Episode Summary

Powered by a voracious curiosity to learn how things work, Stephanie Mitchko-Beale blazed a trail through the world of engineering at a time when women in STEM were an anomaly. Now, as the Chief Technology Officer at Charter Communications, Stephanie brings insight to how to manage a career when fulfilling your dreams and bypassing the naysayers means everything.

Syd Finkelstein 

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life. 

Stephanie Mitchko-Beale 

Stephanie Mitchko-Beale joined Charter Communications in 2019 as Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer. Based in Stamford, Ms. Mitchco-Beale oversees Charter’s Network, Mobile, Video and Software Engineering teams, as well as Network Architecture, Technology Policy, and Emerging Technology organizations. 

Ms. Mitchko-Beale joined Charter from Cadent, a provider of data-driven solutions for buying and selling TV advertising. She served as joint Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer and oversaw all technical aspects of the company’s strategy, operations and development.  

Earlier in her career, Ms. Mitchko-Beale was Senior Vice President of Video Infrastructure Software at Cablevision Systems Corporation (currently part of Altice USA) where she was responsible for the software development of new consumer-facing technologies. As a key member of Cablevision’s technology senior leadership team, she broke new ground in bringing interactive and web technologies to traditional media models. 

With more than 20 years of experience, Ms. Mitchko-Beale is a technology, television, and advanced-advertising veteran with a strong record of first-to-market products. She earned an Emmy award from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for Best Interactive Television Platform for Cablevision’s iO Interactive Television and two Technical Emmys for Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for the Creation of Non-Traditional Programs or Platforms for Cablevision’s iO Interactive Optimum Digital Cable and the second for Pioneering Work in Implementation and Deployment of Network DVR.

Ms. Mitchko-Beale received a B.S. in electrical engineering from Polytechnic University in New York. She guest lectures on “Advanced Technologies for Business Applications” and “Technology Innovation in Business” at NYU Stern School of Business and is a member of the NYU Poly Enterprise Learning Board. Additionally, she serves as a mentor for WICT to help young women see the benefit of pursuing careers in cable and technology.  

Insights from this episode:

• Difficulties Stephanie’s experienced in college and as a young engineer in a male-dominated field and how that led her to mentoring young women.
• Reasons why working in the field of technology provides a better work-life balance and was better positioned to respond to the COVID pandemic.
• Differences between mentorship and sponsorship and why you should create your own “personal board” to help you navigate decisions.
• Changes that are happening in the cable industry from customer service to technology and how COVID has impacted the industry.
• Benefits of going from working for a tech giant to a start-up and how that affected Stephanie’s career.  

Quotes from the show:

• “The numbers are still staggering when you look at percentages of women and men in the careers of engineering and software but there’s much more acknowledgement around having more women and more diversity.” – Stephanie Mitchko-Beale
• “If you try to be something you’re not or try to conform yourself to somebody else’s norm, it’s exhausting. You have to learn to get really comfortable in your own skin.” – Stephanie Mitchko-Beale
• “From my perspective, a mentor is someone who calls you on your shit.” – Stephanie Mitchko-Beale
• On the difficulties in providing customer service: “What has made it difficult in the past is really visibility and exposure to what’s happening at the customer site.” – Stephanie Mitchko-Beale
• “I think the whole COVID thing really accelerated digital adoption, self-service, self-install, and the use of data so we didn’t have to go into the field to learn about things.” – Stephanie Mitchko-Beale
• “It’s not the end game, it’s just a journey of using data to help manage our networks.” – Stephanie Mitchko-Beale
• On COVID’s affect on business: “The speed at which companies have responded in all sorts of industries, has been fascinating to see and in some ways it’s an unplanned test of how strong your organization is.” – Syd Finkelstein
• “What’s interesting about the cable industry … we collaborate, we don’t compete.” – Stephanie Mitchko-Beale
• On the proliferation of streaming services: “I think that curation and aggregation of what’s available is something that people need and it will happen when consumers don’t want to pay for multiple applications.” – Stephanie Mitchko-Beale
• “When you’re in engineering and tech you’re never really working on today; I’m always working five years out.” – Stephanie Mitchko-Beale

Stay Connected:

Syd Finkelstein

Website: http://thesydcast.com

LinkedIn: Sydney Finkelstein

Twitter: @sydfinkelstein

Facebook: The Sydcast

Instagram: The Sydcast

Stephanie Mitchko-Beale

Website: Charter Communications

LinkedIn: Stephanie Mitchko-Beale

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This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry (www.podcastlaundry.com)