Yvette Kanouff, one of the most recognized and regarded engineering execs in the cable industry, is leaving Cablevision Systems to take on a key role at Cisco Systems, multiple sources familiar with the move told Multichannel News.
Kanouff’s precise start date and title at Cisco were not immediately known, but it’s believed that she will be a senior vice president and take charge of Cisco’s service provider video group, a role that includes duties that were previously handled by Jesper Anderson, the former SVP and general manager of a Cisco unit that’s focused on Videoscape, the company’s multiscreen platform for cable operators and other video service providers, and has become the new home of NDS, the video security and software company Cisco acquired in 2012 for $5 billion.
Kanouff, who has been serving as Cablevision’s executive vice president of corporate engineering and technology, will be based out of London, sources said.
Kanouff, who joined Cablevision in March 2012, has been responsible for software, hardware for video, data and voice, as well as operations, architecture and information technology. It was not immediately known who will be taking on Kanouff’s duties at Cablevision on an interim or permanent basis.
Kanouff’s exit comes less than a month after the departure of another Cablevision exec, Stephanie Mitchko-Beale, the MSO’s former SVP of video infrastructure software, and one of the primary developers of Cablevision’s network-based DVR service.
According to multiple sources, Cisco plans to announce Kanouff’s hiring sometime next week.
Cablevision and Cisco declined to comment.
A move to Cisco also marks Kanouff’s return to the supplier side of the industry. Before joining Cablevision, Kanouff was a longtime exec with video software and advertising technology specialist SeaChange International. She joined SeaChange in 1997 and served in several roles, including chief strategy officer and president, before departing in February 2012.
Before that, Kanouff was Time Warner Cable’s director of interactive technologies, where she worked on The Full Service Network, a pioneering pilot program in Orlando that paved the way for cable’s shift to digital video and interactive services, including video-on-demand.
Kanouff received the 2014 Vanguard Award for Science & Technology from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. Broadcasting & Cable named her on of the 11 most influential women in the television industry, and Multichannel News honored her as a Wonder Woman in 2001. Kanouff has also won a technical Emmy for her work at SeaChange and holds several patents on VOD-related digital technologies.
