“We are truly Americana,” says Italia Commisso, EVP, Programming & Human Resources of Mediacom. As a cable industry veteran prior to being a co-founder of Mediacom with her brother Rocco Commisso, Italia understands that the investment in infrastructure is even larger than connecting individuals and businesses to the Internet. That is, their capital investments are inherently local and reflect an investment in the communities, which tend to be rural and small towns, they serve.

She indicates the foundation of their company is based on treating people like they part of their family. As Commisso puts it, the Italian tradition is to take care of people with food and Mediacom adopted this tradition by providing meals to their employees experiencing the difficulties of losing a beloved.

Across their footprint, they have several programs to help both the communities they serve as well as the employees in those communities. As an example, they have provided more than $1 million in scholarships to the children of company employees.

As an immigrant who helped build a company from nothing to over 1.25 million broadband customers, her story reflects the values of hard work, honesty and treating people right that could be told in a modern version of a Horatio Alger novel. Regardless of whether her story is told in a book, the results are getting recognized by her peers, such as the recent announcement by WICT honoring three of Mediacom’s executives, as well as the organization as “2019 Best Company for Women to Work.”

ACA Connects Summit coverage brought to you by the ACA Connects and ViodiTV.