In a move that shakes up the top ranks at two Colorado-based companies, Vivek Khemka, the long-time chief technology officer and EVP at Dish Network, has been appointed CTO and chief product officer at Liberty Latin America, a spinoff of Liberty Global that serves more than 20 countries and 2.7 million customers in the region.

Dish Network LLC (Nasdaq: DISH) has yet to identify a near-term or permanent replacement for Khemka (we'll update the story if that info becomes available), but this Dish 8-K filing notes that the exec notified Dish about the move and that he'd resign that post effective Sept. 7, 2018.

Figure 1: Vivek Khemka starts his new role at Liberty Latin America next month.

In his new role, Khemka will lead Liberty Latin America 's Technology & Innovation team (focused on IT, product development and network platforms) and assume the tech and product helm at a company that delivers a mix of cable and telecom services under consumer brands such as VTR, Flow, Liberty, Màs Móvil and BTC. Liberty Latin America also operates a sub-sea terrestrial fiber optic network connecting more than 40 markets in the region. Liberty Latin America completed its split-off from Liberty Global in January. (See Liberty Latin America Rebounds From Hurricanes.)

Khemka will report to Balan Nair, the former CTO of Liberty Global Inc. (Nasdaq: LBTY), who was named CEO of Liberty Latin America last October. Former TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO) CEO Enrique Rodriguez was recently named CTO of Liberty Global. (See Rodriguez Bolts Tivo to Be Liberty Global CTO.)

The loss of Khemka creates a significant gap at Dish, where the exec led the strategy and development of the company's roadmap, product teams and engineering. Of recent note, Khemka, a significant presence at CES shows over the years, led the strategy of Dish's lineup of Hopper-branded whole-home DVRs, including the top-of-the-line 4K-capable and Internet-connected Hopper 3.

Khemka, who had also been serving as acting president of Echostar Technologies (now part of Dish Technologies), is also late of Danaher, Motorola and McKinsey & Co.

Khemka's departure also comes during a turbulent time at Dish, which is moving ahead on a narrowband IoT and 5G network buildout plan (despite persistent calls from analysts for Dish to sell its spectrum) as the company's core pay-TV business continues to erode. (See Dish's Window to Sell Spectrum Has Closed, Analyst Says and Dish: We Can Meet Wireless Buildout Schedule.)

— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading