Mike LaJoie, Time Warner Cable’s longtime technology chief, will retire at the end of 2014, but plans to play a key role in helping the MSO prepare for its proposed acquisition by Comcast.
Prior to that deal, multiple industry sources said, LaJoie had already planned to depart TWC after his mentor and friend Glenn Britt, TWC’s former chairman and CEO, retired at the end of last year. Britt passed away last week. Two days later, on June 13, LaJoie confirmed his plans in a memo to colleagues.
“As many of you know, I have been planning for quite some time to retire at the end of this year, after 21 years with TWC and following my 60th birthday,” LaJoie wrote. “Recent events have made this decision more complicated, but after careful consideration, I intend to stay with that plan. With so many wonderful experiences, a strong Tech- NO [technology and network operations] leadership team in place, and the upcoming merger with Comcast in the integration phase, the timing still seems right.”
LaJoie, currently TWC’s executive vice president and chief technology and network operations officer, noted that his focus for the balance of the year is the coming integration with Comcast and the transition of his TechNO operating responsibilities.
He will retain oversight of TechNO through the end of June, and of the unit’s development group through the end of the third quarter. In October, he plans to “focus solely on the Comcast merger” and work with Jim Ludington, TWC’s executive vice president of national network operations and engineering for the MSO’s Advanced Technology Group, “to ensure a successful integration.”
Hamid Heidary, previously an executive with NTL and the former CTO of Insight Communications, the MSO acquired by TWC in 2012 for $3 billion, has agreed to lead the TWC TechNO team as a consultant, LaJoie wrote.
After coming on board Warner Communications as a consultant in 1988, LaJoie’s official career with the company began in 1994, when he was hired as VP of software development in the Time Warner Interactive Group.
“It is hard to imagine where we would be today without Mike at the helm of our technology and network operations function,” Dinni Jain, TWC’s chief operating officer, said in a statement. “He is a true icon in this industry.”
