houston Hispanic Chamber Female Executive of the Year for 2008. University of Texas Hispanic Alumni also named a 2008 scholarship in her honor. In 2006, the Texas Mexican American Legislative Caucus awarded her with its “El Abrecaminos” Award for setting a leadership standard for Latinos in Texas. She has also received the Texas Diversity Council’s Leadership Award. In 2001,The University of Texas at Austin named her an Outstanding Young Texas Ex. The Muscular Dystrophy Association of the Rio Grande Valley named her its Humanitarian of the Year for 2002. She has also been recognized as a Zonta Shining Star 2002, McAllen’s Woman of the Year 2000 and in 1995, she was named Rio Grande Valley Mother of the Year.

Ms. Perez graduated with Honors from The University of Texas at Austin, earning a Bachelors Degree in Journalism. She and her husband, Javier, have three children.