Business as Usual: Toni Murphy, Comcast

noise. So good afternoon, everyone. This is Audrey Russo, President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Technology Council. And I'm going to introduce our guests in a moment, Toni Murphy. But before we do, I just want to do a little bit of housekeeping and extend appreciation. First of all, Jonathan kersting is here, as always, and he is the Vice President of all things, media and marketing. And he will be keeping his eye on the chat to make sure that if we have any opportunity to talk with Tony, we will. So thank you. And I want to give a deep appreciation to Huntington bank who've been our partners throughout this entire journey. And I know they are busy each and every day making sure that businesses across our region are getting what they need to move ahead, including the second round of TPP. And then also 40 by 80. That's the longitude and latitude of Pittsburgh. And it's the name of our wholly owned nonprofit by the tech Council. And our focus there is workforce development and entrepreneurship. So we've muted your microphones who's done that on purpose. And hopefully mine you won't hear any dogs. They usually are pretty good. But I gotta tell you today for some reason, they're a little antsy. And I also want to tell you that in the chat I mentioned earlier, the chat is here not for you to sell your wares. The chat is for you to ask questions only of our guests. That's it. That's what it's about, we have plenty of opportunities for you to network and sell your wares today is not one of them. So it is a deep honor and appreciation that I am going to welcome Tony Murphy but I'll set the stage a little bit. So you understand a little bit about what's happened with her most recently, if you haven't already. So Comcast Corporation announced the appointment of Tony Murphy. And this is a new job. She's been in the in Comcast for a while and she'll talk about that to serve as the company's newest Senior Vice President of the Keystone region. And she'll talk about what the Keystone region is in a moment. In her new position, she takes on following her role as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Comcast business in the Keystone region. And she's going to oversee the Philadelphia base, you might not know that, but hopefully you do that Comcast is based in Philadelphia, telecommunication conglomerates, operational, strategic and financial performance over a geographic area that encompasses most Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, Maryland, panhandle and northern West Virginia, she'll continue to work out of Pittsburgh, yay, the headquarters of the company's Keystone region, Comcast has been a leader, I just want to say this in terms of the tech Council and our constituents, Comcast was actually stepped right up at the beginning of COVID, trying to make sure that people had access to the internet, that they weren't being left behind, and particularly with students. And we saw it very, very quickly. That stood that students in our region didn't have access at home, and whether or not they had, they had their own devices. Comcast stepped up right away to ensure access. And Tony and the team was right there at the forefront. So I want to thank Tony, for being here today, I think of her as a colleague and as a friend. And as one of our region's, you know, prominent people who actually like to make sure that Pittsburgh is an amazing place for people to live and work. She is she's funny, she's talented, but she's serious. So while you hear her levity in here, I want you to know that she's serious. And she means business. And she's an executer. So, Tony, welcome. You're on mute, but now Okay.

Thank you, Audrey. I so appreciate one to make sure I wasn't providing my own feedback says the garbage man is going down. Thank you for that very generous introduction. And thank you for just being my friend. I think I met you probably what, like three days into being coming to Pittsburgh, and you hit great champion of this city. I love the tech Council and just glad to be here.

Thank you so much. So let's, let's let everyone know, let's start. Let's start a little bit at the beginning. Because I want people to know who is Toni. So who is Tony, give us a little bit of a snapshot, you know of your professional life, your personal journey, your college. There's lots of things to be proud of. But I think it's really cool for people to understand sort of the Tony Murphy, and a little bit of that journey as

well. I appreciate this opportunity. It's great to see you all I see some wonderful faces, some familiar some Some new to me. You know, my story is pretty simple. I'm originally from Dallas, Texas. I am the daughter of an Army soldier, the stepdaughter of an Air Force major. And, you know, there you go. Edward likes that. And so, you know, super grateful for hard working parents I grew up actually in Boston, Massachusetts, my stepfather got a new job working on the Big Dig project. Anybody who knows what that means, move the highway infrastructure underground. We thought we'd be in Boston for three or four years that turned into a lifetime. So I grew up there, went to Princeton, undergrad, study French and economics, I think I thought I was going to work for the IMF or some financial institution in Europe. But that actually went to Wall Street right after school. And I went there because I had so many loans that way to pay them off. And, and I loved it. I actually went and worked at UBS Warburg, in the cable sector, that was the part of the business I focused on. So as was a client, and did that for a few years, went into private equity out in LA, but basically lived in Europe for a good portion of that time, was working on media and media and technology transactions in North Africa and in

Europe.

But after a while, you know, they my company was about to open up a European office, my mom said, No way, you can't you can't go there, I'll never see you again, and you won't have children. So he said, find a different path. And that's when I went knocking at the door of some folks I knew at Comcast. And I actually came to our internal m&a organization out of Philadelphia. And I've been at Comcast for years, over that timeframe. I've lived in Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, and now Pittsburgh, it's been an amazing journey. I've worked in so many different disciplines and kind of, I'm the resident unicorn at the company where you know, kind of gone through different areas and every function and just rounding out my skill set. And it's been a really, really fun journey. On the personal side, I'm married to my husband, Craig, I have three children. We live in the South Hills. I sing jazz for fun. So I don't do it here in Pittsburgh, but but I love going to come home on the weekends, to their jazz sets. And, and that's and I'm the youngest of seven kids is probably the other thing I would say, you know, I always had to get my voice heard. So that's why I think I get a lot of confidence. You know, if you when you're when you're the last of seven kids, you're used to yelling to get that last piece of cake on

your own also, absolutely. The youngest person who has been in this role in Hmm.

Yeah, so this is this odd. You know, I'm so grateful for this journey. I've never thought I would be here, especially at this age. You know, certainly I am a millennial, as you all know that about me. And so to be grateful to have a seat at this table is amazing. And also, this is the first time we've had I believe it's the first time we've had an African American woman capacity at the company. So so I'm glad to be able to bust through some glass or concrete ceilings on free and to to create room for everyone else.

So so thank you for that. But you mentioned something one time we had you on the show, and you actually on our radio show. And I asked if you could sing. And there is a little bit of the Tell us about your history in terms of singing like you appeared on something.

Well, so in college, you know, I was I sang. There was a chamber choir that I sang in every Sunday. It was the President's church service. I sang in my own gospel choir. I have tried out for American Idol. I did get through the initial rounds. I did make it to Hollywood and didn't make it to, you know what you saw on television. But that was back in 2003. And really enjoyed that process. And it was a great learning experience. There's a lot, there's a lot that you don't see on TV, they put together a lot. You can even get to the big, big judges, but it was an amazing experience. My niece has actually done it. She got further than I did. That that's like a running joke around the family.

Oh my gosh, that's so great. And then and the other thing is, you've been in Pittsburgh now because when I met you just had your last time So how old

salons now? Five years old.

Oh my god. burger. Yeah. Wow. A real pittsburgher. So what's really amazing also is that in the in that time, you've immersed yourself in the community, but you've also had a couple of different jobs. Right. You've had different assignments.

Yeah.

You've worked side of the customer side.

Yeah, so I think my a lot of the time I've spent with you all the tech councils really around Comcast business, that is one of our fastest growing business segments even till today, providing both a small business, your mom and pop stores and pizza shops, providing them with best in class internet service, as well as our large enterprise grade customers who need managed services and multi site connectivity. And so that's how I was engaging with the tech Council. I know they're on this call, there's probably some business owners here who were powering your business grateful for that. And prior to that, I was also responsible for customer experience. So you know, I think everyone knows that Comcast has been on a, you know, I would say, a five year journey of improving the customer experience, making sure that our the customer experience is our absolute best product. So in that capacity, it was working on our operational effectiveness launching the Net Promoter system, we have both internally with our existing employees. And we also do Net Promoter from a customer perspective. So understanding the pain points and and it's actually led to some incredible innovation, that hopefully you all are experiencing at home and at work.

Yeah. You know, you also in these in these short five years, you've actually stepped up to be I mean, you've won some awards and lots of recognitions, including Athena, the youngest Tina, which is not an easy thing to nab. Now, the technical person and I can see behind the scenes, it's, it's not an easy or to nap, but you have been an active, use what I like to call civic muscle pretty regularly. And we've made yourself available by like getting engaged and being not outspoken, but really having a powerful voice on the things that matter. And that includes women, youth leadership, access equity. So what what are you gonna let's talk about that you have as a black woman now, who's leading the region, what should we be doing? What do you like that you see? What perhaps do we need to thing?

Yeah, you know, I will say this first. Thank you. I want to acknowledge thank God for the tech council taking on Athena, I think God did a great job this year was grateful to be a part of the selection committee. And I'm really proud of the of the women that we selected this year, fantastic, dynamic women. I'll just say for me, you know, look, I live a Purpose Driven Life. And I do believe that my in my life, I'm here to be a vessel for some other generation of people and make those people come in different shades, colors, genders, you know, journeys. And what I've always loved about Pittsburgh, I've lived in probably every major US city over the course of my career for some reason or another. What I think is uniquely distinctive about Pittsburgh is the public private partnership. I don't think it gets enough, enough attention. I don't think that it's something we talk about enough as a collective. But I know for a fact that the I think that every major corporation, everyone is available, willing to participate. I think the the city itself seems to make itself available to the business community. I know there's always rubs we don't always get it right. But I think the intention is there. So for me, you know, look, personally, I have there are a lot of causes that I recognize the inequities of society, challenges that women face in the workplace to what you you know, how important it is that we invest in our youth that they have the ability to, to live out their greatest dreams, you know, I'm a kid that grew up in the projects of Dallas, Texas, so to be where I am today was no accident, it took a lot of praying, fasting, engaging, you know, thoughtfulness in the likes of my parents making good sound decisions, and also a little bit of luck. And so for me, it's like if I could put my thumb on the scale to be the equalizer, that's, I'm willing to do that. And I think as a company, Comcast gives us the running room as leaders to follow those, those, those initiatives that that were impassioned by, and we don't do it because it's good for Comcast, we do it because it's the right thing for society. And and the good news is, we were allowed to use our own personal equity to move society forward. So I'm grateful to be a part of a company that allows me to stretch my rings speak my truth, and then use my book use my bully pulpit for causes that only advance our company but advanced society as a whole.

Yeah, I mean, so what are some of the key themes for you?

Look, I think, you know, one of the big ones is I do want to see more women in technology. That's where society is going. It is kind of strange to me that we still don't have many in the top of our game here. Certainly the same is the case in the C suite. You know, I am now the chief executive of this region for Conde Nast. And I know folks were looking at me saying, what are you going to do to make it more possible for others, so I'm definitely gonna do my part in that space as well. I do believe education our education system is is an area of that needs significant focus. So I'm really grateful around making sure we give everybody access to the internet, especially rural communities. When you drive 10 miles outside of Pittsburgh, you're basically in rural country in some parts. So we have to lose sight of that, that we got to get those folks connected. So they have the ability to get connect to the world. Another thing is people of color, this whole year of social injustice. Definitely, for me, I'm not interested in performative inclusion, I want real action. So we can create outcomes that are fantastic. I think it's wonderful that my children are growing up in a beautiful mid, you know, middle class neighborhood with great education. But the fact that my daughter we attend Macedonia,

church in place, yeah,

we go to church there, my daughter recognizes your mom, when I go, when we go to church, why is it I see that the people that look like us live like this. And I think every one of us should be questioning, if our children can see it, that means we can see it too. And so we have a responsibility to make sure that every child has an opportunity to live out their calling and purpose. And so those are the things I'm passionate about. And the good news is they line up beautifully. With the company I work for

that you're you're blessed that way, right? I mean, you really are and that you have the ability to articulate that it's even more of a blessing for all of us here, and we can help in any way. So what does it mean, tell me, let's reel back a little bit. What does it mean to when we talk about diversity and inclusion? versus after doing? I think we made a little, you know, a little statement in there about that. And I know you have some thoughts?

Yeah, look, you know, I know, when George Floyd happened in a mod, Aubrey and Briana Taylor happened, every company stood up, you know, some, certainly some were pulled to the fold to the carpet, some stood out on faith and did the right thing. But the truth is, ever since those three there have been many more, that have been killed, that have been brutalized. You know, I'm just I was just reading a story about a young man in Dallas, Texas, just yesterday. And so, so the point I'm trying to make here is that this is a journey of work. You have to be conscious of our own mental fatigue. And, and we also got to get make sure we're not in the space of what I call performative, including, that's what I wanted to talk about when we say the right things when the crowds are looking. But what happens now that the cameras are gone, that the protests are over, our company's still committed to the work? Are they still making it a priority? are they living into those goals that they that they said they were so passionate about? Being as as a society, I would say also, not just in the corporate world, but I think in every part of our country, we live in, in a very fashioned world where we hang out with people who look like us who talk like us, who believe what we believe as you as we witnessed, by the way, this this past January, if now is not a wake up call to all of us, that to be serious about diversity and serious about inclusion. I mean, literally, our lives depend on it at this point. And so I think it's about putting our money where our mouth is, it's about challenging ourselves and what what we normalize you, being the person, when you see something you say something that for me is when we can get into the space of action. But until I till I start to see that as our normal way of working, I think we have more work to do.

Well, I just I just want to add in that I think you being in a role where you have responsibility for profit and loss, and you have to lead towards financial performance puts you in an opportunity to have even more impact. And we need more women and people of color who actually have those kinds of responses. So that is one of the reasons why I'm even more that you're in this room.

You know, look, I'll tell you the world I live in today is that I'm all about content. You know, we know we you know, just look at the platforms that we operate at Comcast Through our x one platform, you know, we've made a concerted effort over the last 510 years to include different and diverse voices. If you say LGBTQ in your voice remote, it will take you to specific curated content panels specific to that diversity, we now are launching black excellence look out for that, that's going to be pretty awesome to see. We're doing that in conjunction with Black History Month. And we also if you just say black voices, by the way, right now on next one, you'll see that we have it for Latino we have for a lot of different diversities Asian Pacific. And the point here is that we all have a responsibility to move this work forward. And if we want to change, change perception and perspective, then we have to give people access to them. So I'm grateful again, in the work to your point, you know, this is yes, it's good for business. Yes, I'm grateful for it. Because I do obviously, is I want to grow our business. I know that different people have different desires and likes and tastes. So it's smart business to be doing this this diverse work. But I think we also have a a social responsibility to open people's eyes to different points of view. And so I'm really grateful for for the work we're doing in this space.

Well, you know, you have a listen, it's 2021, you're new in this role. So what are some top strategies that you hear this region? Yeah.

Well, so I love I love this question, because it really ties what we're just talking about, um, you know, I'm grateful. First of all, I work with a team of leaders, this is so unique situation where I'm literally working with a team that were my peers, I know, our we've always had a good working relationship, and they're fantastic business owners. So I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to be their partner. But if you think about it more globally, the things that we're looking at as a company that I think are critical to growth and critical to society, I would point to a few things. The first being, you know, we've been on this big journey around providing network connectivity, to don't have access, we've spent upwards of 20 to $30 million, and extending our network and plant particularly in rural the last, just in the last year, we've we've made, we've given access to over 10,000 New World homes that didn't have access yet. And I mean, of course, as soon as we show up there, it's like, oh, my God, this is amazing, right. And so that's, that's simple. That's easy business, in my mind, that's like, check the box. Oh, wonderful. So really excited about that, we're gonna continue to make investments all across those geographies that you mentioned, and they're just gonna keep coming. So I'm really excited about that as a big charter. The second is, I think you all know that we have been internet essentials, is our, our is our, our dedicated internet service for those folks who qualify for low income support. And this year, we've doubled down in that space, we knew that because of COVID, because of you know, all of the stories you've heard about unemployment and, and people needing stimulus that we needed to double down in that space. Well, we're continuing that commitment into 21. And I and I'm really excited about you know, how that's reaching communities that we serve, you should also know that we've launched what we call Comcast rise. You know, this is a program that came out of the whole effort, I think you all know, we made we, as a company committed $100 million to diversity, equity, and inclusion. And Comcast rise is all about is an initiative that's a multi year initiative, to use our platforms and our media to fight injustice. And last month, we've been giving these we've announced some recipients who will be able to, you know, take the take advantage of production services, consulting services, sometimes upgrading their spaces, to make sure that their business is thriving. And we have eight winners in the Pittsburgh area, um, that, you know, you'll be hearing more about so we're gonna continue more companies, by the way, we want applications right. So diverse businesses, that one our you know, you should be amplifying that. And the last thing I would just mention is, we have a focus on what we call lift zone. So to couple with internet essential so now you have access at home. But I think you all saw that video of the young children, I think was in California where they were sitting outside of Taco Bell, where they were trying to use the internet to do their homework. Well, that sort of gave rise to a question around how do we create sort of community centers that have access to to Comcast Wi Fi and so we have over 1000 Wi Fi connected lift zones. Eight of them are in the Pittsburgh area, we have some we're launching in the reading area. I will tell you here in Pittsburgh, you know, just to just a note, we've got the Boys and Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania wins girls. And we've also got the housing authority of the city of Pittsburgh. So really exciting stuff that we're doing that I think again, it's very ties directly to our business. It certainly does the right thing to help us manage this pandemic, as a collective.

It's a lot and you know, people don't realize that the beginning of COVID, we, you know, we were all short sighted, right? We all thought, Oh, this is just gonna be two months, and Comcast came out and said, Okay, we'll do this for like two months. And then instantly as we started seeing things for the Mullingar, and get worse, Comcast really just jumped in and said, No, we've got to really rethink our strategy. And I applaud that resilience. It's not always that easy to do that nimble. So let's, let's flip now, as we only have a few minutes to talk about, you know, let's just talk about Comcast. You know, last week, you announced this 1.2 gigabytes, right, there was an announcement last week, you're the only provider in the northeast, which actually provides us including in Pittsburgh, and then the streaming product, which includes something called flex. And if you use Comcast, you should know they also have peacock. So can you talk about some of those, and I know you went on mute, because you had some noise in the background.

That's sorry, you know, my husband comes up to traffic, this is life, right? Let's put

him on, you can bring him up.

Yeah, so I'm sorry. So I heard your question, though I do, which is all about, you know, the speeds and Wi Fi. So,

you know, I'm

really excited about the one dot two gig, you know, for I know, some folks on here are all about virtual reality, we were talking about this before, before it all got started. And you know, for that game, that game, or the person who's super interested in having the, you know, the fastest Wi Fi to be able to manage their gaming, or has it or even for those who have lots of children, you're all working from home, I'm really grateful that the company's made this investment to up our speeds, you know, you if you stop and think about this, you know, before COVID, we always had a very fantastic network that is operated very, very well, from a data perspective. But literally, we took all those millions of customers who we only saw from eight in the morning, until like nine in the morning, and then again in the evenings to now being home all day, add their children on top of it, and all their recreation on top of it. And so the beauty of it is that our network held that was was was fantastic. It was able to hold the capacity we needed to manage. And we made continual investments over the year to make sure there weren't any gaps there. But even on top of that, we've made a decision to go ahead and increase the speed even one more time, and no one else is at is able to provide this level of ubiquity in their network, no other provider can do that today. So I'm really excited about that. And then regarding flex Look, I recognize that as as a society we have so you think about the last few months, you've had HBO max show up, you know, did discovery floss and gave us and and everyone has a question, Well, what does this mean for the future of television? Well, I'm really grateful that as a company, we've we've kind of moved away from this idea that you have to have only linear television that you can have a much more dynamic, you know, environment where you're streaming, some shows, you're recording others, you're leveraging other platforms. And so you know, x one a certainly is an integrated platform where all of those different applications can live and exist in one ecosystem. But the same thing is true of flex, which is available to any customer who has internet, any single customer who has internet can get flex. And infectious basically gives you the ability to have access to great content, and do it in a way that feels, you know, organic to you where you're untethered necessarily to linear television as we understand it today. So, you know, again, we're just we're as a company, we've, we've been always about innovation. And I certainly think that we've done our part in a meaningful way to give people the best technology even during a pandemic.

And so, here's just one last question. I think. Ingrid has a question. And then I want to go to time

to see you, Tony. So glad to have you on the call. today. We have another one of my favorite people here. Ingrid cook with a really great question. wants to know, has Comcast looked into connecting local educators and parents struggling with remote learning with?

Absolutely. I think that's a super great question. So you all should know that when we when went about internet essentials this year, we actually went out to different school districts and said, you know, what do you need and so we've actually been partnering very closely with different organizations, not just not just school districts, but we have been partnering with different neighborhood associations, the city of Pittsburgh Housing Authority, trying to find different ways to reach people. And we did come up with some great partnerships that, you know, I'm really excited about to share that, you know, ultimately want to make sure that everybody had access, whether you were getting it through your school or otherwise. So yes, that's that's been our commitment, it's going to continue to be our commitment is to partner with all these different organizations to make sure that their students have access to you

know, so What a treat, being able to spend just a little bit of our lunchtime with you. I, I personally am so proud of you, having watched what you've done, I'm thrilled that you're staying here in Pittsburgh. And I'm thrilled that you leadership. If you can't tell Tony is his authentic, tell you what's on her mind. But she's gonna do it in a way that's focusing on outcomes and problems. So, Tony Murphy, congratulations for all that you've done. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for just being an incredible partner and friend to so many of us. And we look forward to wanting something really good.

Thank you so much for having me. I look forward to putting into partnership with you all and I wish you all well and safe and safety. And if there's anything you need for me to know where to find me. Absolutely. So

I want to Jonathan, what do we have tomorrow?

Well, tomorrow is all about electric vehicles with Lyon electric. So these folks tomorrow, absolutely.

No, Brian is saying that's not correct. Brian shaking his head to

Pittsburgh. I'm one step ahead. I am always working once. I apologize for tomorrow talking about can't actually see much of our conversation today into tomorrow. So and then the day after his line electric because I can't tell what data we use anymore, either or it's getting kind of bad. Okay, that's

great. Thank you, Brian. We'll see all of you. Thank you so much. Comcast. Thank you, Tony. You can now enjoy the noise in your background and your home and your family our best. Thanks, everyone.

Thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai