Altice USA named former executive VP of operations Pragash Pillai as its new executive VP and chief technology & information officer, replacing Philippe Le May, who becomes a special advisor to the company.

In a memo to employees last week, Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei said Pillai would assume the role of chief technology & information officer immediately, as well as continuing to lead the company’s operations organization.  

Goei added that PiIlai has a strong operations and engineering background and has always worked closely with the CTIO organization.

“As we look to accelerate our fiber deployment over the next several years to millions of additional homes, having both the CTIO and Field Operations organizations under Pragash’s leadership will streamline our fiber build and enable us to meet that goal efficiently,” Goei said in the memo. 

Altice USA stepped up plans to build out its fiber network across its footprint last month, pledging to pass 6.5 million homes with fiber by 2025, after reporting disappointing Q4 broadband results. Late last year it announced a change in its strategic direction, shifting several management positions and planning to rebrand the company under the Optimum name.  

Pillai has been with Altice USA and its predecessor Cablevision Systems since 2010 in various high-level operations, customer service and technology roles. Most recently he was executive VP of operations at the company and formerly served as executive VP customer experience and regional market strategy. He can trace his cable roots back to 1999 -- when he served as VP of advanced engineering, digital video for Charter Communications -- and earlier was senior VP of engineering and technology at Bresnan Communications.

Le May joined Altice USA in 2017, shortly after it purchased Cablevision Systems.  Le May signed on with a unit of Altice USA’s former parent Altice N.V. -- Altice France -- in 2006 and prior to that was head of network communications at Lyonnaise Communications.

“During Philippe’s time at Altice USA, he has been instrumental in the execution of our network and technology strategy, including the expansion of our fiber network, enabling 1 gigabit speeds across most of our footprint, and the integration of Morris and Service Electric infrastructure into our network, among other accomplishments,” Goei said in the memo. “I am grateful for Philippe’s leadership and his work to build a resilient, reliable network that enables our customers to live life connected.” ■