The name of Stephen Burke, Class of 1980, continues to pop up in the national media as Comcast’s purchase of NBC Universal continues to be dissected and analyzed.
Burke is chief operating officer of Comcast, which is the United States’ largest cable operator, the nation’s largest Internet service provider, and the third-largest phone company.
Now, pending approval of Comcast’s $37.5 billion deal to acquire NBC U, Burke will be tasked with meshing two giant businesses into a single, efficient company.
The 51-year-old executive will be in charge of overseeing NBC U and finding ways for its
content operations to work more closely with Comcast’s cable systems, according to media reports.
Burke is the longtime right-hand man to Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts.
Wall Street and industry folks laud Roberts and Burke for vision,
innovation and running businesses with an eye on financial and
operating targets.
“They are good businessmen and smart operators,” cable industry
veteran and consultant Steve Effros recently said of Comcast’s
leadership.
Burke is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Colgate and a 1982 graduate of the Harvard Business School. He spoke at a 2006 Colgate CEO Conversations event, and was the university’s commencement speaker in 2004.
A former longtime executive with Walt Disney Co., he is one of the few top executives in corporate America with extensive experience in managing media properties, including broadcast and cable networks and theme parks, as well as media distribution and telecommunications systems on a massive scale.
People who have worked closely with Burke describe him as a straight-shooter who also happens to come from one of America’s most prominent business families: His father, Dan Burke, was one of two architects of the Capital Cities TV station group that gobbled up ABC and later sold the company to the Walt Disney. His uncle, James Burke, was chairman of Johnson & Johnson during the deadly 1982 Tylenol scare. And his aunt, Phyllis Davis, was a female executive pioneer, rising to a senior position at Avon.