Wayne Davis, a 37-year cable engineering vet who has been with Charter Communications for the past four years, will retire on May 1.
Davis, who served as Charter’s CTO during an earlier part of his career, rejoined the MSO as vice president of field operations in 2011, where the long-time Colorado resident continued to be based in the Denver area. Charter confirmed that Davis is retiring, but has not said who will take his role.
“Since returning to Charter as VP of Field Operations in 2011, Wayne has contributed in large measure to the company’s turnaround and subsequent return to growth – always serving with intelligence, distinction and integrity,” Tom Adams, EVP of field operators at Charter, said in a statement. “Without question, Wayne will be missed throughout the company as both a valued colleague and friend. But Charter will continue to benefit from his contributions to our business for many years to come.”
Davis previously joined Charter in 2001 as vice president of engineering for its Western division, eventually rising to CTO and EVP of engineering and technical operations, before leaving in 2006. During this part of his career, Charter was among the MSOs that tested "Passage," a technology developed by Sony that aimed to drive a wedge into the Motorola/Cisco set-top duopoly, and was also an early adopter of digital simulcast, which paved the way for today's all-digital cable platform.
In 2007, Davis was appointed CEO of Vyyo (later renamed Javelin Innovations), a company that specialized in bandwidth-expanding technologies that could raise an MSO’s usable spectrum into the neighborhood of 3GHz (Cox Communications and StarHub of Singapore were among Vyyo's known customers). In 2010, Javelin, still under Davis, began to offer a line of 1.8GHz modules that took aim at a cable tap market dominated at the time by Motorola, Arris, and Cisco Systems
Prior to his original stint at Charter, Davis was with Comcast briefly following its acquisition of Colorado-based Jones Intercable, where Davis spent 15 years in a variety of engineering roles, including head of engineering and technology.
