Charter Communications President and CEO Tom Rutledge went with the tried and true with the recent hiring of John Bickham as the MSO’s new chief operating officer.
Bickham, who was officially hired yesterday, is responsible for managing operations across Charter’s footprint.
“John knows this industry well and appreciates what it takes to run operations most effectively,” Rutledge said. “We’ve worked together for many years, and I’m confident in his ability to help this organization achieve its full potential.”
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Bickham’s base salary at Charter is $1.37 million, with a target bonus of 135 percent of that base. Bickham also received 442,000 shares of common stock yesterday, and his contract expires April 30, 2016.
Bickham went west with St. Louis-based Charter after resigning from Cablevision in November of last year. In December, Rutledge left his position as Cablevision’s COO to take the helm at Charter Communications later the same month.
In March, Jonathan Hargis resigned from his position as Cablevision’s executive vice president of marketing, only to resurface in April as Charter’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer.
During his eight years at Cablevision, Bickham was Rutledge’s right-hand man. As president of cable and communications, Bickham was responsible for managing all of the cable television, phone and high-speed Internet services offered by Cablevision to the more than 5 million households and small- and medium-size businesses in the New York metropolitan area.
A 26-year veteran of the cable industry, Bickham joined Cablevision in 2004. Previously, he served as executive vice president for Time Warner Cable, where he was responsible for overseeing cable operations serving 2.4 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. From 1995 through 1998, he operated Time Warner Cable’s Los Angeles cable system.
During his stint with Time Warner Cable, Bickham worked with Rutledge prior to Rutledge leaving the company for Cablevision in 2002.
In 1986, Bickham was a founding executive of KBLCOM, a cable company that partnered with ATC and owned cable systems with 1.7 million customers. His tenure with KBLCOM ended in 1995 as president and chief operating officer.
Bickham serves on the Cable Center Board and was honored with the industry’s Vanguard Award for Cable Operations Management in 2007. He received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&I University.
