Dish Network said late Tuesday that president Carl Vogel has resigned for personal reasons. He will be replaced by chairman and CEO Charles Ergen.
Vogel, who rejoined Dish (then EchoStar Communications) in 2005 after a four-year stint as CEO of Charter Communications, is a long-time veteran of the cable and satellite industry. He will remain vice chairman of the company and continue to lead corporate development, programming and business and commercial services functions. Vogel was president of EchoStar from 1994 to 1997, before joining Liberty Media in 1997. He left Liberty in 2001 to head up Charter after then-CEO Jerry Kent abruptly resigned.
While Dish did not elaborate on Vogel’s reasons for resigning, the executive’s teenage son Luke was paralyzed in a skiing accident in December. According to the Rocky Mountain News, Vogel’s friends say the executive has wanted to step away from day-to-day operations to devote more time to his family.
Dish and EchoStar officially split in January, with the satellite TV assets housed in Dish Network Corp. and its technology businesses and Sling Media units contained in EchoStar Corp. The split was considered as a possible precursor of an eventual sale of the satellite TV business –possibly to AT&T. But so far no deal has appeared on the horizon.
Dish also announced two promotions: Erik Carlson was promoted to executive vice president, Operations and reports to Ergen, overseeing DISH Network's home and commercial installations, customer service centers, internal customer billing, and equipment retrieval and refurbishment operations. Carlson previously was senior vice president of retail services & sales, a position he held since mid-2006. He joined EchoStar in 1995 and has held progressively larger operating roles over the years.
Tom Stingley was named executive vice president, sales & distribution and reports to Jim DeFranco, co-founder and executive vice president. Stingley joined EchoStar in 1995 as an area sales manager and has since held various positions of increasing responsibility within the organization, most recently as senior vice president of alliance management.
