WOW's Abdoulah Named Chair Of ACA

By John Eggerton
published

WideOpenWest chairwoman and CEO Colleen Abdoulah has been named chair of the American Cable Association.

Abdoulah succeeds Steve Friedman, Wave Broadband COO, atop the association representing small and midsized cable operators. The ACA board elected officers at the annual Independent Show, now under way in San Francisco.

Abdoulah, a former Tele-Communications Inc. and AT&T Broadband executive before joining WOW! in 2002, had been the trade association's vice chair. She has been a prominent voice for ACA in Washington, coming to D.C. to weigh in on issues like the Comcast/NBCU merger, including in testimony in multiple hearings on Capitol Hill. At the Independent Show Monday, she urged small cable operators to keep in contact with lawmakers on key policy issues, saying "your voice makes a difference in Washington, D.C."

Board member Robert Gessner, president of Massillon Cable TV, was named to succeed Abdoulah vice chairman of ACA. Newly elected to the ACA board are James Beattie, assistant general counsel at Bevcomm; Bryan Cipoletti, CFO, Armstrong Holdings; Earle MacKenzie, COO, Shentel; and Scott Widham, CEO, Cobridge Communications.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.