Fortune magazine recently dubbed Brian Roberts the new “king of cable,” a title earned perhaps by virtue of his being president and CEO of Comcast Corp., the biggest cable operator in the United States. Far from flamboyant in nature, Mr. Roberts has established himself as an unobtrusive yet effective leader.
An accomplished squash player-a former All-American, in fact-Mr. Roberts has built the company started by his father into a broadband juggernaut not by quashing competition, but rather through a series of calculated deals and investments.
He persuaded Microsoft mogul Bill Gates to invest $1 billion in Comcast in 1997, a move that revived an abeyant cable industry. In 2001, Mr. Roberts engineered the $51 billion takeover of AT&T Broadband, creating a company more than twice the size of its nearest cable rival.
Though the company recently sold its stake in QVC, Comcast remains a player in programming with stakes in E!, Outdoor Life and Golf Channel, and is working with Radio One to develop a new TV network targeted to African American viewers.
Mr. Roberts has served as chairman of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and CableLabs, the industry’s research arm, and remains a member of the NCTA executive committee. He is a graduate of the Wharton School of Finance.