Liberty Global has appointed Enrique Rodriguez as its executive VP and CTO.
The former CEO of TiVo, he will take up his new role in late July.
Commenting on the appointment, Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global, said: “Enrique is a seasoned executive who will hit the ground running on day one. In today’s technology environment the best CTOs have worked across sectors, platforms and geographies. Enrique has C-level experience as an engineer, software developer and operator. He has managed multi-billion dollar businesses for companies like AT&T, Microsoft, Cisco and Thomson, and has a long history in digital television as well as the European broadband sector. As head of Microsoft’s Connected TV business, he launched IPTV solutions for telecommunication companies around the world, including many of our competitors. More recently, at AT&T, he was responsible for the teams that developed and launched DIRECTV’s successful OTT service, DIRECTV Now. I’m particularly excited to tap into Enrique’s knowledge of video products and platforms as we ramp up innovation in our TV business. He’s the right leader at the right time for Liberty Global.”
Rodriguez will lead Liberty Global’s Technology & Innovation (T&I) team of more than 7,500 employees, with an annual operating and capital budget of more than $5 billion.
He said: “This is an exciting time to join Liberty Global. It is one of the few companies in our sector with international scale, a long-term commitment to technology leadership, and a track record of consistent growth and value creation. Mike and his team are first class operators and I look forward to accelerating product innovation and building the network capacity that European consumers want and demand.”
Baptiest Coopmans, who has served as acting CTO since January, will remain with the company to ensure a seamless transition for Rodriguez and will assume the position of senior VP, operations.
Fries continued: “I want to thank Baptiest for his leadership as interim CTO since we appointed Balan Nair to lead Liberty Global Latin America in January. You can’t stand still in today’s TV and broadband marketplace and thanks to Baptiest, we’ve successfully marched forward. He will continue to report to me as our senior VP of operations focused on helping me optimise our organisational model and operational effectiveness.”
