Time Warner Cable is changing top management at the company's key Los Angeles division, giving oversight of the region to current New York City division head Barry Rosenblum as current L.A. division president Roger Keating leaves the company.
To aid in the continuing systems-integration efforts in Los Angeles, Time Warner Cable is moving 25-year company veteran Stephen Pagano from the high-performing Albany, N.Y., system to be operations chief in Los Angeles under Rosenblum.
Keating, a former Comcast executive, was hired as Time Warner Cable's National division chief in 2002 and then moved to the L.A. unit in April 2003. As such, he oversaw the integration of former Comcast Corp. and Adelphia Communications Inc. systems into Time Warner's new Los Angeles operation last year.
The cluster ballooned to 1.9 million customers from 350,000. That required integration of three different video-on-demand customer service and back-office systems in four counties.
It did not go as smoothly as hoped. Consumers were promised that they basically wouldn't notice the transition. But the migration of Internet-service accounts led to days-long outages late last year, and a potential class-action lawsuit that was filed hinges on the company's nondisruption promise. Consumers are still complaining about excessive hold times to reach customer service.
Time Warner Cable chief operating officer Landel Hobbs said in an internal memo that top management owed Keating “our gratitude for his tireless work in preparing us for the Adelphia/Comcast transaction and tackling the difficult first phase in the L.A. integration effort. At this point in Roger's own career and at this stage of the integration process, we both agreed it was a good time to make the changes outlined here.”
New York City division chief financial officer Nini Facini and division chief marketing officer John Kelb will see their duties expanded to include Los Angeles.
Rosenblum, with Time Warner Cable for 27 years, also adds the San Diego/Desert Cities division and retains New York City, but will no longer oversee systems in upstate New York and Maine (which go to executive vice president of operations William R. Goetz Jr., who retains Hawaii and National Division oversight).
Kansas City division oversight shifts from Goetz to executive VP of operations Terry O'Connell, who oversees the Midwest region, the company said.
