Cox Communications Inc. confirmed Wednesday that its chief technology officer, Scott Hatfield, resigned earlier this week and that the MSO plans to conduct a search for his replacement.

A Cox spokesman said the resignation was a "mutual decision" that was "based on Cox's business needs and Scott's personal reasons," but did not elaborate.

Percy Kirk, the MSO's senior VP and general manager from its Oklahoma region, will lead the technology organization while Cox conducts its search for Hatfield's successor.

Hatfield joined Cox as its chief information officer in January 1996. He added the CTO title about a year and a half ago when former CTO Chris Bowick retired. (Bowick's still consulting and has since been appointed to the boards of such tech firms as ViXS Systems Inc. , LiquidxStream Systems Inc. , and Inlet Technologies Inc. ) In his new role, Hatfield headed a project that ended up combining Cox's IT and engineering groups into one unit and gave the MSO a singular view into its service platform.

More moves
In other news atop Cox's executive tree, the Atlanta-based operator confirmed a change in the role of Dallas Clement, who had been serving as executive vice president and chief strategy and product officer.

Clement, a spokesman said, will continue to report to Cox president Patrick Esser under the shortened title of EVP and chief strategy officer, a move that was communicated internally last week. Clement will continue to lead the vision of the company, but Cox does intend to hire someone new to solely lead the company's product management. Clement joined Cox in 1990 as policy analyst.

Cox, which went private in 2004, did not elaborate further on the reasons behind the moves. Among recent activities, the company has been introducing Docsis 3.0 services to new markets, preparing a big tru2way product strategy, expanding its commercial business, and getting ready to launch its own mobile phone service. (See Cox Guides Tru2way Forward, Cox Finds Friends for 3G Wireless Trials in Omaha , and Cox Targets $2B in Biz Revenues.)

UPDATE: Cox followed up with more context regarding the decision to separate the strategy and development roles that were both previously under Clement. "Our business is complicated and very competitive. Other large companies don't have strategy and product management together, and it no longer made sense for Cox," the company said in an email to Light Reading Cable. "Both [roles] are important and Pat [Esser, Cox's president] will now have two direct reports representing these critically important areas."

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Light Reading Cable