Brian L. Roberts - Biography

Brian L. Roberts (born June 28, 1959) is Chairman/CEO of Comcast, an American company providing cable, entertainment, and communications products and services. He is the son of Comcast co-founder Ralph J. Roberts.

Life and career

Roberts was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A graduate of Germantown Academy, he earned his B.S. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity.

Comcast has grown into a Fortune 100 company with 21.7 million customers and 80,000 employees. Comcast's content networks and investments include E!, Style Network, the Golf Channel, Versus, G4, PBS Kids Sprout, TV One and four regional Comcast SportsNets. The Company also has a majority ownership in Comcast-Spectator, whose major holdings include the Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team, the Philadelphia 76ers NBA basketball team and two large multipurpose arenas in Philadelphia. Roberts received $24,683,315 in 2009.

On December 3, 2009, General Electric (GE) and Comcast announced a buyout agreement for NBC Universal. When the sale is completed, Comcast will own 51% of NBC Universal and GE will own 49%. Regulators approved the proposed sale on January 18, 2011. The sale is expected to be completed by January 28, 2011.

Brian Roberts is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and previously Treasurer. He served as Chairman of NCTA from 1995 to 1996, when the landmark deregulatory 1996 Telecommunications Act became law. Roberts is the Chairman of CableLabs as well.

Roberts has won business and industry honors during his tenure. Institutional Investor magazine named him its top vote-getter three years straight (2004-2006) in the Cable & Satellite category of their America's Best CEOs annual survey; and also named Comcast as one of America's Most Shareholder-Friendly Companies in 2006. He was the recipient of the 2004 Humanitarian Award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center and was the 2002 Walter Kaitz Foundation Honoree of the Year for his commitment to diversity in the cable industry. The Police Athletic League of Philadelphia honored Roberts with its 2002 award for his commitment to youth programs and community partnerships.

Roberts is a board member of the Bank of New York. He co-chaired the 2003 Resource Development Campaign for the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania and was a founding co-chair of Philadelphia 2000, the nonpartisan host committee for the 2000 Republican National Convention.

The Pennsylvania Report named him to the 2003 "The Pennsylvania Report Power 75" list of influential figures in Pennsylvania politics, calling him "Pennsylvania’s most powerful businessman" and noted his influence with Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. In 2003, he was named the PoliticsPA list of politically influential individuals.

Family

He and his wife, Aileen, live in Philadelphia with their three children.

Maccabiah Games

An All-American in squash, he earned a gold medal with the U.S. squash team in 2005 and silver medals at the 1981, 1985 and 1997 Maccabiah Games in Israel.