Charles Ergen
Charles William Ergen is an American businessman. He is co-founder and current Chairman of Dish Network and EchoStar. He stepped down as CEO of Dish in May 2011 in favor of Joseph Clayton.
- Charlie Ergen is the cofounder and chairman of satellite TV provider Dish Network and satellite communications company EchoStar.
- Ergen first began selling satellite dishes out of the back of a truck in Colorado in 1980.
- He took Dish public in 1996. Today, it boasts over 12 million subscribers.
- EchoStar, which has some two dozen satellites in space, was spun off from Dish in 2008.
- Ergen stepped down as CEO of Dish for the second time in 2017 to focus on the company’s new wireless network for the Internet of Things.
- A pending Sprint and T-Mobile merger would allow Ergen to realize his ambitions of Dish becoming a wireless provider.
