|
Michael S. Willner co-founded Insight Communications in 1985 and is our Chief Executive Officer as well as a Director and Vice Chairman of our Board.
As a young boy in Miami, Florida, Michael had a fascination with the television business at a very early age. He often rode his bicycle to the local NBC affiliate after school where the staff allowed him to help out in the studio while they produced and aired a live children’s puppet show and the local news.
As CEO, he is a firm believer in open, honest communication. Michael is a hands-on leader who personally ensures that employees and customers are always well informed and have input and influence over important company decisions. This commitment to open communications led to a secondary career that of a leading man in a number of Insight television commercials in which he comfortably plays himself with a great sense of self-deprecating humor.
In one notable brand-awareness campaign series, the camera follows Michael as he goes door to door to determine whether the company is meeting customers’ needs. His efforts to provide extraordinary customer service find him attempting to fix a car engine, cooking chili, feeding a crying baby and washing a dog.
Michael started his career in 1974 as the program director and news reporter for a small suburban New York cable system after graduating from the Boston University College of Communications. Soon after, he shifted his focus to general management and eventually became the Chief Operating Officer of Vision Cable Communications, a cable company owned by a division of Newhouse Newspapers.
Michael is very active in industry affairs and today is one of cable’s most active and effective ambassadors on Capitol Hill, testifying regularly before Congress on industry issues and impending legislation. He has served two consecutive terms as Chairman of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), the cable industry's trade organization, and currently sits on its executive committee. In 2007, Michael was elected Vice Chairman of The Cable Center’s board of directors; he also serves on the executive committee of CableLabs and on the board of directors of C-SPAN and the Walter Kaitz Foundation.
A recipient of the NCTA’s 2004 Vanguard Award for Distinguished Leadership and a 2005 inductee into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame, he has yet to achieve his greatest goal of winning an Emmy for his leading role in Insight’s commercials. | 