The growth of cable is in large part due to the energy, vitality and creativity of the many young people working within the industry. The Young Leadership Award recognizes those individuals who have already made a mark on the industry and its constituents.
This year, the NCTA is honoring Christopher Winfrey, executive vice president and chief financial officer for Charter Communications. Winfrey is responsible for all of the company’s financial functions, including accounting, financial planning and analysis, tax and treasury, procurement and supply chain management, as well as mergers and acquisitions, capital structure activities and investor relations.
Winfrey joined Charter in November 2010 to further strengthen the company’s financial profile. Primarily as a result of Charter’s growth-driven operating strategy and a repositioned balance sheet, the company’s stock price has increased five-fold since Winfrey joined Charter. Today, Winfrey is playing a lead role in the expansion of Charter’s business through the company’s complex transaction with Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
Winfrey has been actively involved in U.S. and European cable operations, finance and investing activities for 17 years. From March 2006 through October 2010, he was chief financial officer and managing director of Unitymedia GmbH, Germany’s second-largest cable provider with 4.5 million customers. From December 2002 through December 2005, Winfrey was senior vice president of corporate finance and development at Cablecom GmbH in Switzerland. At both companies, he played a key role in the operational turnaround, triple play rollout, and eventual sale of Unitymedia and Cablecom to Liberty Global. He previously served as director of financial planning and analysis and director of operations services of NTL’s continental European operations, and was a senior associate in the private equity group at Communications Equity Associates.
He graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor of science in accounting (1996) and an MBA (1998). He also attended the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA) in Caracas, Venezuela.
Winfrey lives in Scarsdale, N.Y., with his wife and two children.
Fun Fact:
Winfrey was just 30 when he was named CFO and managing director of Germany’s second-largest cable provider, Unitymedia GmbH.
