Liberty Global's fries is CTP exec of year.

AuthorPeterson, Eric
PositionTELECOM

Liberty Global President and CEO Mike Fries is one of the few cable executives who moonlights as a lead singer for a rock band. Comprised entirely of Colorado CEOs and executives, Fries' cover band, the Moderators, took in $70,000 for Mile High United Way and other youth-oriented nonprofits at a charity gig at Englewood's Gothic Theatre in February.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"We have fun," Fries said. "As a front man, I get everybody involved."

He's no slouch at his day job, either. Fries took home this year's Communications Executive of the Year at the Communications Technology Professionals (CTP) annual awards dinner in April. CTP is the state's largest organization of its kind, with more than 2,500 members, and one of the most active such associations in the country.

To Fries, the roles of lead singer and CEO definitely have their parallels: "You've gotta have your finger on the pulse of the crowd and see what's working and what's not working, and be able to call audibles," he said.

At the dinner honoring Fries at the Brown Palace, CTP President and BroadSoft VP Josh Holmberg described the attendees as "a who's who of the communications industry" in his opening remarks. Later Liberty Chairman and Colorado cable legend John Malone introduced Fries as "a terrific leader," noting that Fries "destroyed" his record for debt leverage as tallied by the Harvard Business School at UnitedGlobalCom, which merged with Malone's Liberty Media in June 2005 to create Liberty Global.

Accepting his award, Fries described his teenage self as "a renaissance beach rat - think of Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn's character in the film 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High') wearing flip-flops to AP chemistry lab and being captain of the football team." The description remains apt today: Beyond his exploits in rock 'n' roll, Fries is an avid runner and skier, and he still likes to hang 10 when he's in the vicinity of a wave.

His accomplishments since he assumed the helm of Liberty Global are impressive: Revenues have tripled in five years as the company's stock has doubled this year. Liberty Global is now the second largest cable operator in the world after Comcast, and the...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT