Neil Smit (born 1960) is an American businessman and former CEO of Comcast Cable, an American corporation providing cable, entertainment, and communications products and services.

Collegiate education and military service

Smit earned a Bachelor of Science in oceanography &

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

from Duke University and then achieved a Masters of Science Degree from

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learnin ...

Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. The School is one of America's oldest graduate schools of international relations and is well-ranked in it ...

in international business. Smit served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, serving for five years as a member on the

SEALs Seals may refer to: * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impress an emblem, used as a means ...

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.

Career and other business activities

Smit was CEO of

Comcast Corporation Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

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. His reported annual compensation was $19,856,203, which places him among the top 200 highest paid CEOs in America. After that, Smit joined Comcast in March 2010 from

Charter Communications Charter Communications, Inc., is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum. With over 32 million customers in 41 states, it is the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribers, ...

where he served as chief executive officer and director since 2005. Prior to joining Charter, he was the president of

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

America Online AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo (2017� ...

Access Business, where he oversaw Internet access services, including America Online (AOL),

CompuServe CompuServe (CompuServe Information Service, also known by its initialism CIS) was an American online service provider, the first major commercial one in the world – described in 1994 as "the oldest of the Big Three information services (the oth ...

and

Netscape Netscape Communications Corporation (originally Mosaic Communications Corporation) was an American independent computer services company with headquarters in Mountain View, California and then Dulles, Virginia. Its Netscape web browser was on ...

ISP An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privatel ...

s. He also served at AOL as executive vice president, Member Services, and chief operating officer of

MapQuest MapQuest (stylized as mapquest) is an American free online web mapping service. It was launched in 1996 as the first commercial web mapping service. MapQuest vies for market share with competitors such as Google Maps and Here. History MapQuest ...

. Neil also was a regional president with

Nabisco Nabisco (, abbreviated from the earlier name National Biscuit Company) is an American manufacturer of cookies and snacks headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey. The company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International. 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). He also serves on the board of directors for

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United Stat ...

. He joined the board of directors at Quant Network in July 2020.

Community relations

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.

References

External links

Neil Smit 2018 Cable Hall of Fame
YouTube, 3 min 16 sec 1960 births Living people American chief executives American corporate directors American media executives Comcast people Duke University alumni American billionaires United States Navy SEALs personnel The Fletcher School at Tufts University alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Businesspeople from Philadelphia 20th-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-1960s-stub