Steve Weed, Steve Friedman & Wayne Schattenkerk
Steve Weed
Title: CEO, Wave Broadband
Years in Cable: 33+
Education: Harvard Business School
Best Advice: Happy employees create happy customers.
Steve Friedman
Title: President/COO, Wave Broadband
Years in Cable: 31
Education: BS, Accounting, University of Southern California
Best Advice: Think on behalf of the customer.
Wayne Schattenkerk
Title: CFO, Wave Broadband
Years in Cable: 13
Education: BS, Accounting, University of Notre Dame; MBA, University of Washington
Best Advice: Figure out how you can best enjoy life.
Why Them? These three aren’t your typical C suite types, and Wave is all the better for it. In addition to being Wave’s CFO, Schattenkerk oversees customer care and programming. It only makes sense that he wears several hats: Schattenkerk worked on the financial and operational sides of businesses before joining Wave: He was President/CFO of Saltmine, a Seattle-based web site and software developer. Wave is Weed’s second act in the cable space: He became one of the first cable execs to launch high-speed Internet service as head of Seattle-based Summit Communications, which he sold in 1999, before bringing his expertise to Wave. Friedman tirelessly worked on raising the visibility of the retransmission consent overhaul and putting it on the national agenda when he was chairman of ACA (elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2010). Even during his farewell address to ACA members in 2011, he stressed the need for the FCC to adopt new retrans rules along lines recommended by indie operators.
Weed
I watch the majority of programming on this device: TIVO
The biggest innovation in cable over the last year: Roku & Amazon HDMI streaming sticks
TV show I’d most like to have a cameo in? Shark Tank
I wish Congress would just…TV content to be sold to all cable operators for the same price
The technology that will most benefit cable over the next year is: IP video
Favorite Cable Show memory: Ted Tuner talking about Fox’s proposed 24 news channel “ I am going to squish ‘em like a bug”…
Oscars or Grammys? Grammys
Favorite vacation spot: On the boat
Beach or mountains? Beach
My favorite business/motivational book: The Ultimate Question
Schattenkerk
I watch the majority of programming on this device: Television
John, Paul, George or Ringo? Ringo. I always wanted to play the drums.
Cable exec I’d least like to see twerking: Bob Ormberg from GCI
Twitter or Instagram? Neither. I am social-media challenged.
One thing I would do all the time if I could: Scuba dive
Beach or mountains? The beach!
Desert island album: It would have to be two: Jimmy Buffet’s A1A and Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction
