Former President and Co-CEO
C-SPAN
Rob Kennedy was named C-SPAN’s President and co-CEO in April 2012, a position he shared with his colleague Susan Swain until his retirement in May 2024. Together, they were responsible for strategy and operations at the nation’s only public affairs cable television network. Prior to that, he served as C-SPAN’s President and co-COO, and as C-SPAN’s top financial officer since 1987. He also served on the C-SPAN Board of Directors.
Rob has worked in the cable television industry his entire career. He brought to C-SPAN experience at both the corporate and system levels of cable television operations. In Rochester, NY, which was a Time, Inc. company, Rob was Vice President of Marketing and Programming. Earlier, he worked at the corporate offices of the Chicago-based Centel Cable Television Company.
Rob had an important role to play in C-SPAN’s earliest days, when Jack Frazee, the CEO of Centel Cable tasked Rob with writing the first business plan for the start-up cable network. At the time, Mr. Frazee was serving as board chairman for C-SPAN, which is a public service created by the nation’s cable television operating companies.
Rob is a native of Springfield, Illinois. He earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he received a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2017. He has served on several university advisory boards.
Rob is active in the cable industry. He’s a board member for the Emma Bowen Foundation, which creates mentoring opportunities for minority college students in cable, broadcast, and technology companies. He also serves as Chair of the CTAM Education Foundation, sponsor of the highly regarded Cable Executive Management Program at Harvard University.
In 2004, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) selected Rob and Susan Swain as recipients of the Vanguard Award for Programmers, the industry’s highest honor. They were inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame in 2017 and the Cable Hall of Fame in 2019.
