Charter Communications said executive VP and chief marketing officer Jonathan Hargis and executive VP field operations Tom Adams will transition to advisory roles in April and retire later this year. As part of that transition, the cable operator has promoted several executives to fill those roles and others throughout the company.

Hargis joined Charter in 2012 as CMO after serving in a similar position at Cablevision Systems. At Charter he oversaw all of the company’s sales and marketing operations, including its transition to the Spectrum brand. 

Adams came to Charter in 2012 from Time Warner Cable, where he served in several operational roles for 17 years, including division president in Binghamton, N.Y. and Rochester N.Y; regional vice president of operations for Wisconsin and Eastern Carolina. Earlier in his career he held various leadership roles at NewChannels Corporation.

“Jon and Tom have been instrumental to the growth and success of Charter and the embodiment of leadership in the development of their teams,” Charter chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge said in a press release. “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. I thank them both for their friendship, their many contributions to Charter and the broader cable industry, which has also benefited from their storied careers.”

As part of that transition, senior VP field operations Tom Monaghan will become executive VP field operations. Adam Ray will take on the newly created role of executive VP, chief commercial officer. Both will report to chief operating officer Chris Winfrey. 

Monaghan joined Charter in 2014 from Cablevision Systems and most recently served as senior VP of operations. In his new role he adds oversight of field engineering and construction; supply chain management; business planning and human resources for field operations across 41 states. He has more than 30 years experience in the cable industry.

Ray has been with Charter for 16 years, coming over in 2005 from Comcast where he spent five years as a sales leader in Knoxville, Tennessee. In his new position, Ray will oversee all marketing activity for Charter in addition to his current role leading sales, retention, analytics and Spectrum Community Solutions.

In addition, senior VP marketing Sharon Peters has been promoted to executive VP, chief marketing officer, and senior VP sales and retention Christian Ruiz has been named executive VP, sales and will report to Ray.

In her new role, Peters will be responsible for the entire marketing function. 

Ruiz most recently served as senior VP, sales & retention and in 2021 his responsibilities were increased to include all residential and small- and medium-sized business (SMB) sales and retention functions, adding direct sales, Spectrum Stores and Retail, SMB Strategic Channels and Sales Operations to his existing responsibilities for all of Charter’s inbound sales and retention call centers.

He joined Charter in 2014 as regional VP, commercial sales and previously served as senior VP of customer service at Cablevision, and also led sales and service teams at AT&T and T-Mobile, USA. 

“Having worked closely with the field operations, sales and marketing teams over the years, I have seen firsthand the capabilities and leadership that Tom, Adam, Sharon and Christian bring to the organization,” Winfrey said in the press release. “They possess the necessary skill, experience and track records that will benefit Charter long into the future.” ■

Charter Communications made some organizational changes in its sales, marketing and field operations units by expanding the responsibilities of some executives, moves it said will help position the company for future growth. 

Former EVP of MDU Markets Adam Ray has been named EVP, Sales Operations & Planning, increasing his oversight from multiple dwelling unit (MDU) Markets, to include Sales & Retention, and Sales & Marketing Analytics and Operations. Ray is a 16-year veteran of the company, joining Charter from Comcast in 2005 and serving in a number of operational roles over the years, including regional VP of Field Operations for the Florida region, group VP, Residential Direct Sales; senior director, Sales Operations in Los Angeles; and director of Sales and Marketing .

SVP of Marketing Sharon Peters will add Marketing & Creative Services, and Digital Marketing to her current responsibilities. Peters joined Charter in 2016 as Group VP of Marketing. Prior to that she spent 19 years at Cablevision Systems, ultimately serving as the lead marketing executive responsible for developing integrated digital, media and direct marketing strategies and plans for the Optimum brand.

In other moves, Tom Monaghan, SVP of Field Operations, who has been leading five of Charter’s operating regions, will take on oversight for all 11 operating regions. Both Ray and Peters will report to Jon Hargis, EVP and CMO, and Monaghan will continue to report to Tom Adams, EVP, Field Operations.  

“With Adam’s success in both executive sales and operational roles and Sharon’s track record of creative best-in-class marketing strategies, we can maximize their impact on our business by placing full ownership of Sales and Marketing under these proven leaders,” Hargis said in a press release.

Monaghan has served as SVP Field Operations since 2018 and held multiple field operations roles since joining Charter in 2014. He previously worked at Cablevision, where he served as vice president of Field Operations. He started his career as a field technician at Verizon in 1987 before rising to area operations manager.

“Tom is an expert in operations management and expanding his oversight to all of our regions best positions them for continued success in connecting and serving our growing customer base,” Adams said in the press release.

In conjunction with the changes, SVP Sales & Retention Christian Ruiz will expand his responsibilities to include all residential and small- and medium-sized business (SMB) sales and retention functions, including Direct Sales, Spectrum Stores & Retail, Sales Operations and SMB Strategic Channels. Keith Dardis, who previously led residential and SMB direct sales, will take on a broader role as SVP, Spectrum Community Solutions, focused on end-to-end product and pricing, sales, service and operations MDU market. Both will report to Ray.

“Christian, with considerably broadened oversight in Sales & Retention, and Keith, focused on seizing the sizable opportunity before Community Solutions in the MDU marketplace, are positioned to play significant roles in the continued growth of Charter,” Hargis said in the press release. .

ATLANTA -- Bill Warga, vice president, Technology for Liberty Global, and Tom Adams, executive vice president, Field Operations for Charter Communications, will co-chair the program committee for SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2019 in New Orleans.

The news broke during day one of the Cable-Tec Expo 2018 in Atlanta. Warga and Adams were re-elected as chair and vice-chair, respectively, of the SCTE•ISBE board of directors here.

Now the cable industry’s largest annual convention, the Expo -- which will mark its 50th edition next year -- is slated to be hosted in Denver and Atlanta multiple times between next year and 2019, with one-time stops in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

“In our role as the industry’s applied science arm, SCTE•ISBE is looked to for engineering expertise and workforce development that can move the needle in deployments,” Mark Dzuban, president and CEO of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers and the International Society of Broadband Experts, said in a statement. “Bill Warga’s background as immediate past chair of our Engineering Committee and Tom Adams’ keen understanding of the connection between workforce education and operational excellence ensure that Cable-Tec Expo 2019 will address those areas in ways that can have material impact on operators’ bottom lines.”

“The innovative spirit of our vendor community and the desire of operators to drive new customer experiences continue to fuel the success of cable telecommunications,” Warga said in the release. “Tom and I will be working together with the SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2019 Program Committee and our partners at NCTA and CableLabs to harness that energy and build an event that creates real value for our industry.”

“Ensuring that the workforce has the knowledge and the resources needed to convert new technologies into great customer experiences is key to cable’s future success,” Adams said. “I look forward to working with Bill and the 2019 Program Committee to continue the enhancement of SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo’s role in the industry’s educational and operational ecosystem.”

ATLANTA - Liberty Global VP of technology Bill Warga and Charter Communications Exec VP of field operations Tom Adams will return to their roles as chair and vice chair of the SCTE board for the coming 2018-19 campaign, the org announced today.

Related: SCTE Touts 10-Year Plan for Cable-Tec Expo

The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) and its sibling org, the International Society of Broadband Experts (ISBE) also announced that Meena Soleiman, VP of finance, business operations and technology for Comcast, will serve as treasurer; and Steve Williams, director of DOCSIS for Charter, will be secretary.

“The guidance of our boards has been essential in making SCTE•ISBE one of cable’s most valuable and respected association resources,” said Mark Dzuban, president and CEO of SCTE•ISBE, in a statement. “I look forward to working with Bill, Tom and the rest of the board in our 50th anniversary year as we continue to leverage our training, our standards and our partnerships with NCTA and CableLabs to deliver value to the bottom-line for our industry.”

Tom Adams, executive vice president of Charter Communications and vice chair of the SCTE/ISBE Board of Directors, will deliver a featured presentation during the SCTE/ISBE Leadership at Tuck Executive Education program at Dartmouth, set for May 6-11.

Adams’s session is slated for Wednesday, May 9. Dave Watson, president and CEO of Comcast Cable and senior executive vice president of Comcast Corp., is slated toaddress attendees on Monday, May 7.

Adams, who has played a big role in Charter’s integration of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, will speak on the importance of managing change and bringing together diverse corporate cultures in today’s dynamic business environment, SCTE/ISBE said.

Adams, who has national oversight of field operations for Charter, previously spent 17 years with Time Warner Cable as regional vice president of operations for Wisconsin, and regional vice president of operations for Eastern Carolina. Earlier in his career, he worked for NewChannels Corporation in various leadership roles, including vice president of new business.

The annual SCTE/ISBE-Tuck program is in its eight year.

Ask cable providers these days about their top customer-service priorities and the answer is likely to be along the lines of: It’s time to own the wireless space inside the home.

That was a familiar refrain at both The Independent Show, the Indianapolis gathering of small to midsized operators, and at the New England cable convention in Newport, R.I., where Charter Communications executive vice president Tom Adams used that very phrase. Providing 60 Megabits per second of internet speed is great, he noted — but how consumers experience that bandwidth in terms of how WiFi-connected devices perform makes the difference in how happy they are about it.

Jeff Baumgartner points this out in "Whole-Home WiFi Heats Up," the feature that opens this week's issue of MCN. As Philip Nutsugah of Cox said, most consumers will tell you “the internet is WiFi.” Cox also sees it as a revenue opportunity, rolling out the $9.99 monthly Panoramic WiFi product promising “fast WiFi coverage in every single part of your home.”

Importantly, it’s not just Cox and Comcast — which recently launched a WiFi-network management platform dubbed xFi — seizing on this, but also smaller operators such as Atlantic Broadband and Midco. Executives from Wave Broadband and Harron Communications in Indy said it was essential to educate consumers about how to get the best experience from their WiFi-linked gadgets.

How many gadgets? An average of about 10 are connected to Comcast’s gateways at any given time — a number seen as quintupling in the next several years.

When cable operators introduced broadband, it was the product that sold itself and a huge quality of life improvement. Now broadband is a necessity and the most important part of the cable bundle. Providers continue to increase the download and upload speeds that consumers crave. Keeping them happy, though, may depend on delivering the best WiFi experience, too.