Charter Communications President and COO John Bickham will ride off into the sunset when he retires at the end of 2022. To date, Bickham has spent 35 years in the cable industry with additional stops at Time Warner Cable and Cablevision before the latter was bought by Altice USA.
Charter Chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge brought Bickham and other executives over from Cablevision after he was named Charter's CEO in 2012. Rutledge served as Cablevision's COO prior to joining Charter.
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Jim Blackley, who also followed Rutledge over from Cablevision to Charter, retired from his position as executive vice president of IT and engineering last year after eight years at Charter and 16 years at Cablevision. Scott Weber, who also was part Rutledge's team when both of them were at Cablevision, is a special advisor to Rutledge and Bickham after serving as executive vice president of network operations until July of last year.
“It has been a privilege to work alongside John for nearly 30 of his 35 years in the cable industry,” Rutledge, said in a statement. “He is widely regarded as one of the best operators in cable and has been instrumental in the successful integration of our three companies, and subsequent trajectory as the fastest growing cable company in the nation. I am grateful that he will remain as President and COO to provide continued leadership and support throughout this transition."
While Rutledge's executive team that followed him over from Cablevision is getting a little long in tooth, Charter has a migration plan in place that includes seasoned veterans. In order to prep for Bickham's departure Charter said both Rich DiGeronimo, chief product and technology officer, and CFO Chris Winfrey will be taking on added responsibilities.
Effective immediately, DiGeronimo has added oversight of Spectrum Reach—which is Charter’s advertising sales business led by executive vice president David Kline—to his current role of leading the product and technology organization, which both develops Charter’s competitive products and builds the tools and systems to support customers and employees enterprise-wide.
After previously reporting to Bickham, DiGeronimo now reports directly to Rutledge.
In addition to continuing as CFO, Winfrey will assume operational leadership for sales and marketing, and Spectrum Community Solutions that are overseen by Jon Hargis, who is executive vice president and chief marketing officer, and Adam Ray, executive vice president, Spectrum Community Solutions, respectively. Winfrey reports to Bickham on the operations side and to Rutledge as CFO.
Winfrey also keeps responsibility for Spectrum Enterprise, which is led by Bill Archer, executive vice president.
“We have developed a sound operating strategy and an outstanding leadership team at Charter,” Rutledge said. “Chris’s influence on our operations has expanded beyond traditional finance areas, and I look forward to seeing the impact of his leadership more formally within our cable operations.
"Under Rich’s guidance, the technology team has shaped the customer experience through our leading products and services, and it is that innovation and collaborative spirit that will benefit Spectrum Reach as it helps businesses reach their audiences in new ways."
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Prior to retiring Bickham's plate will continue to be full at Charter. Bickham will still oversee the field operations, customer operations, network operations, and FP&A and business planning teams, which are led by Tom Adams, executive vice president, field operations; Cliff Hagan, executive vice president, customer operations; Magesh Srinivasan, executive vice president, network operations; and Jim Nuzzo, executive vice president, FP&A and business planning, respectively.
David Ellen, senior executive vice president; Catherine Bohigian, executive vice president, government affairs; and Rick Dykhouse, executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, will continue to report to Rutledge.