It is the end of an era for the C-SPAN suite of public affairs cable networks. Brian Lamb, who founded C-SPAN in 1978 and has served as its CEO (and as a program host) ever since, is transitioning to a new role as executive chairman of the board.
In his place, Rob Kennedy and Susan Swain will become co-CEOs of the channel beginning April 1. The pair had been co-presidents of the channels since 2006, and both had been with the company since the 1980’s.
“Susan Swain, Rob Kennedy, and I have been preparing the company for this transition for several years,” said Lamb in a statement. “While each has their areas of expertise, Rob and Susan complement each other professionally. I’m pleased that our Board has given their partnership its unanimous endorsement. They also have a great senior management team with the right skill sets to lead C-SPAN forward.”
More information, after the jump.
C-SPAN Board Announces Executive Leadership Transition
Effective April 1, 2012: Rob Kennedy & Susan Swain Named Co-CEO’s
(Washington, DC; March 19, 2012) – C-SPAN’s Board of Directors today announced that on April 1, 2012, C-SPAN co-presidents Rob Kennedy and Susan Swain will become co-CEOs of the public affairs cable TV network. Brian Lamb, who has served as CEO since the company’s founding in 1978 and as chairman of the C-SPAN board since 1985, takes on the new role of Executive Chairman of the C-SPAN Board.
Swain and Kennedy have a long working relationship. Swain has been with C-SPAN since 1982 and Kennedy joined the network in 1987. They were named company co-presidents in December 2006.
While giving up day-to-day oversight of C-SPAN operations, Lamb will continue to be engaged in overall direction-setting for C-SPAN and plans to continue hosting his weekly interview program “Q and A.”
Time Warner Cable chairman and CEO Glenn Britt, chairman of the C-SPAN Board’s executive committee, says: “Rob Kennedy and Susan Swain are veteran C-SPAN executives with a deep sense of the C-SPAN mission and an eye to the future. Their successful partnership and long experience puts them in an ideal position to guide C-SPAN into its next generation.”
Lamb says: “Susan Swain, Rob Kennedy, and I have been preparing the company for this transition for several years. While each has their areas of expertise, Rob and Susan complement each other professionally. I’m pleased that our Board has given their partnership its unanimous endorsement. They also have a great senior management team with the right skill sets to lead C-SPAN forward.”
Susan Swain received a BA from the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. Her primary areas of corporate responsibility include programming and programming operations for the three TV networks and radio station and websites, and C-SPAN’s marketing and education outreach efforts. Among her published works is “The Supreme Court,” a collection of interviews of Supreme Court justices she and Brian Lamb conducted for C-SPAN’s 2009 documentary series on the high court. Swain has been one of
C-SPAN’s on-camera interviewers since arriving at the network as a producer in 1982.
Rob Kennedy, a graduate of the University of Illinois and a University of Chicago MBA, came to C-SPAN in 1987 after working for two cable MSOs: Centel Cable and Time Inc.’s ATC system in Rochester, NY. His areas of focus at C-SPAN are finance, engineering and technology, and affiliate relations. He also oversees the management of C-SPAN’s Peabody Award winning online Video Library, the publicly-available free digital archives of over 180,000 hours of C-SPAN programming covering a quarter century.
Kennedy and Swain are joined at the network’s Washington, DC headquarters by 265 colleagues, and at the network’s Archives in West Lafayette, IN by 10 archives staff members.
About C-SPAN:
Created by the cable TV industry and now in over 100 million TV households, C-SPAN programs three public affairs television networks in both SD and HD; C- SPAN Radio, heard in Washington DC and nationwide via XM Satellite Radio; and a video- rich website which hosts the C-SPAN Video Library. Visit http://www.c-span.org/