Dish Network has tapped Steven Swain to lead its programming group, promoting him to senior vice president.
Swain, who had been serving as vice president of Dish’s corporate finance group, will report directly to Dish president and CEO Joe Clayton.
He is stepping into the leadership role that had been manned by Dave Shull. The DBS provider’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer will take a six-month leave of absence, beginning on May 31, to assist with the care of a family member.
In his new role, Swain is responsible for the acquisition and renewal of programming content, including national network and cable channels, Latino content, local broadcast stations and premium services such as HBO, Showtime and Starz.
“I have worked closely with Steve for the past three years and I have every confidence that he has the leadership skills, the experience and tenacity to lead our programing operation with excellence,” said Clayton. “As our CCO, Dave has delivered tremendous achievements for Dish including the leadership needed to establish a groundbreaking partnership with The Walt Disney Co. He has our support and we are already looking forward to his return.”
Other members of Shull’s team, including James Moorhead, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Warren Schlichting, senior vice president of media sales and analytics and Vivek Khemka, senior vice president of product management, will also report to Clayton.
Prior to joining DISH in 2011 as vice president of Corporate Financial Planning and Analysis, Mr. Swain spent 10 years at CenturyLink (formerly Qwest Communications) where he served in multiple leadership roles in that organization’s Finance and Network Engineering organizations.
