John W. Stanton | |
|---|---|
 Stanton (third from right) in 2009 | |
| Born | 1955 (age 70–71) |
| Alma mater | Whitman College (BA) Harvard University (MBA) |
| Spouse | Theresa Gillespie |
John W. Stanton (born 1955) is an American businessman. He is the majority owner of theSeattle Mariners ofMajor League Baseball (MLB) and has led several wireless communication companies.[1][2]
Stanton was born in 1955.[3][4] A lifelong resident of the Seattle area,[5] John Stanton attendedNewport High School inBellevue, Washington.[3] He earned an undergraduate degree inWhitman College inWalla Walla, Washington.[6][7] He earned anMBA fromHarvard Business School.[3]
Stanton was the founder and former CEO ofWestern Wireless Corporation, former chairman and CEO ofVoiceStream Wireless, and former chairman of theCTIA.[8][6]
He became the first employee ofMcCaw Cellular Communications in the early 1980s.[9] He was COO and vice chairman of McCaw Cellular in the 1980s.[3]
After he left McCaw he founded the company that became Western Wireless in 1992.[9] From 1992 to 2005, he was the CEO and chairman of Western Wireless.[3] He was the founder of Voicestream Wireless Corp.[9] Between 1995 and 2003, VoiceStream Wireless had him as chairman and CEO as well, with that company renamed T-Mobile USA after an acquisition.[3] In 2004, Stanton was inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame for his devotion to the industry.[10] From 2008 until 2013 he was director and then chairman ofClearwire.[3]
In 2005, he,Strive Masiyiwa, Bradley Horwitz, and others formedTrilogy International Partners.[11][12][13] At the start, Stanton had a $295 million equity stake in Trilogy.[12] In 2024, Trilogy announced that SG Enterprises, owned by Stanton and his wife Theresa Gillespie, had purchased all Trilogy shares and that Trilogy would be delisted from theToronto Stock Exchange.[14]
He is also chairman of Trilogy Equity and co-founder of Trilogy Search Partners.[15]
In 2006, Stanton's net worth was $1 billion.[16] Stanton was listed as #840 in the Forbes 2007 "Richest People" study. His net worth was estimated at $1.1 billion.[6] As of May 2025[update], he was listed as the 1,530th wealthiest person, with a net worth of $2.4 billion.[17]
As one of 17 minority owners in the team,[5] in April 2016, Stanton was appointed as the new CEO of theSeattle Mariners organization afterNintendo sold its majority stake for $661 million.[5][18]Major League Baseball formally approved the sale of the Mariners to Stanton in August of that year.[19] Stanton took over as control person from retiring chairmanHoward Lincoln.[19] Stanton became responsible for the Seattle Mariners day-to-day operations.[20]
In 2019, the team had few wins, with Stanton arguing the metric to look at was player success within a long-term plan.[21] In 2021, Stanton accepted the resignation of team presidentKevin Mather, after Mather had confessed tomanipulating the service time of Marinersprospects and made comments about the poor English-language skills of some of the team's foreign-born players. In a statement, Stanton said Mather's comments "were inappropriate and do not represent our organization's feelings about our players, staff, and fans."[22][23]
In 2024, Stanton said he regretted that team managerScott Servais learned he was fired through media reports rather than directly from the team. He also said that team spending must be sustainable over the long term,[24] which led to some criticism that the team spends less than its competitors.[25]
In 2014, he had chaired or co-chaired the Business Partnership for Early Learning, theUnited Way of King County campaign, theWashington Roundtable, and the Regional Transportation Commission.[3]
Stanton joinedMicrosoft's board of directors in July 2014.[3][26][27] He joined the compensation committee of the board.[3] He was also a director atColumbia Sportswear.[3]
Around 2016, he joined the board ofCostco.[9] As of August 2016, Stanton reportedly owned approximately $45 million of stock in Columbia Sportswear, General Communication Inc., and other companies.[28]
He is a past chairman of the board of trustees ofWhitman College.[6][7] In 2018, Whitman named a newly constructed residence hall after Stanton, who had graduated in 1977.[29]
Stanton lives inBellevue, Washington[7] with his wife Theresa Gillespie. They have two sons.[3]
