Michael S. Willner
Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

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 effective ambassadors on Capitol Hill, testifying regularly before Congress on industry issues and impending legislation. He currently serves as Chairman of the Cable Center, 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. He also serves on the executive committee of CableLabs; on the board of directors of C-SPAN, The Cable Center, and the Walter Kaitz Foundation.

Although named 2008 Executive of the Year by the industry publication Multichannel News, and having received a number of prestigious awards including the NCTA's 2004 Vanguard Award for Distinguished Leadership, and having been inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Cable Hall of Fame in 2008, Michael has yet to achieve his greatest goal of winning an Emmy for his leading role in Insight’'s commercials.

Click here to get Michael's lnsight. 

John Abbot
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

John Abbot was named Executive Vice President of Insight Communications in February 2006. He has served as our Chief Financial Officer since he joined the company in January 2004. He focuses on all of the company's financial activities including financial reporting, treasury management, budgeting and planning and investor relations. He also oversees the negotiation and execution of mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures.

John came to Insight from Morgan Stanley, where he was a Managing Director in the Global Media and Communications Group of the Investment Banking Division. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he worked at Goldman, Sachs & Co. John received a bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, as well as an ME in Industrial Engineering from Pennsylvania State University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Christopher Slattery
Executive Vice President, Operations

Chris Slattery was named Executive Vice President of Operations for Insight Communications in February 2006. He oversees customer growth, customer experience, product management, programming, training and field operations. He joined the company as Senior Vice President of Sales in October 2004.

Prior to joining Insight, Chris served as a Managing Director of the London operations of NTL, a multinational cable operator and telecommunication service provider. In this capacity he was responsible for sales, growth strategy, reduction of churn and customer experience for 1.5 million cable homes.

During his tenure with NTL Chris held a number of different leadership positions. As Sales Director European operations in 2001, he was responsible for designing, developing and implementing customer growth strategies across NTL's then newly-acquired European assets. And, as a General Manager of NTL's United Kingdom operations in 2000, he had overall responsibility for sales and marketing, customer retention, customer care and network maintenance, as well as budget strategy, planning and implementation. Prior to 2000 Chris served in a variety of sales-related roles at the company and its predecessors.

Sandra D. Colony
Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications

As our Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications, Sandy Colony is responsible for corporate media relations, industry relations and internal communications. In this capacity she is frequently on the road visiting our cable systems in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. As an intrepid world traveler, she also visits much more remote regions of the world such as Papua New Guinea, the Dogon communities of Mali, West Africa, the steppes of Mongolia, the highlands of Uganda (to observe highland gorillas) and most recently Ethiopia.

A 20-year veteran of the cable industry, Sandy joined Insight in 2004, having served in various capacities at Time Warner Cable of New York City, Food Network, Road Runner and Mystro TV. Prior to joining the cable industry, she was active in the not-for-profit sector, serving as Executive Director of NARAL in New York State.

A political activist for a number of years and a die-hard feminist, Sandy has served on several charitable boards and committees. Currently she is on the board of directors for the Association of Cable Communicators and Women in Cable Telecommunications. She is a graduate of Skidmore College and has a Masters Degree in Psychology from The New School of Social Research. 

Gregg Graff
Senior Vice President, Field Operations

As SVP of Field Operations at Insight (don’t let the title fool you – it’s pretty much a sales gig), Gregg Graff is immersed in “getting better.” While he occasionally finds time to work on becoming a better snow skier or wake boarder, his daily focus is directed towards improving our sales, marketing and training efforts as well as working to enhance our video product.

Gregg started in the cable business in 1984 and joined Insight in August 1998. His 14 years of marketing and programming experience landed him in, of all things, two roles in operations during the subsequent five years.

Finally rescued by Dinni Jain, Gregg enthusiastically returned to the marketing and product side of the business in 2003. He promptly shed the coat and tie for the familiar black uniform of the sales executive (see shirt in the accompanying photo).

These days, getting better in sales is pretty much job number one, and Gregg spends much of his time focused on telesales. He can’t hang in the moguls like he once could, and he drinks a lot of water trying to jump wakes on his infrequently-used board. But, we’ve got some amazing products to talk about and a lot of customers left to win over from the competition, so his priorities are set.

(Of course, Gregg can make a living selling cable products – something that ain’t gonna happen skiing or boarding.)

John Grismore
Vice President, Insight Business Services

John Grismore heads up our commercial services arm, Insight Business Services, which provides high-speed Internet, telephony and video to small and large businesses in our footprint. He joined Insight in April of 2008, moving from the mountains of Washington State to the rolling hills of Kentucky.

John began his cable career in 1983 in Sandy, Utah working for Community Television of Utah, a TCI company. On his first sales call he found himself bidding against the other cable operator in town, Insight Communications. Back in the early ‘80s, Insight was strategically building CATV systems in the growth path of large cities. Subsequently, in the early 90’s while John was traveling throughout the country installing a business customer database in the TCI cable systems, he first saw the cable systems which today make up Insight Communications.

John has led business services divisions for Rocky Mountain Telephone Company, TCI Cable, AT&T Broadband, Sprint Broadband Direct, and Charter Communications. He received an MBA from the Foster School of Business - University of Washington in 1997 and in 2004 was appointed to the Vancouver, Washington City/County Telecommunications Commission.

John enjoys golf, chess, cooking and reading a good book. He has been active in scouting with his sons Grant and Gunnar, and has served as Scoutmaster. John does a lot of research, looking for new information on autism to assist him with his son Gavin’s development. He also has a grown daughter, Bri, and a young daughter Lily. Since John lives just two tenths of a mile from the Insight Louisville office, he often walks home for lunch. 

Pamela Euler Halling
Senior Vice President, Brand

In the late 1970’s, cable TV was little more than clear signals of off-air channels, a few locally-originated shows and HBO. Starting her career in cable at that time created an experience for Pam that took her from her home in Ohio to California to New York where she has worked for Insight since 1988.

Her love for marketing and "uncharted waters" made working for startups and small companies a good fit. She honed her marketing and programming skills at cable companies Continental Cablevision and Cox Communications. She then joined a startup company, Rainbow Programming, based in New York. After several years of consumer marketing and launches of three new cable networks at Rainbow, Pam left for the Disney Channel in Burbank. Rebranding the channel was one of her major challenges at Disney. With several more years in consumer marketing under her belt, she then left Disney to join Insight as the VP of Marketing. And the rest is history, as they say!

Her roles at Insight have spanned from assisting in the marketing for the company's UK operations in the early 90's to marketing and the development and rollout of new products in the US. She has been overseeing the company's brand strategy for the past 5 years.

Pam was honored along the way with several industry awards including the Vanguard Award for Marketing in 2001 from NCTA, the Wonder Woman award in 2003 given annually by an industry publication, Multichannel News and several Mark Awards for marketing excellence from CTAM. She serves on the board of CTAM, the industry marketing association as well as Cable Positive, an organization which helps in building awareness for and preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Although grateful for a successful and exciting career, Pam says the best thing that ever happened to her was having her daughter, Christine. And being a new grandmother simply builds on her love for her family. She and her husband live in the Hudson Valley where she also finds time for her love of animals, reading, travel, piano and cooking.

Daniel Mannino
Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer

Daniel Mannino joined Insight as Controller in 1989, became Vice President and Controller in 1991, and was appointed Senior Vice President in 1999. He was appointed Chief Accounting Officer in 2007. Previously, Dan was employed by Vision Cable from 1983 to 1989, becoming its Controller in 1986. Mr. Mannino is a certified public accountant.

Jim Morgan
Senior Vice President, Human Resources

As our Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Jim Morgan has long worked to maximize the partnership between Insight and our employees. His understanding of the wide variety of issues that affect our people and programs comes by way of a 25-year law career in labor and employment matters. In fact, he served as our outside employment counsel since the company’s beginning in 1985. Jim believes simply that our success is best achieved by providing our employees a work environment that is open and fair.

When Jim joined Insight in 2003, he and his family relocated to New York from New Orleans, where he practiced law after graduating from Tulane University in 1978. This marked somewhat of a return home – Jim and his wife Kathy live on Long Island close to where Kathy grew up. The return to the Northeast also enables Jim to spend a little more time fishing on the lakes of southern Ontario in his native Canada.

Dinni Jain
President and Chief Operating Officer

As President and Chief Operating Officer at Insight Communications Inc., Dinni Jain oversees all facets of the company's operations. As the company's chief sports fanatic (especially for North Carolina Tar Heels' basketball), he ensures that sporting analogies are infused into the fabric of every meeting and every company presentation. He was appointed President in February 2006, having served as Chief Operating Officer since October 2003. He became a college basketball fan at birth.

Jain began his career with a mistake by "accidentally" becoming an investment banker against the advice of everyone he knew and his own instincts. His only defense was that he thought he was applying for a "consulting" position. But if the admonitions of his friends were not able to sway him, five long years of working on Wall Street gave him the experience to tell himself he would rather be a "doer" than one that profits from the "doing of others".

Jain went on to earn his business acumen and racked up more than fifteen years' experience in the competitive cable and cellular phone industries, including serving in the general management of NTL, the United Kingdom's largest cable and telecommunications company. When he moved to back to the United States and joined Insight in 2002 as Chief Financial Officer, he was troubled by the cable industry's lack of competitive edge. Having become accustomed to a fiercely competitive environment in the UK, his goal became to move Insight in a new, aggressively competitive direction by focusing on customer growth rather than only cash flow.

He dedicated himself to this goal with relentless passion. Building on Insight's solid foundations, he established a new operating paradigm for the company, one that fostered sustainable growth capability by emphasizing both acquisition and retention. Cash flow targets were replaced by new, more upstream metrics. Connects and disconnects were scrutinized daily, direct sales became a significant contributing factor to customer acquisition and quality customer service became the underpinnings for customer retention.

All together, Insight's results over the past four years speak to Jain's success. Basic customer growth which in 2004 was negative grew 2.2% in 2005; 4.0% in 2006; 5.4% in 2007, and another 5% in 2008. Comfortingly for the finance person within him, Insight has also sustained solid double digit OCF growth for the last nine quarters. In recognition of these accomplishments, Jain was awarded the Vanguard Award for Cable Operations Management in 2009. The Vanguard Awards are the most prestigious awards conferred by the cable industry's trade association, The National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

Though elusive, Jain apparently works out of an office in Louisville, the seat of Insight's Operating Headquarters and its largest market. While his office looks like a shrine to his beloved Tar Heels, he prefers to think of it as paying homage to "rigors and rewards of competitiveness".

Hamid Heidary
Executive Vice President, Central Operations and Chief Technology Officer

Hamid Heidary joined Insight in April 2006 as our Executive Vice President of Central Operations. He oversees all of Insight's central support operations, which encompass the areas of network operations, engineering and information technology. He is also tasked with charting the company's technical strategy and directions.

A people-oriented, hands-on engineer, Hamid oversees a dynamic and cohesive Central Operations team with open lines of communication. His staff meetings are frequent, boisterous and productive. Everyone who works for him knows exactly what is expected of him or her and is provided with the tools and support necessary to get the job done.

With more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications and data networking industries, Hamid has served as COO of Iesy Hessen GmbH, a cable television operator in Hessen, Germany, and CTO of NTL:Europe, a multinational cable operator and telecommunication service provider. He has also held various executive technical and management positions with NTL UK, C-Cor Electronics, Inc. and Allen Bradley.

Hamid's education includes a BSEE and MSEE from Southern Illinois University, an MBA from California Coast University and a certificate of corporate directorship from the Institute of Directors in London.

Married with one son, Hamid enjoys a good book, a game of golf and an opportunity to go scuba diving. He recently has started to bike, having decided that it's easier on his knees than running.

Elliot Brecher
Senior Vice President and General Counsel

Elliot Brecher joined us as Senior Vice President and General Counsel in January 2000. Previously, he was a member of the law firm Cooperman Levitt Winikoff, which served as our legal counsel until July 2000, when it merged with Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. Elliot "crossed over to the dark side" after representing our company during a variety of acquisitions and financings, and ultimately our IPO in 1999.

While Elliot doesn’t have much of a personal life during the week, he proudly serves as a weekend softball warrior, and is an avid New York Yankees fan.

Elliot received his law degree from Fordham University in 1988. After graduation, he slaved as an associate at the law firm Rosenman & Colin before joining Cooperman Levitt Winikoff in February 1994.  

Kevin Dowell
Senior Vice President, Insight Media

Kevin Dowell serves as our Senior Vice President of Insight Media, the company's advertising sales arm. Kevin joined the company in 2001 as Vice President, Advertising Sales, and was promoted in February 2005. He is responsible for all advertising sales efforts across Insight's many product offerings, including cable television networks, high-speed Internet properties and interactive services.

With more than 23 years of advertising sales experience, Kevin has held positions with Times Mirror (Tribune), Jones Intercable, Inc. and AT&T. Prior to joining Insight, he was Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Interconnect, the nation’s first fully integrated single-point advertising platform. He is a member of the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau’s (CAB) Board of Directors and its Executive Committee, and is a past recipient of the CAB President's Award.

When not promoting the advantages of advertising on cable television to anyone who will listen, (a conversation he will initiate at any time anywhere) Kevin enjoys spending time with his family boating on the many lakes around Northern Illinois. He also remains firmly committed to supporting his Chicago Bears in their endless pursuit of another Super Bowl ring.

Melani Griffith
Senior Vice President, Programming and Video Services

Melani Griffith is our Senior Vice President, Programming and Video Services and is responsible for the management and strategy of the video product as well as negotiating all of Insight's programming deals. She has overdeveloped biceps as a result of hours of required arm-wrestling.

Melani has over 14 years of marketing and programming experience in the cable industry, and has been recognized within the industry on multiple occasions for her achievements. In 2008 she was named one of Cable's Rising Stars by the industry publication Multichannel News and in 2009 received a similar recognition from the industry association, Women in Cable Telecommunications.

Prior to joining Insight, Griffith worked in advertising sales at FOX Cable Networks as well as affiliate sales at AMC Networks and at Discovery Communications, Inc. She earned a bachelor's degree in communications from the University of California at Los Angeles and a master's degree in business administration from Columbia Business School. She triangulates between Montreal, Louisville and New York.

Keith Hall
Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel

Keith A. Hall is our Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel. He plays a key leadership role in many areas of the company with responsibilities that include the development and advocacy of our public policy positions at the federal, state and local level, assisting with the company's overall regulatory strategy, and coordinating research-based efforts to improve our public image in the communities we serve. He also assists our business entities, Insight Media and Insight Business, with opportunities for revenue growth.

Keith worked his way through night law school, obtaining his degree at the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville. His undergraduate degree comes from Centre College, where he was Student Body President.

Keith has served Insight in a variety of capacities, including outside counsel, Vice-President of Government and Regulatory Affairs, and Senior Vice President of Government Relations before being promoted to his current position. He has been a top Congressional and Gubernatorial Aide and served as a key strategist in a variety of political campaigns.

A native of Mason County in Northeastern Kentucky where he has been named outstanding alumnus of the local high school, Keith is an Eagle Scout and is active in scouting. He is engaged to Leah Pepper (and her St. Bernard, Reagan) of Louisville.

John W. ("Woody") Hutton
Senior Vice President, Operations

John W. "Woody" Hutton joined Insight in 2000 as Vice President and General Manager of the Lexington, Kentucky system, and was promoted in 2002 to Senior Vice President, Operations. He currently oversees operations for systems in Columbus, Ohio; Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green and Covington, Kentucky; and Evansville, Indiana. Hutton is a seasoned cable executive, having joined the industry in 1982 with Centel Cable following his graduation from Florida State University.

Paul Meltzer
Senior Vice President, Product Management

Paul Meltzer is our Senior Vice President of Product Management, and he is responsible for the continuous reinvention of our high-speed Internet and telephony products. Since his arrival in 2006, we have increased the speeds of our Insight Broadband service to become the fastest available in all the states we serve. In that same time, we have deployed a VoIP phone service across almost our entire footprint.

When he’s not working, Paul can be found alternately roaming the streets of Brooklyn and the prairies of north Texas. Splitting his time between two such dissimilar terrains comes naturally to an Insight multitasker. He’s as enthused by a genuine Brooklyn bagel and a bike ride over the East River bridges as by biscuits and gravy near the courthouse and a night two-stepping in a honky tonk.

Paul has spent the last decade working in the cable industry, much of it developing the Optimum Online business at Cablevision. His previous adventures included launching Digital TV for Continental Cablevision/MediaOne and developing and launching new products for divisions of General Mills and the Campbell Soup Company. He earned an MBA at the Tuck School at Dartmouth College, a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy at Wesleyan University, and a doctorate in hard knocks from the New York City subway system.

Scott Schneiderman
Senior Vice President, Operational Finance

Scott Schneiderman is our Senior Vice President of Operational Finance, where he is responsible for identifying opportunities to make the operations more efficient (read: make more money). He joined the company in 2004 as Vice President of Financial Planning and Strategy.

While not hounding his colleagues for deeper analysis or increased cash flow, Scott is dodging trees and trying not to break any limbs during his weekend mountain biking excursions. As a misplaced Southerner, he also enjoys fine-tuning his barbeque recipes and taking advantage of the food, museums, and sporting events in the Big Apple.

Scott came to Insight from a career on Wall Street. He spent time in private equity at a firm he founded, Madison Park Partners, and as a Director at The CIT Group. He also spent five years executing M&A transactions at Barclays and as an analyst at JP Morgan. Scott holds an MBA from The Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College and is also a proud Tarheel, where he spent his undergraduate days.