Charlie Ergen

Charles William Ergen better known as Charlie Ergen (born 1953) is the former co-founder, and Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of the Dish Network, formerly known as the EchoStar Communications Corporation.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]} He stepped down in May 2011.^[1]

Biography

Charles Ergen was born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on March 1, 1953.^[6][7] He received a Bachelor of Arts the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and an M.B.A. Wake Forest University.^{[2][5][1][6][7][8][9]} He was a blackjack and poker professional player.^[3][10]

In 1980, he founded EchoStar with his wife Cantey ("Candy"), and friend Jim DeFranco.^[3][4] He started selling satellite dishes door to door in Colorado.^[11] Both Cantey Ergen and Jim DeFranco still sit on EchoStar's eight-member board.^[3] He purchased Sling Media in 2008.^[10]

He is worth US$6.4 billion.^[8] He is the 46th richest American citizen.^[12] He supported John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.^[6]

He is married with five children.^[8][9] He lives in Littleton, Colorado.^[7][8][9]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} The Wall Street Journal profile
2. ^ ^{a b} Dish Network Board of Directors
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Otis Bilodeau and Chitra Somayaji, 'EchoStar Accounting Raises Flags in Probe, People Say', in Bloomberg, March 10, 2005 [1]
4. ^ ^{a b} Forbes biography
5. ^ ^{a b} BusinessWeek profile
6. ^ ^{a b c d} NNDB profile
7. ^ ^{a b c d} BusinessWeek resume
8. ^ ^{a b c d} Forbes profile 2011
9. ^ ^{a b c} Forbes profile 2004
10. ^ ^{a b} Dann Shea, 'Charles Ergen: Meet America's Richest Media Mogul You've Never Heard Of', on The Huffington Post 09-18-08 [2]
11. ^ "Can Charlie Ergen still go it alone?". Business Week. 1 November 2004. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_44/b3906118.htm. 
12. ^ The Forbes 400: The Richest People in America 2011

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Name	Ergen, Charlie
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Date of birth	March 1, 1953
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