Charlie Ergen

Charles William Ergen (born March 1, 1953) is an American businessman. He is co-founder and chairman of Dish Network and EchoStar. He stepped down as CEO of Dish in May 2011 in favor of Joseph Clayton. Ergen resumed as CEO upon Clayton's March 2015 retirement and was CEO until December 2017, when he promoted president and COO Erik Carlson to CEO, but remains as chairman. Reuters reported that the move was effected to remove the day-to-day responsibilities of running DISH and provide more time for Ergen to build out the company's emerging wireless business. Ergen owns 48 percent of Dish^: 6 and 46 percent of Echostar shares.^: 8 He holds 78 percent of Dish's^: 6 and 72 percent of EchoStar's^: 8 total voting power.