Charter shuffled its network and technology staff this week, promoting two internal picks and adding Comcast engineering veteran Shane Portfolio as its new SVP of Network Engineering and Technology. The changes come as the operator lays the groundwork for a planned upgrade to DOCSIS 4.0 in the coming years.
Portfolio spent more than two and a half decades at Comcast. He joined TCI (which was acquired by Comcast in 2001) as a technical trainer in 1997 and rose through the ranks at Comcast, holding titles including Senior Director of National Network Operations and SVP of Technical Operations and Engineering for Comcast’s West Division. He was promoted to his most recent position as SVP of Field Operations in 2019, putting him in charge of the organization responsible for maintaining Comcast’s content delivery and core networks as well as its public cloud platform.
At Charter, Portfolio will be responsible for the architecture and engineering of Charter’s core access network infrastructure. He will report to Justin Colwell, who was appointed EVP of Connectivity Technology in May.
The operator also took the opportunity to bump up internal candidates Gary Koerper and Mike Baldino to new SVP roles focused on emerging technology and data platforms, respectively.
Koerper has served as group VP for Charter’s Wi-Fi and Connected Home unit since joining the company in 2018. Going forward, he is tasked with researching and assessing next generation technologies in support of the operator’s goals.
Meanwhile, Baldino, who was previously group VP for data platforms, is adding a bit more responsibility to his plate. He will oversee a team tasked with creating and operationalizing access to data sets within Charter’s Product and Technology organization.
Like Portfolio, Koerper will report to Colwell, while Baldino will report to EVP of Digital Platforms Jodi Robinson.
The leadership shuffle is the latest at Charter, which has seen a fair share of change in its upper ranks this year. In September, it tapped COO Chris Winfrey to succeed CEO Tom Rutledge and in May promoted Colwell when CTO Stephanie Mitchko-Beale left the company. The operator was also forced to replace EVP of Field Operations Tom Adams and CMO Jon Hargis this year after they announced in January plans to retire mid-year. Tom Monaghan, previously SVP of Field Operations, stepped into Adams’ role, while Sharon Peters was appointed CMO. Charter also installed Adam Ray in a newly created Chief Commercial Officer role, putting him in charge of sales and marketing.
All of the shuffling comes as Charter rolls out high-split upgrades in preparation for a leap to DOCSIS 4.0. It recently demonstrated DOCSIS 4.0 working with an amplifier cascade, filling in one of the final pieces needed to make deployments a reality.