More senior crewmates are jumping off
the USS Bethpage.
Cablevision Systems last week confirmed that Jim
Blackley, executive vice president of corporate engineering
and technology, had handed in his resignation papers.
The MSO also said Kathleen “Kip” Mayo, executive
vice president of consumer operations, will leave later this
month.
Blackley and Mayo have spent a combined 30 years at
the company. “As Cablevision evolves into a more competitive
and customer-focused organization, executive
changes are to be expected,” the cable operator said in a
statement. “It is an occurrence that is inevitable as we continue
to grow and transform as a company.”
Blackley, who has been with Cablevision since 1996, will
stay with the MSO until May. According to industry sources,
veteran cable technologist Wilt Hildenbrand will return
to the Cablevision full-time with Blackley’s departure.
Mayo joined Cablevision in 1997, when she was hired
to head up the MSO’s Massachusetts operations as general
manager. As head of consumer operations, she has
been responsible for all of the operator’s field operations,
service, outside plant, customer service and billing organization.
The departures of Blackley and Mayo — a member of
Multichannel News’ 2010 Wonder Women class — follow
those of a string of high-level executives who have left Cablevision
recently. Chief operating officer Tom Rutledge,
now CEO of Charter Communications, and president of
cable operations John Bickham left late last year. Earlier
this month came word that executive VP of marketing Jonathan
Hargis will be leaving shortly.
“We believe [president and CEO] Jim Dolan needs to
clearly delineate the organization structure of Cablevision,
especially with Wilt [Hildenbrand] now back fulltime
in the technology group, and explain why the ‘old
gang’ is the best team suited for fixing Cablevision’s problems,”
BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield wrote in a blog post.
Last week, former SeaChange International president
Yvette Kanouff joined the Bethpage, N.Y.-based operator
as executive vice president of engineering and software
design, as first reported by Multichannel News. Following
Blackley’s departure, she will report to Hildenbrand.
Hildenbrand has served as a senior adviser of engineering
and technology for Cablevision since 2006, when Blackley
took over full-time technology management duties.
Hildenbrand first joined Cablevision as chief engineer
of the company’s Long Island system in 1976. From 1986
through 1992, Hildenbrand was Cablevision’s vice president
of engineering and led the fi ber-optic network implementation
that powers the company’s digital TV, voice and
broadband services today.
OUT THE DOOR
Five top execs have quit Cablevision Systems
in recent months:
NOVEMBER 2011
President of cable operations John Bickham
to leave the company; Kristin Dolan assumes
role as senior executive VP of product management
and marketing.
DECEMBER 2011
Chief operating officer Tom Rutledge resigns.
FEBRUARY 2012
President and CEO James Dolan tells Wall Street analysts he will be
running operations “for the foreseeable
future.”
MARCH 2012
Marketing EVP Jonathan Hargis resigns, followed
by EVP of corporate technology and
engineering Jim Blackley and EVP of customers
operations Kathleen “Kip” Mayo.
SOURCE:Multichannel News research
