Neil Smit | |
---|---|
Born | Kornelis Smit, Jr. [1] 1960 (age 63–64) [2] |
Nationality | American |
Education | Duke University |
Alma mater | Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy |
Occupation(s) | Vice Chairman, Comcast Corporation |
Neil Smit (born 1960) is an American businessman and former CEO [3] of Comcast Cable, an American corporation providing cable, entertainment, and communications products and services.
Smit earned a Bachelor of Science in oceanography & geology from Duke University and then achieved a Masters of Science Degree from Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in international business. [4] [5] Smit served in the United States Navy, serving for five years as a member on the SEALs team and was honorably discharged from the United States Navy at the commissioned officer rank of lieutenant commander. Smit is married and he and his wife have two sons, though he keeps his personal life very private.
Smit was CEO of Comcast Corporation Cable until 2017. In a statement, Smit cited "injuries" he sustained from his previous career as reasons why he's changing positions. But also approaching 60, he said he's looking forward to spending more time with his family. [6] His reported annual compensation was $19,856,203, [7] which places him among the top 200 highest paid CEOs in America. [8] After that, Smit joined Comcast in March 2010 from Charter Communications where he served as chief executive officer and director since 2005. Prior to joining Charter, he was the president of Time Warner's America Online Access Business, where he oversaw Internet access services, including America Online (AOL), CompuServe and Netscape ISPs. He also served at AOL as executive vice president, Member Services, and chief operating officer of MapQuest. Neil also was a regional president with Nabisco and served in a number of management positions at Pillsbury.
Smit served as the chairman of CableLabs, the research and development consortium for the cable industry, and as chairman of the board of directors of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA). [9] He also serves on the board of directors for C-SPAN. [10]
He currently serves on the boards of Qualcomm, Quant Network and Ocean Exploration Trust. [11] [12] [13]
Smit has remained actively engaged with the veteran community and has led Comcast's commitment to hire at least 10,000 veterans from 2015 to 2017. [14]
Rouzbeh Yassini, known as the "Father of the Cable Modem", is an Iranian-American inventor, engineer, and author, who has gained international reputation as a "broadband visionary" for his pioneering work in broadband industry and inventing the cable modem, establishing the cable modem industry standards (DOCSIS) through Cable Television Laboratories (CableLabs), the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). He is executive director of the University Of New Hampshire Broadband Center Of Excellence and Founder and board member of the YAS Foundation. Yassini is the author of “Planet Broadband”, a humanized look at broadband technology and its contributions to the society, as well as “Broadband Intelligent Series”, a series of white papers on digital services. He is a worldwide speaker and is often interviewed and quoted in the press for his vision on the future of broadband. His lifetime vision and dream is that all the people in the world have ubiquitous access to the broadband and be connected all the time. He believes that broadband connectivity is a fundamental right for all the human beings, what he has referred to it frequently as "Broadband Equality". Yassini was founder, CEO, and president of LANcity, the early pioneer in cable modems. He has worked with Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs) a research arm of the cable television industry in charge of the DOCSIS and on CableHome projects as the cable industry's point man on standardizing the cable modem's global footprint. He served as a senior executive consultant to the cable industry's CEOs while being president and CEO of YAS Corporation. He also has worked with Comcast and Cablevision on numerous programs relating to innovation of broadband technologies. From 2004 to 2007, Yassini worked with the CTO's office at Comcast to create the first industry standard IP-Set top Box specification known as the RNG specification. He has been involved in managing and advising companies ranging from $100 million to $50 billion and served as member of the board of directors on BAS, TrueChat, and Entropic from 2001 to 2008, and UPC Technical Advisory Committee. He created and chaired the Vendor and Operator Executive Advisory Forum of the U.S. Cable Center. He was a member of the Liberty Global Inc. (LGI) advisory technology board from 2001 to 2017. Yassini was director of Visteon from January 2015 to December 2020. As CEO and Chairman of Irystec, a Montreal-based firm founded in 2015 specializing in perceptual display processing technology, Yassini was able to successfully have the french auto company Faurecia acquire the company in 2020, despite the Covid pandemic. Working for more than 30 years in the broadband industry and achieving major accomplishments, Yassini received many awards from different organizations. In 2024 and 2019 he was inducted to Cable Hall of Fame and Light Reading Hall of Fame, respectively. He was named multiple times as CED Broadband 50 designate. CED Magazine named him “1998 Man of the Year” for creating and fostering the multibillion-dollar cable modem broadband industry. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) awarded Yassini with a 2004 Vanguard Award, the Cable Industry's highest honor in recognition of his contributions and dedication to the industry. The Cable Television Pioneers also inducted Yassini into the class of 2012 for his tremendous and meaningful contributions to the cable industry. He is a member of the Lane Department Academy as well as West Virginia University Academy of Distinguished Alumni.
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