Joe Waz, Senior Vice President External Affairs and Public Policy Counsel, to Retire From Comcast

Today, Comcast Corporation announced that Joe Waz, Senior Vice President External Affairs and Public Policy Counsel, will retire from the company on April 30 after 17 years of service. 

Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts said, "I've worked with Joe for almost two decades, and his wise counsel and guidance on public policy helped Comcast become the leading company it is today.  No one has been more tireless in representing the company on public policy issues. From his work guiding our many acquisitions through regulatory approvals to his role as President of the Comcast Foundation, Joe has been essential to our success." 

Since joining the company in 1994, Waz has been widely recognized as one of the nation's foremost experts on telecommunications public policy.  At Comcast, Joe Waz has primary responsibility for the company's public policy activities, and served as the executive director of the company's political action committees, and president of the Comcast Foundation. He has testified on behalf of the company before Congress and numerous federal, state, and local regulatory agencies.  

"Joe Waz has been a great asset not just to Comcast but to the entire telecommunications industry.  He has been a great leader of the company's external affairs function, including his service as President of the Comcast Foundation. Comcast and the Comcast Foundation have donated over $2.2 billion in cash and in-kind support to our community partners since 2001.  While we'd love Joe to delay his retirement, he's told us he can't wait any longer to start this new phase of his life,  Fortunately, we and the cable industry will continue to benefit from Joe's knowledge and expertise as a consultant even following his retirement." said David L. Cohen, Comcast Executive Vice President. 

Waz will establish a part-time consulting practice - with Comcast as its first client - and plans a future relocation to the West Coast.  He has also accepted an appointment as Senior Fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (www.siliconflatirons.org) at the University of Colorado in Boulder. 

"Brian, David, and all the great people at Comcast gave me a really unusual and remarkable opportunity to put my skills to work on a wide range of things that interested me," Waz said.  "I will be forever grateful to have been a part of Comcast's incredible emergence as a leader in the media, communications, and technology industries.  It's awfully hard to leave, because I so thoroughly enjoy what I do and admire the caliber of people I have been lucky enough to work with, but I intend to keep my hand in, while also making time to pursue other passions." 

Waz also will serve as the first chairman of the Broadband Internet Technology Advisory Group (BITAG), a new multistakeholder organization dedicated to building consensus on technical issues and challenges in the Internet ecosystem.  

Before joining Comcast in 1994, Waz spent 11 years at The Wexler Group, a government relations and public affairs consulting firm in Washington, D.C., serving as executive vice president and general counsel. He began his Washington career with Ralph Nader's Telecommunications Research and Action Center in 1979. 

Waz built an extensive record of service on not-for-profit and industry boards. On June 30, he will complete his second and final term as chairman of Settlement Music School, the nation's oldest and largest community school of the arts with six branches in Greater Philadelphia. He has also served as vice chair of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, based in Washington, D.C., as chairman of the Federal Communications Bar Association Foundation, on the boards of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry and the Internet Education Foundation, and as chair of the Public Affairs Committee of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), among other responsibilities. 

At the NCTA convention In May 2002, Waz was presented with the cable industry's highest honor, the Vanguard Award, for his work in government and community relations. He has also received awards from, among others, the Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia, the Cable Television Public Affairs Association, and the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council. 

About Comcast Corporation

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) (www.comcast.com) is one of the nation's leading providers of entertainment, information and communications products and services. Comcast is principally involved in the operation of cable systems through Comcast Cable and in the development, production and distribution of entertainment, news, sports and other content for global audiences through NBCUniversal. Comcast Cable is one of the nation's largest video, high-speed Internet and phone providers to residential and business customers. Comcast is the majority owner and manager of NBCUniversal, which owns and operates entertainment and news cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, local television station groups, television production operations, a major motion picture company and theme parks.