Jim Chiddix is a veteran of the cable television and broadband industries and led the development of some key enabling technologies.
Chiddix spent 15 years as Chief Technology Officer and in other senior posts at Time Warner Cable. He and his team pioneered cable’s use of optical fiber and digital video and streaming video services. Chiddix accepted a Technical Emmy Award for his team’s work in 1994.
Prior to joining Time Warner's Cable's corporate office in 1986, Chiddix held a variety of engineering and operating positions with two cable companies in Hawaii. Early in his career, he co-founded CRC Electronics, a start-up that manufactured videotape automation systems for program origination, time-shifting and commercial insertion. That company was sold to Texscan in 1982; its technology was widely used into the late ‘90’s.
Before his retirement, Chiddix served as Chairman and CEO at OpenTV Corp., a publicly traded San Francisco-based software company. OpenTV is a leading developer of operating software and applications for digital set-top boxes and is now part of The Kudelski Group.
In addition to Starry, Chiddix has served on other corporate boards, including at ARRIS, a communications equipment manufacturer, and SLIC, a rural fiber broadband service provider. He has also joined the advisory board at ARTEMIS, a San Francisco wireless start-up. In recent years Chiddix’s board appointments have also included VIRGIN MEDIA, SYMMETRICOM, MAGNUM SEMICONDUCTOR and DYCOM. Most recently he joined the boards at Mt. Evans Home Healthcare and Hospice and the Mountain Area Land Trust, both in Evergreen, Colorado.
Chiddix’s interest in electronics and technology began with amateur radio in high school and continued at Cornell University, where he studied electrical engineering. During his military service he attended and then taught at the U.S. Army Air Defense Command School at Fort Bliss, Texas.
Chiddix was inducted into the Cable Television Pioneers in 1991. In 2007, the Cable Center inducted him into the Cable Hall of Fame.