Charter CTO Stephanie Mitchko-Beale sets her exit

Charter Communications Chief Technology Officer Stephanie Mitchko-Beale will be leaving the cable operator nearly three years after she joined Charter, the company confirmed to Light Reading.

Mitchko-Beale announced her plans to leave Charter to pursue other interests, according to an internal announcement obtained by Light Reading that didn't elaborate on the reasons behind her decision. Mitchko-Beale won't be leaving immediately, but is expected to stay on for an unspecified amount of time to help with the transition.

Figure 1: Stephanie Mitchko-Beale joined Charter in 2019. She previously was an exec with ad-tech company Cadant and Cablevision Systems, a tier 1 cable operator sold to Altice USA in 2016.
(Source: Charter Communications)

Mitchko-Beale joined Charter in 2019 to head up the company's mobile, video and software engineering teams and the operator's network architecture, tech policy and emerging technology organizations. Prior to that, she was CTO and COO of ad-tech company Cadant, and previously served as SVP of video infrastructure software at Cablevision Systems (now part of Altice USA). There, she played a key role in the development of Cablevision's pioneering remote-storage DVR (RS-DVR), a product that fought for its survival in the courts and effectively blazed a trail leading to the cloud DVRs on the market today.

Justin Colwell to drive Charter's converged network strategy

Other changes are afoot at Charter. The company announced this week that Justin Colwell has been promoted to a newly-created role of EVP, connectivity technology. In that role, Colwell will oversee the design and development of Charter's network architecture, including wired, Wi-Fi and mobile networks and "deliver the company's converged connectivity vision."

Figure 2: Prior to joining Charter in 2015, Justin Colwell was VP of access network technologies at CableLabs.
(Source: Charter Communications)

Colwell's new role "fuses our cable, mobile and Wi-Fi businesses, and will lead Charter's network evolution and the convergence of our many robust network assets," Rich DiGeronimo, Charter's chief product and technology officer, noted in the internal announcement.

Prior to joining Charter, Colwell was VP of access network technologies at CableLabs, and was a member of the Cricket Wireless national RF engineering team. He's also formerly of AT&T Wireless, Cingular and US West/Qwest.

Colwell's new post at Charter takes shape as the operator prepares for DOCSIS 4.0 on its hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) network, expands its mobile business (Spectrum Mobile ended Q1 2022 with 3.93 mobile lines), and nears the first market launch of a CBRS network.

Colwell joined Charter in 2015 and most recently served as Charter's SVP, wireless products, responsible for overseeing the company's mobile product and device strategy and Wi-Fi offload activity, as well as developing a converged customer experience across Charter's Internet, Wi-Fi and mobile products. Colwell also led the spectrum auction for Charter's CBRS licenses purchases, the company said.

Colwell will be based out of the company's Technology and Engineering Center (CTEC) in Englewood, Colorado, and report to DiGeronimo.

"Justin was one of Charter's earliest mobile-focused employees and his extensive engineering experience spans multiple connectivity network architectures including mobile generations 2G to 5G, DOCSIS, fiber and Wi-Fi," DiGeronimo said in a statement. "Justin's deep expertise, creativity and relentless focus to leverage our continuously evolving superior networks for the most competitively differentiated experiences, uniquely position him to drive Charter's converged network strategy."

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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading