Longtime Comcast CEO Brian Roberts gets a co-CEO as the company changes course
The change comes as Comcast prepares to separate some NBCUniversal networks into a new company. Michael Cavanagh will be the co-chief executive.
In an unusual arrangement, Comcast Corp. on Monday named Michael J. Cavanagh as co-chief executive officer, splitting the job with Brian L. Roberts, who has been sole CEO since taking over from the media giant’s founder, his father, Ralph Roberts, in 2002.
The move, as Comcast prepares to spin off some of its NBCUniversal networks into a new company, Versant, and to concentrate on its internet, studios, theme parks, and other major businesses, becomes effective Jan. 1.
Cavanagh 59, also joins the Comcast board, which Roberts, 66, chairs.
Cavanagh joined Comcast 10 years ago as chief financial officer, the same job he held at JPMorgan Chase & Co., the nation’s largest bank and one of Comcast’s longtime lenders. In 2022, Cavanagh was named Comcast’s president.
Comcast has been changing tactics as cable subscriptions decline, and Verizon, AT&T, and other wireless competitors win customers.
In an internal memo last week, Comcast told employees it is eliminating a layer of management, cutting its three divisional offices in Denver, Atlanta, and Manchester, N.H., while keeping 13 regional offices, including its Philadelphia region, that formerly reported to the divisions. They will now report directly to corporate headquarters.
By cutting out a layer of management, Comcast told staff that it sought “to better focus on the customer experience and growth.” The memo was signed by Dave Watson and Steve Croney, leaders of Comcast’s Connectivity & Platforms division, which provides cable TV and wireless internet service, including the Xfinity residential services and Comcast Business, as well as Comcast’s Sky services in the United Kingdom and Europe. The 13 regions will now report to Croney.
Toward the same goal, Comcast has streamlined and cut Comcast internet and equipment pricing and brought in Jon Gieselman, an Apple and DirecTV veteran, to recharge its marketing, stressing Comcast’s speed and network to customers.
Cavanagh is “the ideal person to help lead Comcast” as the company pivots toward faster-growing businesses, and “I am thrilled to be partnering with him as co-CEO,” Roberts said in a statement.
In a note to employees on Monday, Roberts added that “Mike and I work seamlessly together.” Comcast officials say he and Cavanagh attend the same meetings and calls.
Cavanagh in his statement said that it was an honor to work with Roberts and other leaders at “this exciting and transformative time in our industry.”
A handful of U.S. companies, including business tech giant Oracle and video streaming giant Netflix, have co-CEOs. SAP SE, the Germany-based software giant, experimented with partner CEOs in 2019, appointing Pennsylvania-based Jennifer Morgan as co-CEO with Christian Klein, but the arrangement lasted only six months.
“Very few companies do this. You can’t have two heads of an organization. One dominates,” said Charles Elson, a Delaware-based corporate director and governance consultant. “Brian Roberts and his family control a large block of Comcast’s voting stock. If there is a dispute between the two, he has the voting control.”
Dual CEOS are mostly “transitional arrangements or based on sharp functional splits,” said Lawrence A. Cunningham, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. “Boards, employees, and investors usually prefer one ultimate decision-maker.”
Splitting CEO roles “requires constant negotiation, which can slow decisions,” especially among the ambitious, decisive personalities who take on top jobs, Cunningham added.
Cavanagh is the first nonfamily member to share the CEO’s role at Comcast. One of Roberts’ children, Tucker, is chief innovation officer at Comcast affiliate Comcast Spectacor but is not involved in corporate decision-making.