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The Loop

With its satellite TV debut less than two months away, Back9Network founder Jamie Bosworth is out of the picture

August 01, 2014

Back9Network founder and CEO Jamie Bosworth, who landed $5 million in state loans and grants to build a studio and hire workers in Connecticut, won't be among those employees any longer.

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The upstart network announced Friday that Bosworth had "resigned to pursue other career opportunities." It declined to say why. A message to Bosworth's Back9Network email address seeking comment got forwarded automatically to the network's PR firm, which responded that he was no longer with the company.

He's being replaced as CEO by Charles Cox, the company's chief financial officer and head of business development. President Carlos Silva will become chief operating officer as well.

"We appreciate all that Jamie did to get Back9Network off the ground in the early years," says Cox. "It was not an easy task. We wish him the very best in the new and interesting directions his career takes him."

It's been a newsy summer for the "lifestyle"-oriented golf network. Only a few weeks ago, Back9Network announced it will be carried on DirecTV starting in late September. That marks the first time the network, now exclusively online, will be available on TV.

A countdown clock in the company's Hartford headquarters shows 57 days till it starts appearing on DirecTV.

Bosworth's departure will not affect the DirecTV relationship, Silva assures. "We're all set for late September. All the components of our programming and all our operational pieces here in Connecticut are coming together really well."

Bosworth is a former sales executive with Odyssey Golf and Callaway Golf. He also worked briefly as an assistant pro at Pebble Beach in the 1990s. He and former TV news reporter Jennifer Lahmers were married in Carmel three years ago, and together the Bosworths were often seen as the public face of Back9Network. The CEO's wife got some negative publicity last fall when a sex-oriented "advice video" appeared on the network's web site, with her as host. It was quickly removed from the site. Jennifer Bosworth filed for divorce from Jamie this summer.