Tom Baxter, longtime president of Comcast Corp.'s
cable unit, announced his resignation last week to pursue other entrepreneurial
opportunities while remaining a consultant to Comcast.
Often, that sort of language -- when executives leave to
pursue unnamed other opportunities -- indicates that someone was forced out, but Baxter
and Comcast president Brian Roberts emphasized that this was not the case here. Baxter,
50, decided to leave when the company was in good shape and while he was young enough to
do other things, they said.
'I ran it for eight years, and it was a great
ride,' said Baxter, a Comcast senior vice president and president of Comcast Cable
Communications Inc., in an interview. 'I'm 50, and it's a great time to go.
The company is doing great.'
He said he expects to advise Comcast on 'big strategic
things,' while looking for smaller, entrepreneurial ventures to get behind.
Roberts said he was sorry to see Baxter leave, but he
expected to work with him on various projects in the future.
He said of Baxter, 'I think that he's a terrific
human being, and he's helped Comcast to build the kind of personality that it has --
as a place with a good bottom line, but also a good place to work and that has a heart and
cares about people. A lot of that emanated from Tom. So he had a great impact.'
Baxter joined Comcast in 1985. Before that, he'd
worked at Cablevision Systems Corp. and Warner-Amex Cable Communications Inc. He's
also worked as a banker at Manufacturers Hanover Trust and Citibank. He serves on the
boards of C-SPAN, the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau, Cable in the Classroom and the
Lightspan Partnership.
Roberts said he would not look to immediately replace
Baxter. Instead, he and other Comcast senior executives will divide Baxter's
responsibilities.
