James S. Kahan began his telecommunications career as an engineer with Western Electric in 1967 and transferred to Bell Laboratories in Piscataway, New Jersey, in 1972. He moved to South Central Bell in 1975, to AT&T in New Jersey in 1981, and joined Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in 1983.

In 1984 Kahan moved to Southwestern Bell's corporate development organization and played an important role in the company's acquisition of key cellular properties including those in Chicago, Boston, Washington, and Baltimore. In August 1988 Kahan was named managing director of corporate development and was responsible for mergers, acquisition activity, and international business development including participation in the consortium which purchased a controlling interest in Telefonos de Mexico in 1990. Kahan was appointed senior vice president of corporate development and became an officer of the company in January 1992.

In addition to his responsibilities at Southwestern Bell, a company with 12.5 million customers and 58,400 employees, Kahan serves on the board of directors of a number of company subsidiaries. He is presently on the boards of Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems, Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages, Southwestern Bell Telecom, Southwestern Bell Messaging Services, and Associated Directory Services and formerly was a director of Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex).

A Missouri native, Kahan received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1969 and completed a master's degree in business administration at the University of North Carolina in 1972.