Balan Nair, the chief technology and innovation officer at Liberty Global, has been appointed president and CEO of the company’s Latin American and Caribbean operation, and will take that role once the unit is split-off from Liberty Global.
Liberty Global expects to complete that split-off of that unit as a separate, public company around the end of the year.
Liberty Global said a search for a successor to Nair in the CTO role is underway. Nair will remain in his current position at the company until the split-off is completed.
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Nair, who has been overseeing a workforce of 7,500 and a capital budget of $5 billion-plus in as Liberty Global’s CTO, currently sits on the boards of Charter Communications and Adtran, and is co-chair of Energy 2020, an SCTE/ISBE initiative dedicated to reducing cable’s network power requirements.
“Balan is an exceptional technologist and operating executive who has delivered tremendous value to our company as CTO,” Mike Fries, Liberty Global’s CEO, who will serve as executive chairman of the Latin American unit of the company, said in a statement. “He has led us into the future with next-generation broadband, video and mobile products, and has transformed our entire technology operating model. I am excited that Balan has agreed to lead this new company into the future, and I look forward to continuing our close working relationship as part of the broader Liberty family.”
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“It’s been a privilege to work with and learn from Mike Fries and John Malone, and I am proud and humbled to have the opportunity to continue collaborating with them in my new role as President and CEO of Liberty’s Latin American and Caribbean operation,” Nair added. “I plan to leverage my experience to build operating and strategic momentum for us in one of the world’s most exciting growth markets.”
In addition to Fries and Nair, the board of the new company is expected to include John Malone, currently chairman of Liberty Global; Liberty Global directors Paul Gould and Miranda Curtis; and Liberty Global CFO Charles Bracken.
Liberty Global said it has also identified three additional directors -- Eric Zinterhofer, lead independent director and former chairman of Charter Communications; Alfonso de Angoitia, Co-CEO of Grupo Televisa N.A.; and Brendan Paddick, former board member of Cable & Wireless Communications Plc, and founder and former CEO of Columbus Communications.
