(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace) -- In a strategic partnership deal that could have been propelled forwarded by personal connections among the two companies’ board members, AT&T Inc (NYSE:T) and Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ:SBUX) announced on Friday that they would be launching AT&T Wi-FiSM service at company-operated Starbucks stores.

The companies have already started the deployment of AT&T Wi-Fi service at Starbucks locations in San Antonio. But this is only the first market to deliver the complete AT&T Wi-Fi experience in what will be a service offered nationwide.

“With the power of our Wi-Fi network, and through our partnership with Starbucks, we’re strengthening our ability to meet the needs of today’s mobile consumer virtually anywhere and everywhere,” said AT&T CEO/Chairman Randall Stephenson in the companies’ joint statement.

The company officials at Starbucks exuded an equal level of enthusiasm:

“We continue to build on the experience we know our customers expect from us,” said Starbucks CTO Chris Bruzzo in the statement.

“By partnering with AT&T as our U.S. Wi-Fi provider, we aim to deliver a better value, greater convenience and seamless connectivity in a mobility centric world to our customers,” Mr Bruzzo added.

NewsVisual created an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map that illustrates the personal connections between the two companies’ Board of Directors.

The Knowledge Map shows two nodal points that form sets of personal connections between the two board rooms.

These connections run through the Council on Foreign Relations, the May Department Stores Co, the Federated Department Stores Inc, and Arizona State University.  And they link two officials from Starbucks with five officials from AT&T.

Any one set of these personal links could have been the springboard that catapulted this agreement forward.