American businessman Ivan Seidenberg is the former Chairman and CEO of Verizon Communication who has an estimated net worth of $55 million. Born on December 10, 1946 to a Jewish family, his career in telecommunications began straight from high school as a lineman’s assistant. He then earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Lehman College and his MBA from Pace University. He has worked as a cable splicer’s assistant at New York Telephone. He became the head of NYNEX in 1994. When Bell Atlantic was merged with NYNEX, he took the position as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Bell Atlantic later became Verizon and he was named the sole CEO.

While at Verizon, Mr. Seidenberg was responsible for a number of mergers and acquisitions such as Bell Atlantic and NYNEX in 1997, GTE Corporation in 2000 and MCI, Inc. in 2006. In 1999, he was instrumental in forming Verizon Wireless when he brought together the assets of Bell Atlantic Mobile, GTE Wireless and the U.S. properties of Vodafone AirTouch.

On July 20, 2011, the Board of Directors of Verizon Communications Inc. accepted Mr. Seidenberg’s resignation as CEO effective as of August 1, 2011 but he still remains Chairman of the Board. On December 1, 2011, the Board of Directors accepted his resignation from the Board and as Chairman of Verizon effective at the close of business on December 31, 2011.

Since January 2011, Ivan Seidenberg is the director of BlackRock, Inc. He has served for the past five years as the director of Honeywell International Inc. and Wyeth.