Bible verse Ecclesiastes 11:14 states, “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”

Not bad words to live by and also the passage that guides and focuses Jerry Hendrix, BellSouth’s, now AT&T’s Vice President of Regulatory and External Affairs for the State of Florida.
  
“One never knows where life will take them,” says Hendrix, “so how one begins is not always a determinant of where one will end.”
     
Born in Ahoskie, North Carolina, African-American Jerry Hendrix is among those who are charged with navigating through the ever-changing world of telecommunications in the United States.
    
Speaking with ONYX magazine, he fondly reflects on his crucial formative years.
 “I’m the sixth of ten children...I have five brothers and four sisters. We grew up poor but didn’t know it. I thought sharing a room with five brothers was just fine...four of us shared a full sized bed, the other two a twin, and the four girls were also on a full bed. Of course, we learned not to move a lot while we slept!  Now if you think sleeping was a challenge, going to church was really wild. Did you know you can get twelve people in one vehicle? We did so on most Sundays. My mother was the strongest woman I’d ever seen. She was totally committed to caring for her family. Even though she worked sometimes at the hospital as a dietician, she ensured that our tee shirts, jeans, and khakis were clean, starched, and pressed with creases. Breakfast and dinner were always filling, available, and regular. My mother was extremely creative and resourceful—how else do you feed a family of twelve?

My dad was also hard-working. He was a self-employed mechanic, and known as the very best in our little town of Ahoskie. Somehow, he and my mom always ‘made ends meet.’ All of us, girls and boys alike, worked as soon as we were old enough. I’m sure we violated many labor laws, but we didn’t know about them. It really would not have mattered. Working in the cotton, tobacco, and peanut fields from sunup to sundown, even after school during the harvest, has helped me even today. I’ve learned the value of work, commitment, responsibility, saving money, and planning.

At the age of twelve, I became a shoe salesman. I learned how to sell shoes to men and women alike. In fact, I became very good and was asked to consider taking over as manager of the Fashion Shoe Store after graduating from college. I know now that I learned a lot more than just how to sell shoes. I learned how to negotiate, communicate, and to read people—you know, understanding social clues. I call upon those early years mostly every day, and I can truly say now that the Lord was preparing me for my future.”

Growing up with this sort of rigor led to the job survival skills that eventually paid off. Given his intellect and strong work ethic, Jerry entered Morehouse College as an early admissions student in what would have been his senior year of high school. Imbued with the love and perseverance that surrounded him as he grew up without many of the frills available to young men in more affluent families, Jerry served as a dorm counselor, secured employment with a major retail department store, performed statistician duties for the football and baseball teams while in college and was graduated from Morehouse in 1975. After a few years in an important retail management position, Jerry began his career in telecommunications when he was recruited for a job with Southern Bell and worked in the Hollywood, Florida installation and maintenance office as crew manager. From there, he was promoted to various positions that gave him a unique perspective on the workings of the information and communications industry. This exposure to numerous internal organizations, complete with increased responsibilities, prepared him for his current assignment.
           
Jerry Hendrix has been employed with BellSouth for more than 27 years.

“It has really been exciting,” Hendrix explains. “My responsibilities include the management of BellSouth’s Regulatory Division for the state of Florida.  I’m responsible for the advocacy of BellSouth’s policies and business objectives before the Florida Public Service Commission and other key external stakeholders.”

Based in Tallahassee, Florida, Hendrix succeeded Marshall Criser III, who currently holds the position of President of BellSouth Florida.  When questioned about Hendrix’s leadership, Criser commented, “Jerry’s technical expertise, coupled with his keen understanding of the consumers we serve, make him an extraordinary leader on the BellSouth team.  His vision and his experience in telecommunications is truly an asset”

Jerry Hendrix grew to genuinely appreciate his position in telecommunications.  “The technology, deregulation, and market demands have transformed and continue to transform telecommunications into a fast paced and rapidly growing industry,” says Hendrix, “and that is what makes my career in telecommunications particularly satisfying.”

“The technological advance and convergence taking place in the telecommunications industry is amazing,” Hendrix continues. “Thirty years ago, what we now call telecommunications and video services was very limited—by technology and scope of use—to telephone service: people connecting with each other voice-to-voice. Initially, the challenge was to make and maintain those connections locally, across state lines, and internationally. As new uses for the telephone signal, such as image transmission (facsimiles) and later data/computer transmission, were introduced and became common, technological improvements made to streamline functionality, increase speed, and reduce overall costs transformed “plain old telephone service” into a ubiquitous commodity. Furthermore, the translation of voice, music, and video from analog to digital format lent to the consolidation of previously unrelated business, entertainment, and service applications into a single, streamlined delivery system.”
    
Now, added to this equation was the issue of deregulation which allowed anyone to provide telephone service, not just traditional telephone service providers.
    
Jerry Hendrix says, “For the everyday man-on-the-street, it was just so much hoo-hah; all he wanted was for his telephone to work when he needed it.”
    
This presented the traditional service companies with “a very sticky conundrum.”
 
 “Not only were they required to self-dismantle,” Hendrix says, “they had to help those who were now their competition compete against them! Finally, all of this had to be done with as little customer disturbance and service interruption as possible. Of course, once others were ready to enter the telecommunications arena, users of the service had to make new choices:  Who will transmit their local service? Who will carry their other service?  What does ‘other service’ mean? It was not easy. We had to educate ourselves and all of our customers, but the definition of ‘customer’ had changed: some of them were within our company, and others were our competitors.”

Of course, it did not hurt that the market “kicked in.”  Jerry goes on to say that “research and development led to further delivery methods and uses for what, at the core, began as communication of information via an electronic signal. Originally, the manner of transmission used copper wire. Copper was the primary, if not the only way to get that information-laden signal to anyone needing it, regardless of the end-purpose of the signal. Later, fiber optic strand development —science looking for an application—found it with the advent and eventual widespread usage of the World Wide Web: a new conduit for the signal and the information it carried. Folks started laying fiber optic cable like it was going out of style. Ironically, it did because another scientific development used for something else had been considered to carry that same information: the satellite. Traditional telephone service had evolved into something out of science-fiction. And even more rapidly, non-traditional providers were searching for various means to simultaneously deliver information signals—with the multiple services they carried—sometimes quality, sometimes not—by circumventing the copper-transmitted signal  used by traditional providers.

“Further innovations that have lead to PDAs, wireless communications, multi-use devices (phone, music player, internet access, camera, etc.) along with bypass technologies such as Kazaa, Skype, and now Joost promise to make the future look like one spectacular ride.”

On the business side, Jerry Hendrix believes that broadband competition continues to lower prices while increasing the speed and quality of Internet access. “This is expected to continue in information-providing services. Although new products and services tend to be more costly at the outset, technological improvements, consumer demand for more services that can be accessed easily, quickly, and on the same device (i.e,. voice, music, video, wireless, and data), and provider competition also promise the best in services and price.”
           
“Our own continuing transition from a fully regulated entity to one that is fully deregulated remains a challenge as we seek to encourage legislators and regulators to reevaluate old assumptions that relied on distinctive networks for different services. Telecommunications regulation for now and the future must consider the dynamics of competition that has emerged beyond the traditional wireline sector toward a market that is completely intermodal. To compete in a manner that keeps pace with rapid technological development requires equally rapid and robust maneuverability for all providers.  And for consumers to reap the full benefit of constant improvements, all players need equal access to the power to compete in an equitable fashion--a level playing field in other words.”

 Jerry believes there are many entrepreneurial opportunities for African-American professionals seeking to enter the telecommunications industry. Hendrix reveals, “The scope of these opportunities is very broad (from content providers to network ownership and beyond). But to take advantage of them requires that those interested in this field  educate themselves. We must impress upon others the advantages of education, in all the forms that the word implies, as well as serve as exemplary role models for all people.”

Normally, one in Jerry Hendrix’s position would accept praise for his level of corporate achievement. But Jerry does not follow the norm here. Not bashful about his personal beliefs, Hendrix insists, “I do not segment my life into a work compartment and a spiritual compartment. Instead it is all one, and I wouldn’t want it to be any other way. I cannot do this job without the Lord’s leading. Each day, and often throughout the day, I pray about the issues and concerns I’m charged to address. The Lord has always proven faithful, and has consistently provided comfort, wisdom, assurance, and direction in my work and daily walk.” In fact, he credits the Lord with giving him an edge. “Going through hardships, whether one knows it or not, builds a sort of resilient endurance; a discipline that at first is not pleasant. But with time, it provides the stability to take one through anything life can bring. Furthermore, not having many material things left me to rely on my own thoughts, my imagination, and my sense of self. I learned how to relate to people.”

Jerry’s friend, Jack Shreve, former Public Counsel,?State of Florida and former Senior General Counsel, Office of the Attorney General  states, “Jerry Hendrix exemplifies the successful businessman who caries out his professional and personal life with consideration and the utmost integrity.

“Over the past couple of years we have had the opportunity to share our thoughts, discuss our lives and enjoy a friendship, which ha been inspiration for me.  I feel he is truly one of the finest gentlemen I know. 

Jerry’s family keeps him occupied. Adrienne, his wife of over 31 years, with two bachelor’s degrees and a Masters of Education in Curriculum & Instruction, keeps busy with converting storage space in their home into a multiple purpose art studio, writing lesson plans from her teaching experiences while researching new ones, taking care of “normal” household duties, and engaging in various creative activities. She also advocates for art education in the form of membership in the Florida Art Education Association, and membership with a board position in the Georgia Art Education Association. They also support their 20-year-old daughter, Danielle, a graphic design student at the Savannah College of Art & Design in Savannah, with frequent visits. 

Jerry Hendrix is on the board for the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science, and has an active church leadership position. He strives to live by those values with which he was reared.  These activities, along with family and a busy work schedule, leave very little time for much else.

When questioned about his future in politics, Jerry indicates that involvement is a possibility. “There aren’t many statesmen left.  There should be many, many more. I desire to fulfill the meaning of that term—free from selfish bias or self interest and partiality—if led to seek a political office.”
    
One can be sure that politics is nothing he will approach lightly. “My desire is to be totally committed to what the Lord would have me do, and in doing so, to be the best husband, father, and person possible.”
   
 Jerry Hendrix considers himself to be an ordinary man who finds himself called to meet an extraordinary opportunity in a rapidly changing industry. He hopes that others, however,  see him as a man of faith, totally trusting in the Almighty, the Object of his faith.
  
At any rate,  residents of the Sunshine State can rejoice that they have been blessed to have a man in their midst like Jerry Hendrix!