Frontier Communications, Dallas, Texas, United States: Melissa Pint, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Information Officer (CDIO)

Essay of up to 650 words

Total 645 words used.

With more than 20 years of leadership experience in technology, Melissa has used her IT and technology expertise to transform operations, improve efficiency, and drive customer strategy throughout her career.

Having achieved notable success in the dynamic world of retail, she was drawn to a new role at Frontier Communications, where she could help drive the company’s transformation from a telecommunications company to a technology-driven enterprise. Since joining Frontier in October 2021, Melissa has:

1. Helped define the company’s strategy

Emerging from bankruptcy, Frontier was re-born with a new board and a grand vision: to become the leading pure-play fiber provider in the USA. Frontier’s ability to deliver on this vision centers on becoming a digital-first company – so Melissa’s role is critical.

2. Rebuilt the team

The priority was to assess talent, hire new talent, and empower the existing team. Melissa now leads a team of [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION] employees located across the United States, but has also built a network of [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION] third-party contractors [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION] (increasing output by over 25% in two years).

3. Improved team morale

Melissa fosters a culture of trust, accountability, and urgency, with a completely open-door approach. She hosts a monthly "Minutes with Melissa" forum, where she recognizes achievements, provides updates, and answers any questions from her team, promoting transparency and engagement. This has significantly increased the team's positivity, and engagement scores have increased by 15 points.

4. Improved diversity

Melissa’s direct reports reflect her commitment to building a diverse team: four women, three people of color, four leaders with over 15 years of experience at the company, two recent promotions, and two new hires from outside the industry. And to develop the next generation of tech talent, Melissa introduced an intern program, which has an 80% intern-to-full-hire rate.

5. Built a robust cybersecurity offering

Cybercrime is a huge challenge for any tech company. To combat it, Melissa recruited a new Chief Information Security Officer and launched an awareness campaign to emphasize the need for every employee to play a role in defense. And it’s working: the phishing click rate has dropped from 40% to 3% (well below the industry average of 14%) – and cyber insurance costs have reduced by 10%.

6. Integrated IT into the business as a whole

CEO Nick Jeffery comments: “Melissa has repositioned IT as a collaborative partner, ensuring decisions are driven by a deep understanding of business problems rather than isolated IT initiatives. She’s given her team the same KPIs as the rest of the business, leading to improved accountability and responsiveness. She’s fostered a true partnership where the business determines the ‘what’ and IT defines the ‘how’.”

7. Revolutionized working practices

By introducing Agile methodologies, Melissa has demonstrated how breaking down tasks into smaller parts delivers value faster and avoids overcomplication. The approach has even won over the initially skeptical finance team and, from a standing start, Melissa now has 27 teams operating under Agile principles.

8. Prioritized innovation

To enable Frontier’s transformation into a technology enterprise, Melissa has been developing digital solutions, including: automation to reduce IT’s role in routine tasks, tools to empower business users; a ‘lowcoder’ tool to help build complex applications without code; an efficient billing solution that’s cutting time-to-market for launches involving partnerships by a third.

9. Built better digital experiences

Melissa’s approach to customer support has resulted in:

• An improved customer app, with over 50 digital features, an App Store rating of 4.4 stars, and a usage rate that’s increased by a huge 43%. The app has deflected around 30% of customer interactions from the call center – saving around $10million.
• Moving the outdated website to a new technology stack, with better features and usability.
• A new AI-driven chatbot offering customers another channel for getting help.
• All with support from a digital customer service team that has grown [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION].

Total 145 words used.

In just two years at Frontier Communications, Melissa has:

1. Re-developed the Frontier app, increasing usage rates by 43% and deflecting 30% of customer interactions from the call centre (saving around $10million per annum).

2. Introduced Agile working methodologies, with 27 teams now working under Agile principles.

3. Bolstered cyber security, with an experienced team and all-encompassing strategy that has reduced phishing clicks by 43% and even reduced cyber insurance premiums by 10%.

4. Introduced an intern programme, with an 80% intern-to-full-hire rate.

5. Increased employee engagement by 15 points, thanks to a culture of transparency, trust, and communication.

6. Improved customer satisfaction, thanks to a more intuitive, responsive website and an AI-driven chat bot.

7. Improved back-office solutions, improving time-to-market for partnership launches.

8. Integrated IT within Frontier – crucially repositioning the department as a collaborative partner that tackles strategic solutions to business problems.