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ANDY GROSSMAN
As one of the most respected top executives in the cable industry, Cox Communications EVP Maggie Bellville was the last person her peers thought would leave her key post at the No. 5 MSO.
That's why it came as a shock when Bellville, one of the few high-ranking operator executives, announced her resignation Thursday.
Cox named SVP-operations Patrick J. Esser to succeed her as EVP-operations, one of five posts at Cox that reports directly to president/CEO Jim Robbins.
Bellville, 47, and Robbins weren't talking. The release contained the usual statement that she wants to explore other opportunities in the broadband entertainment sector. However, those close to the five-year Cox veteran insist the idea to leave was all hers.
Friends who have spoken to Bellville say she emerged from a Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program last spring ready for new challenges.
"She was bursting with ideas ... all cranked up to change the world," says one Bellville confidante.
Another Bellville friend concurs, saying, "She felt she had done everything she could have done in her job. There were other things to try, new challenges, new exciting opportunities."
The Women in Cable & Telecommunications Foundation honored Bellville in November as their Woman of the Year.
"We will really miss her ... she's been a real mentor to a lot of people," says Erica Gruen, president of Erica Gruen Consulting, a venture capital firm, and chairwoman of the WICT Foundation board of trustees.
Bellville's resignation is a setback to WICT, which is trying to put more women into high-ranking MSO jobs. While plenty of women are top executives at the programmers, only a handful have those posts at the MSOs.
"It has been a struggle to get women up in the ranks in the cable companies ... In that sense, it's a symbolic blow," says one woman cable industry executive.
With Bellville's departure, three of the five top officials who reported directly to Robbins at Cox have left the company in recent months.
CTO Alex Best retired last year, and EVP-new business development David Woodrow resigned to become CEO of Slingshot Networks, a subsidiary of telco Qwest Communications.
Cox insiders insist the turnover does not represent tensions inside the company. They say Best had been intent on retiring for several years and Woodrow had longed to become a CEO.
Bellville did bring a hard-driving style to the MSO, which has 6.2 million subcribers, but colleagues say her style was needed at a time when competition was coming to cable.
Bellville moved to cable in the early 1990s from the wireless industry.
"She came out of a highly competitive business, and she brought the sense of how to be competitive, not only to Cox, but she spread the message to a lot of executives in the industry," says CTAM president/CEO Char Beales.
Colleagues praise Bellville for bringing a strong pro-customer mindset to Cox and for aggressive marketing and sales tactics. She was a forceful advocate for bundling video, voice and data services as well as trying new ideas on pricing, especially in markets such as Phoenix, New Orleans and Omaha, Neb., where Cox faced heavy competition from telephone companies.
Prior to working at Cox, Bellville was a SVP for Century Communications' Southwest Division, which she joined in 1992.
"Everything Maggie had hoped to bring to Century, she was able to execute at Cox and more," says Stuart Lipson, a media strategist who worked with Bellville at Century. "When you look at all she accomplished then until now, it's pretty amazing. Look at product and capabilities at Cox when she got there, and now it's pretty incredible
Bellville's resignation had little impact on Cox shares. In mid-morning trading Friday, Cox traded at $47.88, down about 13 cents. While the stock is about 20% off its 52-week high, it is up substantially from its low of $31.68, hit in September.
Cox investors have typically awarded the company a premium valuation due to its bellwether status in the industry, the quality of its plant, which is enabling it to quickly roll out advanced services, and its industry-leading customer service - something Bellville was firmly committed to enhancing.
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