Cox Communications Leadership

Pat Esser is president of Cox Communications, a multi-service broadband communications and entertainment company with about six million residential and commercial customers. The company is known for its broadband leadership and pioneering efforts in commercial services; customer care; cable telephone and its ability to create outstanding workplaces. The company’s pioneering spirit continues today with industry-leading programmatic advertising offered via its Cox Media division; its 1 Gigabit offerings; security and automation services known as Cox Homelife as well as its premium video offering that includes predictive search, a voice remote and integrated Netflix experience. Esser’s philosophy and the Cox family’s long-held belief is that making Cox’s local communities more vibrant is its responsibility and a call to action. As such, the company is answering the need for low-cost Internet for families in need with its Connect2Compete program.

Esser brings more than 30 years of experience in cable and telecommunications to his role as Cox’s top executive, a position he has held since 2006. He joined Cox in 1979 as director of programming in Hampton Roads, VA, and was part of the original management team that pioneered Cox’s advertising sales division now known as Cox Media. Named corporate vice president of advertising sales in 1991, Esser was presented with the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau President’s Award just three years later. Esser became vice president of operations for Cox’s Western Division in 1999, and a year later was promoted to senior vice president of operations. In 2004, Esser was promoted to executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Cox has earned numerous accolades during Esser’s tenure as president; many tied to his personal passion for diversity and inclusion. In 2006, Cox first appeared in DiversityInc’s listing of the Top 50 Companies for Diversity and has now made the list thirteen times. Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) regularly points to Cox among the top operators for women. In 2007 Esser was personally honored with Multichannel News’ first “Executive of the Year” award. At the 2013 Cable Show, Esser was awarded with the National Cable & Telecommunications Association’s (NCTA) Distinguished Vanguard Award for Leadership - the industry’s highest honor.

Customer service excellence is a Cox hallmark under Esser’s leadership. Cox has consistently ranked highly in annual J.D. Power and Associates’ studies of consumer satisfaction, with a total of 36 top honors across multiple residential and business product categories.

Esser serves on the board of directors of C-SPAN, CableLabs and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. Additionally, he serves as an adviser to the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications. Esser also serves as chair of the Southeastern Trustees and on the national Board of Governors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

A graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, Esser holds a B.A. and M.A. in communications media, and in 2003 was presented the university’s Heritage Honors Alumni Achievement Award.

In 2009, he was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame.

Perley McBride is a Board Director at Curing Kids Cancer, Board Director at Unite Private Networks, and EVP & CFO at Cox Communications and is based in Greater Atlanta Area. She has worked as EVP & CFO at LEAP WIRELESS INTERNATIONAL INC; EVP Finance│SVP Finance & Corporate Development│SVP, Financial Planning, Analysis & Corp Development at The Weather Channel; and Vice President, Financial Planning, Analysis, & Reporting at FRONTIER COMMUNICATIONS CORP. Perley studied at Mount Allison University between 1982 and 1986 and University of Houston between 1990 and 1993.

Karen Bennett is an EVP & Chief People Officer at Cox Communications and is based in Greater Atlanta Area. She has worked as SVP & Chief Human Resources Officer at YP; HR Management positions at Prior employers include: Sprint, Sonoco Products, Kaiser Permanente; and SVP & Chief Human Resources Officer at Cox Media Group. Karen attended Stanford University, Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC) between 2013 and 2014, and Harvard Business School between 2009 and 2009.

Len Barlik is executive vice president and chief operations officer. In this role, Barlik oversees field operations, customer experience, care operations, field service strategy, operations process management and public affairs.



Barlik joined Cox in 2011 as executive vice president of product development and management. During his tenure in that role, Cox launched several transformational products such as Contour, the company’s flagship video product, Gigabit broadband speeds for residential customers and the Homelife home security and automation portfolio. Barlik also established a consistent and streamlined process for product development that accelerated speed to market and improved collaboration across the business. He also served as chief human resources officer where he realigned leadership, processes and tools to better equip the evolving workforce to meet customer needs.



Barlik has more than 25 years of experience in product development, strategy and technology roles. Prior to Cox, Barlik served as the vice president of wireless and wireline product development for Sprint Nextel Corporation. In this position, he was responsible for creating and managing Sprint’s portfolio of wireless applications, content services, wireline, voice and data products. Barlik held a number of senior-level roles while at Sprint including vice president of technology research and development, and vice president of corporate strategy and development. Prior to Sprint, he was with Procter & Gamble, holding various engineering and manufacturing operations management positions.



Barlik holds bachelor’s degrees in engineering and computer science from Lafayette College and an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

Mark Greatrex is executive vice president, chief marketing and sales officer for Cox Communications. In this role, Mark is responsible for overseeing the company’s residential sales activities and marketing across the enterprise. In addition to overseeing the Cox brand, product marketing, pricing and all residential sales channels throughout the 18 states where we operate, Mark also works closely with our strategy, product and technology teams to launch innovative services to enhance the customer experience.



Mark’s interest in natural and public water quality was sparked while working at The Coca-Cola Company. As the global category leader for still beverages, Mark saw first-hand the importance of ensuring clean water for communities worldwide and the critical role of water stewards such as the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (CRK), where he currently serves as a board member. He believes that CRK fulfills an essential mission to assure abundant, clean river water for generations to come.



Mark is a long-time resident of Atlanta. He lives here with his wife, Caroline, who teaches yoga at several studios across the city. He has three adult children (Sean, Julia and Cami), all of whom share their parents’ love for nature and the great outdoors.



Since joining Cox Communications Inc. in 2011, Mark has made an indelible impact on both the company and the industry by quickly seizing the opportunity for change. Under his leadership, Cox immediately built out entire new departments dedicated to consumer insights, marketing analytics, base management, retention strategy, and segmentation - to better understand consumer expectations and more efficiently meet them.



Over the past several years, Mark has transformed the marketing and sales functions at Cox to create a more competitive and higher performing team. This has paid dividends as Cox is now experiencing robust growth in its customer base and improving market share trends in every product category. Mark also implemented rigorous marketing and sales return on investment (ROI) management to ensure smarter decision-making and greater effectiveness of marketing and sales investments.



Mark has earned the respect and trust of his peers across the industry by quickly demonstrating a keen understanding of their shared challenges and opportunities along with an ability to address them through unified marketing initiatives, such as CTAM’s TV everywhereSM and Cable Mover® efforts. He received the Vanguard award for Marketing in 2015 and served as Chair of CTAM from 2015-2106. Now, as an executive committee member of CTAM, he continues to partner across cable companies and programming partners to help shape the future of cable and pay TV.



Mark’s background includes more than 30 years of experience leading national sales and marketing teams and elevating world-class brands in competitive marketplaces. Prior to joining Cox, he served as senior vice president of Global Still Beverages at The Coca-Cola Company where he was responsible for a $7 billion portfolio of beverages. Prior to The Coca-Cola Company, Mark was executive vice president of Brand Marketing at America Online (AOL) where he was responsible for marketing AOL’s broadband and dial-up Internet access services across a portfolio of brands, comprised of more than 30 million subscribers.



Before joining AOL, Mark was a part owner and company officer who led marketing and sales operations for Eagle Family Foods, Inc. He began his marketing career at Unilever PLC in 1984 and held general management and marketing roles of increasing responsibility during his 16-year career with the company culminating with his promotion to vice president and general manager of Lipton Tea’s US operations.



Mark holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and a Master’s of Business Administration from New York University’s Leonard Stern Business School.

Sujata Gosalia, a board member of the Banner Health Board of Directors, is executive vice president and chief strategy officer for Cox Communications. She specializes in driving growth, innovation and value creation within media, technology, communications, and business services companies.

Previously, Gosalia was a partner in the communications, media, and technology practice of the international consulting firm Oliver Wyman, and managed the firm’s New York office. She also served as senior vice president of marketing at Neustar, a cloud-based information and analytics company, where she was responsible for marketing strategy and offer innovation across the company’s product portfolio. Most recently, Gosalia was senior vice president of strategy for Sodexo, a B2B services company, where she drove a global transformation in the company’s corporate services segment.

Gosalia was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with two bachelor’s degrees: one in economics from the Wharton School and another in international studies from the College of Arts and Sciences. She also holds a master’s degree in politics of the world economy from the London School of Economics. Gosalia speaks Spanish, Gujarati and Hindi, is a dance and travel enthusiast, and serves as a board member of the national non-profit organization South Asian-Americans Leading Together.

Debbie Fish is a Senior Executive Assistant to Len Barlik, EVP & Chief Operations Officer at Cox Communications and is based in Greater Atlanta Area. She has worked as Senior Paralegal - Litigation Section at Troutman Sanders LLP; Executive Assistant to Mark Greatrex, Chief Marketing & Sales Officer at Cox Communications; and Executive Assistant to CEO at Randstad USA. Debbie studied at SINCLAIR COMMUNITY COLLEGE between 1980 and 1984.

Pat Esser is president of Cox Communications, a multi-service broadband communications and entertainment company with about six million residential and commercial customers. The company is known for its broadband leadership and pioneering efforts in commercial services; customer care; cable telephone and its ability to create outstanding workplaces. The company’s pioneering spirit continues today with industry-leading programmatic advertising offered via its Cox Media division; its 1 Gigabit offerings; security and automation services known as Cox Homelife as well as its premium video offering that includes predictive search, a voice remote and integrated Netflix experience. Esser’s philosophy and the Cox family’s long-held belief is that making Cox’s local communities more vibrant is its responsibility and a call to action. As such, the company is answering the need for low-cost Internet for families in need with its Connect2Compete program.

Esser brings more than 30 years of experience in cable and telecommunications to his role as Cox’s top executive, a position he has held since 2006. He joined Cox in 1979 as director of programming in Hampton Roads, VA, and was part of the original management team that pioneered Cox’s advertising sales division now known as Cox Media. Named corporate vice president of advertising sales in 1991, Esser was presented with the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau President’s Award just three years later. Esser became vice president of operations for Cox’s Western Division in 1999, and a year later was promoted to senior vice president of operations. In 2004, Esser was promoted to executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Cox has earned numerous accolades during Esser’s tenure as president; many tied to his personal passion for diversity and inclusion. In 2006, Cox first appeared in DiversityInc’s listing of the Top 50 Companies for Diversity and has now made the list thirteen times. Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) regularly points to Cox among the top operators for women. In 2007 Esser was personally honored with Multichannel News’ first “Executive of the Year” award. At the 2013 Cable Show, Esser was awarded with the National Cable & Telecommunications Association’s (NCTA) Distinguished Vanguard Award for Leadership - the industry’s highest honor.

Customer service excellence is a Cox hallmark under Esser’s leadership. Cox has consistently ranked highly in annual J.D. Power and Associates’ studies of consumer satisfaction, with a total of 36 top honors across multiple residential and business product categories.

Esser serves on the board of directors of C-SPAN, CableLabs and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. Additionally, he serves as an adviser to the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications. Esser also serves as chair of the Southeastern Trustees and on the national Board of Governors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

A graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, Esser holds a B.A. and M.A. in communications media, and in 2003 was presented the university’s Heritage Honors Alumni Achievement Award.

In 2009, he was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame.