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When Susan Adams was working on her MS-CIS in the early 1990s, a professor predicted that the cable industry would be the first to bring Internet protocol (IP) network technology into American homes.
Adams liked what she learned about that technology. So a few years later, when a recruiter from a cable company called, she took the opportunity to enter the industry. She's never regretted it.
Today, Adams is SVP of engineering and technical operations for the NorthCentral Division of Comcast Corp (Philadelphia, PA). Comcast is a leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services, with more than 24 million cable customers, 12 million high-speed Internet customers and 3 million voice customers in thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia.
Implementing the technology
Adams, who is based in New Hampshire, is responsible for implementing corporate technology and business goals across the North Central region. It includes most of New England, Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, Northern West Virginia, plus Houston, TX. The division has more than 4 million customers, and Adams manages 540 employees, seven of them direct reports.
Most recently, Adams led the network's successful introduction of Comcast Digital Voice, the company's IP-enabled phone service.
Fast-paced and entrepreneurial
Adams has been in her SVP role since late in 2005. She enjoys the "fast-paced, entrepreneurial, high-growth, fun and optimistic" cable industry.
"We're in a very dynamic technical environment," she says. "We have an awesome opportunity to promote our network and launch products."
Comcast's network technology is developed at its Philadelphia HQ. It's Adams' job to put it to work throughout her division. As a manager, she believes in finding "great people" and depending on their expertise. She also wants her crew to be "insatiably curious."
The video arena
Adams loves the video arena, which she says "presents the most challenges and best opportunities to leverage technology into the next era.
"The Internet is everywhere, and the technology that underlies it has become robust enough to transport video in real time. Imagine what that sets us up for!" Adams says.
Woman in cable
Comcast is a woman-friendly corporation. In 2006, Adams notes, 45.5 percent of senior-level employees were women, and 48 percent of internal promotions into the senior ranks went to women.
"It makes me feel great," Adams says. "I don't feel that being a woman brings challenges."
Adams is involved in the Women in Cable Television industry group, and she regularly speaks to young women at several technical institutes. "Cable used to be a single career path, where the greatest numbers of employees were technicians. Today we're tweaking career paths," she tells them.
Starting out
Adams grew up in Lawrence, MA. She earned a 1990 BS in business admin at New Hampshire College and a 1996 MS in CIS at Bentley College (Waltham, MA).
Her first job was with Continental Cablevision (Andover, MA), where she helped launch the company's high-speed Internet service in New England. She led the technical team that built and maintained the network and infrastructure for the project.
At the time, she says, the company was using ATM. "We tried to make it work and quickly found that it wasn't going to work, so we started down the road of IP," she says. That meant she and her small team were "under pressure to learn a new technology.
"We didn't know if it would work or not," Adams says. But they built a successful IP network and provisioning system. "The folks in my group were really smart people," Adams says.
On to MediaOne
MediaOne (Denver, CO) was spun off by U.S. West Media in 1998, and Adams became director of network ops for the company's RoadRunner high-speed Internet project, a joint venture with Time Warner. Regional data centers were built, and about thirty people on eight teams were appointed to run them.
Then Adams became VP of RoadRunner's northeast region ops. She was responsible for launching new markets and delivering RoadRunner to New York, New Jersey and New England. Eventually her responsibilities reached from Florida to Maine and she reported to Herndon, VA HQ. She was traveling about 85 percent of the time.
"About a year into it we started to work on launching Time Warner in Manhattan. That was exciting," she says. "We planned the site for four months and then we had to build facilities. From start to finish it took us a year."
In 1999 AT&T bought MediaOne and had to divest its interest in RoadRunner. As VP of regional ops, Adams got to manage the national technical team that was untangling the RoadRunner network from Time Warner Cable. At the same time the group was rolling out and supporting new high-speed Internet services. They finished on time after a year of high-pressure work, she says.
On to Comcast
In mid-2001, Adams became VP of IP platforms for AT&T Broadband. She led a team of forty-five network and systems engineers. They were designing and building systems to let customers' cable modems connect to the Internet.
In 2002 Comcast purchased AT&T Broadband. Adams became VP of engineering for New England, a very pleasing reduction in travel time. She was responsible for all products including video, a new field for her.
In 2005 the company launched an IP phone product in New England. "We took what was built in Philadelphia and figured out how to make it work on our network," Adams says.
She was again working for Kevin Casey, who had been her boss at Continental Cablevision. "It's great to work for him," she notes. "He's driven, and one of those people you just don't want to disappoint."
SVP: fun and challenging
Then the Comcast expansion led to the creation of the NorthCentral division, and Adams was given her present SVP job.
"I've never really worried about title or money," she says. "I pursued career options that were good for me and good for the business.
"I've always wanted to have fun and be in a challenging job, and I want to make a difference. I've had the good fortune to work with leaders who recognized my talents and gave me those chances," Adams declares.
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