Charter creates CCO role for Ray, Monaghan to lead Field Ops

With the impending retirement of two top executives, Charter Communications is promoting four more employees into new high-level roles, including one into the newly-created position of chief commercial officer, a job with broad oversight of marketing and sales efforts.

That CCO role will be occupied by Adam Ray, who also will carry the title of executive vice president (EVP). Ray will oversee all marketing activity for Charter in addition to his current role leading sales, retention, analytics and Spectrum Community Solutions, according to a statement from Charter. Ray has been with Charter for 16 years, most recently as EVP, Sales Operations and Planning, and prior to that as EVP, Spectrum Community Solutions. Previously, he served as Regional Vice President of Field Operations for the Florida Region; Group Vice President, Residential Direct Sales; Senior Director, Sales Operations in Los Angeles; and Director of Sales and Marketing, all after starting his career at Comcast.

The CCO role was once a rarity in the telecom industry, where typically there was more separation between marketing and sales groups, and a formal, sometimes bureaucratic approach to cooperation between the groups. However, as digital channels have become more critical in both marketing and sales, companies have needed both groups to acquire a greater sense of urgency and become more dynamic and informally collaborative in pursuit of business and competitive goals, according to a 2019 McKinsey & Co. report on the subject.

Along with Ray’s promotion, Tom Monaghan is being elevated to the role of EVP, Field Operations. With this title will come oversight of field engineering and construction, including Charter’s previously announced $5 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund expansion; supply chain management; business planning and human resources for Field Operations, according to the company statement. 

Monaghan currently leads Charrter’s 11 field operating regions across 41 states. He previously served as Senior Vice President, Field Operations. He joined Charter in 2014 from Cablevision, where he served as vice president of field operations in the Cable and Communications Division. Prior to Cablevision he served in operations roles at Net2000; Teligent, Inc.; Bell Atlantic; and Verizon.  

Both Ray and Monaghan will report to Chris Winfrey, Chief Operating Officer of Charter. Meanwhile, among other moves, Sharon Peters has been promoted to EVP, CMO; and Christian Ruiz has leveled up to EVP, Sales. Both will report to Ray. 

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These changes come as two longtime executives, Tom Adams, EVP of Field Operations, and Jon Hargis, EVP, CMO, are set to transition into advisory roles in April, with their respective retirements planned for later this year.

“Jon and Tom have been instrumental to the growth and success of Charter and the embodiment of leadership in the development of their teams,” said Tom Rutledge, Charter Chairman and CEO, in the company statement. “Jon is a legend in cable marketing and his no-nonsense attitude, competitive instinct and sales leadership helped drive Charter’s growth and the creation of a customer-centric value proposition that continues to be at the core of our business model today.

“Tom’s steady hand, expertise and commitment to excellent customer service led our field operations through the repositioning of Charter in the marketplace and the successful completion of the largest systems integration this industry has seen.”