INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY You need to get outside these walls. I joined these
It was like riding the train and laying the track at the same time.
person events. We maintained financial stability. It grew our business. And the following year, when COVID spiked again in Atlanta and we had to pivot back to virtual, we just got to work. They say necessity is the mother of invention and we proved that. We even wrote a white paper on it, we were so proud of our achievement. We got an award from CableFax as well. You’ve worked across vendor, association and operator environments. How did that broaden your perspective? I jumped over to work for Segra, which was the fibre code for Cox. I got a call out of the blue: you want to come be my CFO? So that was fun because fibre was an area that I had not explored before. It was wonderful. I learned so much. Dark fibre, all the stuff you’re hearing about now with all the data centres, I was doing that three years ago. My brain could just explode on selling into the businesses that want our fibre routes and stuff. I loved it. Then I went to an operator that actually had commercial and residential. So now I’ve got the full scope. I’ve worked across everything. I’ve been a vendor, I’ve been an association partner, I’ve been a commercial services leader, and also now an operator that had residential. I’ve worked for everything but a programme.. The only thing I haven’t done. When did mentorship and networking become part of your journey? Late. Much later than I’d recommend. For nearly 18 years, I stayed inside my company bubble. I was heads down, working hard. I knew industry associations existed, but I didn’t engage. Then someone told me, “You need to get outside these walls.” That advice changed everything - I joined industry associations: WICT (Women In Cable Telecommunications) and NAMIC (National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications) people began to see me differently – I wasn’t just “Zenita from Motorola,” but I was seen as a leader, a board member, an organiser; mentorship flowed naturally from that visibility.
I loved working closely with customers, helping them meet subscriber acquisition targets and launching campaigns that delivered measurable results. When resources were plentiful — Super Bowl tickets, big campaign budgets — that was fun. But what I’m most proud of is when those flashy resources disappeared and the relationships remained. That’s when it became about business acumen. About trust. About being someone operators could call when they had a problem — even if we weren’t the direct solution provider. That’s when I realised my real strength wasn’t “marketing” in the traditional sense. It was partnership. You later moved into association leadership at the SCTE, A Subsidiary of CableLabs. What did that chapter teach you? Leaving after 28 years was terrifying. My mother thought I had lost my mind. But I had done everything I could do in that environment. I was answering questions before they were even being asked. I felt it was time to stretch myself. At the SCTE, I got to market something that I deeply believed in: education, certification, standards, training. We were supporting the engineers and technicians who literally build and maintain the networks. When COVID happened, we were faced with cancelling Cable-Tec Expo or reinventing it. We were approached by a digital events platform we’d hired for large scale webinars in the past. We became something of a guinea pig — but in the best possible way. We could have replicated a physical event online but instead we built a virtual experience; it was more like producing a TV show. We integrated registration systems, certification tracking, continuing education credits, sponsor visibility and robust data analytics. Suddenly, we could see which sessions attendees joined, how long they stayed, which exhibitors they visited, what content drove engagement. The data was incredible. The first board meeting where I proposed going fully virtual I had to sit on my hands to contain my excitement. Everyone else was panicking but I could see the opportunity. We expanded our global reach, secured speakers who might never have travelled; we even got offers of speakers ahead of time for future, in-
associations and people got to see me in a completely different light. That’s when everything started to open up.
panel. Let people see you beyond your job description.
There is a very small circle of men and women that have me across my career from 2007 forward, a very small clique that right now, to this day, they are just my rocks. They really are. We are in constant contact. So it’s not just the women. I do have a very good support system, both male and female. You need to get outside these walls. I joined these associations and people got to see me in a completely different light. That’s when everything started to open up.” As a woman in this industry, what have you learned about expectations? Women hold themselves to a different standard. That’s the first thing. I’ve sat in executive meetings where a CEO asks five questions. A male colleague might answer three and say, “I’ll get you the other two later.” No issue. If I didn’t know one answer out of ten? It would bother me all day. One time, I missed a single question. My boss shrugged it off. It bothered me to my core. I chased after my boss promising to get him the answer, then went back to my office and nearly crawled under my desk in frustration. No one else remembered it — but I did. My mom was always telling me, not to be mean or anything, but she said, look, you’re a woman and you’re black. You are not going to get a second chance. That advice shaped me. It made me excellent. But it also meant I carried pressure others didn’t feel.
My advice is simple: get outside your four walls. Volunteer. Join a board. Speak on a
Volume 48 No.1 MARCH 2026
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