Robert Sachs, president and CEO since 1999 of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), has decided to leave the organization at the end of the year.
Sachs informed the NCTA board of directors that he will not seek to renew his current contract with the association. Though Sachs cited personal reasons for his departure, he had been the subject of critical trade press reports in recent days. There were suggestions that he was ineffective and the criticism appeared to be generated by NCTA insiders.
Sachs told the board that he is willing to serve beyond 2004 if necessary to facilitate the board’s search for a successor.
Glenn Britt, chairman and CEO of Time Warner Cable and current chairman of the NCTA board of directors, said the NCTA board's executive committee will discuss plans to retain an executive search firm but said that the search process is likely to get fully-under way only after the entire board meets in late September. Britt also said he would appoint a special board search committee as well.
Sachs joined NCTA in August 1999 under a three-year agreement. In 2001, he and the NCTA board extended the relationship through 2004, bringing his term of service to nearly five and a half years.
NCTA is the principal trade association of the cable television industry in the United States. It represents cable operators serving more than 90 percent of the nation’s cable television households and more than 200 cable program networks, as well as equipment suppliers and providers of other services to the cable industry.