Maria Popo appointed CEO of SCTE – sources

Cable industry vet and media technologist Maria Popo has been named CEO of the Society of Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE), industry sources tell Light Reading.

SCTE has yet to make a formal announcement, but Popo is assuming the new role this week, sources said.

Update: As of December 12, the leadership team page on SCTE's web site now lists Popo as its new president and CEO. At last check, Popo's LinkedIn profile now lists her as SCTE's "incoming" president and CEO.

Popo succeeds Mark Dzuban, an exec who has led Exton, Pennsylvania-based SCTE since early 2009. Popo is the first woman to be appointed to the top post at SCTE.

Heading into last month's Cable-Tec Expo in Denver, Dzuban announced that he would soon step down as SCTE CEO and retire. Dzuban intends to stay connected to the industry through ongoing involvement with the SCTE Foundation and SCTE Energy 20/20, a program focused on energy management and sustainability, he noted in his column in the most recent edition of industry pub Broadband Library. Dzuban's announcement also arrived nearly three years after CableLabs and SCTE merged, with SCTE becoming a subsidiary of Colorado-based CableLabs.

It's expected that Popo will come into the new role looking to shore up and expand SCTE membership, push forward on existing and new industry standards, strengthen the connection between SCTE and CableLabs, and explore new ideas as the Society makes plans for next year's Cable-Tec Expo in Atlanta. This year's Expo, held in Denver, drew more attendees than the 8,000 or so that attended in 2017 in the Mile High City.

Related:Mark Dzuban to step down as CEO of SCTE

Former Ubee, Foxconn exec

Popo, a former president of the Women in Cable Telecommunications Rocky Mountain chapter, is an executive with cable industry experience, with a particular emphasis on the vendor end of the business and with relationship building between suppliers and operators. In her most recent cable industry-specific role, Popo served as president and CEO of the Americas unit of Ubee Interactive, a supplier of DOCSIS cable modems and gateways and DSL equipment. Of recent note, Ubee was one of ten suppliers that participated in CableLabs' first-ever DOCSIS 4.0 interop.

Prior to Ubee (a company formerly known as Ambit Broadband), Popo served as VP, Americas, at Foxconn, the Taiwan-based manufacturing giant, and, before that, was a marketing and sales exec at 3Com, a one-time cable modem maker that was acquired by HP in 2009.

After leaving Ubee in early 2017, Popo led a Denver-based startup called AMP10x that helped entrepreneurs and other members of the new media and entertainment industry in the area build and accelerate their respective businesses. That work included a co-working center that, for a time, was based at The Cable Center, a building located on the outskirts of the University of Denver campus.

Related:SCTE/ISBE members greenlight CableLabs merger

According to her LinkedIn profile, Popo has been serving as a strategic advisor and non-executive board member at 418 Intelligence Corp, a cybersecurity training company partially funded by the Department of Homeland Security, and as a fellow at the Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute.