Former Imagine Communications CEO Charlie Vogt has been hired as the new chief executive of ATX Networks. Current CEO Ken Wildgoose will stay on the board and remain with the company as an adviser.
“ATX Networks has a strong history of innovation and is well respected by its cable, satellite and enterprise clients,” said Vogt in a statement. “I have spent most of my career championing disruptive and innovative change by ushering in new business models and competitive solutions for communication service providers and media companies. The cable, satellite and telecommunications industries are undergoing transformative change as the world embraces new advanced technologies to deliver services cheaper, faster and better than before. I am thrilled to join the Company at such an exciting time in our industry and look forward to working closely with the ATX team and its impressive lineup of customers.”
Vogt comes to ATX after more than 20 years in the broadband and internet access space. He led Genband out of its startup stage from 2004 to 2013 before joining Harris Broadcast, which was rebranded as Imagine.
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Vogt said that he’ll try to bring a new approach and maybe a bit of a faster pace as the new CEO of ATX. He said the company will target large commercial enterprise businesses with its video solutions. For instance, he said ATX will push its video signal gateway systems for hotels and other large commercial buildings. But he said that ATX will remain focused on the RF management space along with HFC and optical access.
“The company will continue to stay laser focused on the traditional RF base,” Vogt said.
ATX customers include Comcast, Charter, Time Warner, Cox, Dish Network, new business with Bell in Canada and BSkyB in Europe. The company was acquired by HIG capital a few years ago and then made some strategic acquisitions in 2016 that got it into optical access and commercial media gateway space.
ATX is based in Toronto and its acquisition companies have offices in California. Vogt will spend his first few weeks meeting with staff at all offices and developing a strategy in terms of accelerating and decelerating certain product development plans.
Vogt left his job as CEO of Imagine in December 2017 and moved into a senior adviser role with the Gores Group.