The Cable Center said Tuesday that it has named industry veteran Camilla Formica as its new chief program officer, a role where she will work alongside CEO Diane Christman to accelerate the next phase of the organization’s Vision 2025 strategic plan.
Formica has more than 33 years of experience in the cable industry and most recently served as chief revenue officer at NCTI. As chief program officer at The Cable Center, Formica will focus on the continued expansion of its Intrapreneurship Academy as well as other programs including its C5 consumer experience initiative and its Crosscut webinar series.
Formica has a long track record in the industry, joining NCTI in 2010 after serving as International Fiber Communications’ corporate VP, sales. She also held leadership roles at Metromedia/Worldcom and ICG. She began her career at Metromedia Communications in Southern California.
In May, she was recognized by The WICT Network-Rocky Mountain with the Mentor of the Year award and in September will be inducted into the 56th class of Cable TV Pioneers.
“Camilla is a respected leader and recognized mentor in our industry who brings the experience, relationships, and drive to move The Cable Center forward,” Christman said in a press release. “Working with Camilla, our team will deliver on our mandate to evolve The Cable Center by supporting leaders who are defining a new era for our industry.”
The Cable Center unveiled the Vision 2025 initiative in January 2021, a five-year plan to expand programs and bolster the organization’s brand and role as its members transform into connectivity companies. Vision 2025 will culminate with the Cable Center’s 40th anniversary.
Being a part of that strategy and its evolution and the chance to work with Christman and the rest of the Cable Center team — which she called a “once-in-a lifetime opportunity” — was one of the key reasons Formica was drawn to the job.
“To me this is the opportunity to have an impact on leaders, and to have an impact on a grander scale, the industry,” Formica said in an interview. “It was such a great opportunity as well as to lead what is really a once-in-a-lifetime mission, the Vision 2025 strategy. … I think we’re really just scratching the surface on Vision 2025 on the things that are to come with the Cable Center."
While the center’s Intrapreneurship Academy is a cornerstone, Formica added that other programs like the Cable Center Hall of Fame, C5 customer experience initiative and other programs will be important as well.
“On top of that we’re really building out more programming to look at beyond Intrapreneurship Academy, things like our Crosscut webinar series, our symposium that is coming up, so as we continue to evolve as the thought leaders in the industry and really looking at innovation and big thinking and agility and all of the really big foundational learnings we’re looking at and introducing to the industry, from the Cable Center side, that’s what we’re going to be focusing on at least through 2025.”
Customer service is another area that is likely to see a boost, as cable operators shift toward a self-install model and other industries build fiber and, in some cases, like electric companies, begin to offer in-home broadband for the first time.
“People are going into a customer’s home for the first time in the history of their company,” Formica said. “They have no idea what customer service is. There is such a strong need to have customer experience training, education and all of that in our industry. I think we’re really well-suited to provide a really excellent program at C5 and we’re got the right team there within our internal C5 team running the program. I think you’re going to see a real evolution there as well in the next couple of years.”
While there are no plans to beef up staffing at the Cable Center programs in the near term, Formica said that continued participation from members and the industry will be key to its success.
“We would love for people to reach out to us that are interested; if it’s operators, if it’s whatever,” Formica said. “If they want to host some of this training at their organization, we would love for people to step up and do that.” ■
