CableLabs, the cable industry’s research consortium, announced this morning that it had hired Tom Lookabaugh as its new executive vice president of research and development.
Lookabaugh’s 20-year telecommunications career includes stops at ViaSat Communications, Entropic Communications and PolyCipher.
In his new job, Lookabaugh will head up CableLabs development efforts with an emphasis on the delivery of platforms that enable high-speed access and next generation services. Lookabaugh’s hiring comes just ahead of The Cable Show next month in Washington D.C.
“Lookabaugh’s strong industry relationships and his pioneering work in the technology industry will be great assets to our team,” said CableLabs CEO Phil McKinney. “We are certain he will have a significant impact on CableLabs’ R&D efforts helping us to deliver what’s next for cable.”
In November of last year, McKinney said CableLabs was putting together a new R&D team that would be located in a new facility in Silicon Valley. McKinney said then that a new senior vice president would lead the new R&D team. Innovation has been top of mind for McKinney ever since CableLabs’ board of directors named him as the organization’s new CEO in May of last year.
“I am eager to lead, mentor and collaborate with the engineering and research teams at CableLabs,” Lookabaugh said. “This organization is the catalyst for cable innovation. I am looking forward to applying my past experiences and expertise to help advance its mission.”
Prior to joining CableLabs, Lookabaugh served as the vice president of ViaSat Communications’ commercial mobility arm. Lookabaugh also held the position of chief technology officer at Entropic Communications, a networking and RF fabless semiconductor company.
Before Entropic Communications, Lookabaugh was the chief executive officer at PolyCiper, a joint venture formed by Comcast, Time Warner and Cox Communications to develop downloadable conditional access security products.
He was also a co-founder of DiviCom and led the integration and execution of Harmonic’s video infrastructure business after Harmonic purchased DiviCom in 2000.
Lookabaugh earned his Ph.D. and three master’s degrees at Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree at Colorado School of Mines.
