Executive comings and goings are like tea leaves for understanding MSOs. Consider this: Cox Communications, which, unlike fellow cable providers Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and Bright House Networks, stayed clear of Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR) when the company was founded, has hired Clearwire's CIO, Kevin Hart, to be its new executive vice president-CTO, charged with aligning the company's technology strategy with its overall business objectives.
Cox decided to pursue a different wireless route than the rest of the industry--going its own with a mobile wireless offering. Nothing in the MSO's official news release hints that will be an area of focus for Hart, but read the tea leaves.
Comcast, meanwhile, continues to shift and shape its Washington, D.C. lobbying efforts. Having named former NCTA boss Kyle McSlarrow as its new top lobbyist, the company has waved goodbye to NBCUniversal lobbying boss Bob Okum, who is leaving to start his own firm. His first clients: Comcast and NBCU, of course.
Finally, the nation's number one MSO named Maria G. Arias executive director of diversity and inclusion, a newly created role designed, no doubt, to fulfill some of the multiple diversity pledges Comcast made to get its hands on NBCU. Prior to this position, Arias was vice president of operations for Comcast's Southern Colorado systems.
For more:
- see this news release
- Variety has this story
- and this news release
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