Anthony "Cob" Stenham, the deputy chairman of NTL, has died aged 74. A former finance director of Unilever, Mr Stenham entered the cable business when he joined Telewest's board in 1994, becoming the chairman five years later.
After steering the company through a debt-restructuring that left shareholders with virtually nothing, he oversaw the merger with NTL in March, making £8.6m from the deal.
Mr Stenham was also chairman of the plant-hire group Ashtead, the search engine IFonline and, until its sale last week, the travel and entertainment website whatsonwhen.com.