Roberts Shares the Wheel: Comcast Elevates Mike Cavanagh to Co-CEO

Comcast is handing a second set of keys to the corner office. Starting January 2026, president Mike Cavanagh will become co-CEO alongside longtime boss Brian L. Roberts, who will also remain chairman. Cavanagh will join the board at the same time, a formal step in a succession plan that’s been years in the making.

Cavanagh, 59, isn’t a surprise pick. He joined Comcast as CFO in 2015, was promoted to president in 2022, and has increasingly been Roberts’ day-to-day partner, especially after he took direct oversight of NBCUniversal in 2023. Since then he’s pushed through a restructuring and set in motion the spinout of NBCU’s cable channels — including CNBC, MSNBC and Golf Channel — into a separate company, Versant, expected to wrap before the end of 2025.

The promotion lands as Comcast tries to redraw its business mix. Cord-cutting has pressured the once-mighty cable networks and even broadband growth has slowed amid new competition from fixed-wireless rivals. Comcast is responding with a broader pivot toward streaming, theme parks and connectivity, while pruning management layers and centralizing operations across Xfinity internet, wireless and pay-TV.

Roberts framed the move as continuity with urgency.

“Mike has proven himself to be a trusted and collaborative leader,” he said, calling him the ideal partner to steer Comcast’s next phase.

Cavanagh, for his part, praised the company’s “exceptional businesses” and said he’s ready to help lead through a “transformative time” for media and telecom.

Wall Street has viewed Cavanagh as heir apparent for months. The stock reaction was muted on the day — Comcast shares were roughly flat — but the symbolism is big: for the first time, a non-Roberts is sharing the chief executive title at a company the Roberts family turned from a regional cable operator into a global media-and-connectivity heavyweight.

Cavanagh’s résumé is built for complicated chapters. Before Comcast, he co-ran JPMorgan’s corporate and investment bank and served as the bank’s CFO through the financial crisis. At Comcast he’s now tasked with squeezing more growth from Peacock and parks, stabilizing broadband, and selling investors on a cleaner story once Versant spins off.

If the Netflix playbook is any guide — Greg Peters sharing the top job with Ted Sarandos — Comcast’s dual-CEO setup is meant to split focus without splintering direction: Roberts as anchor shareholder-strategist, Cavanagh as operator-in-chief. The next few quarters, and that cable-network spin, will show how well the two-handed grip holds.

CNBC, the New York Times, Reuters, the Financial Times, and Bloomberg contributed to this report.