(Third in a series of Newsmaker interviews with business-community leaders focusing on the state’s budget deficit and the economy.)
As Verizon’s regional president, Donna Cupelo has overall responsibility for the company’s service delivery, capital investment and public policy in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Cupelo is also a member of the Verizon New England Board of Directors. In Rhode Island, she serves on the board of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, the executive committee of the Heritage Harbor Foundation, and is admiral of the Rhode Island Commodores.
PBN: How do you see the national economic slowdown affecting Rhode Island’s economy?
CUPELO: Rhode Island has never been one of the high-growth areas in the country, even when other areas were seeing a big boom. So in some respects that’s a positive situation, in that we won’t see a big fall – or at least, that is the way history has repeated itself here.
While we don’t think Rhode Island is going to escape the impact of this … whether or not we want to all agree it’s a recession or not, I think we’re well positioned in some of our industry segments to really try to ride through these economic times and actually position ourselves for growth.
But when we look at the nation’s economy – and certainly we are concerned about issues regarding subprime mortgages, housing and consumer consumption – really closer to home for us is some of the research that’s been done on the communications industry and what investments and new infrastructure have as far as impact on the economy. And all the studies that we have seen … found that communications investments increase economic activity by over 25 percent. So we are in a building mode as a corporation of new technology and broadband technology throughout the country, and investment in new technologies in our wireless and wire-line businesses, as well as some global networks through our Verizon business entity.
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PBN: So Verizon is not anticipating reducing its work force at all?
CUPELO: No, we’re not – actually it’s really to the contrary. We really see the need and interest and appetite for communications services whose foundations are new technologies and providing broadband services remaining really strong. We’re finding consumers, small businesses and large businesses need communications products to communicate for their personal and business uses, to do their jobs, to interact with health care and education. That’s not just voice communications – it’s Internet, and now a really burgeoning video Internet market as well as some of the traditional forms of video.
PBN: How do you see industries in Rhode Island other than your own being impacted?
CUPELO: I think a lot of the consumer-oriented industries certainly have their challenges, when you look at some of the consumer-spending declines we’ve seen over the past couple of months. … There was a little burst in December during the holidays, probably a little decline in January and February and continued decline. So I think a lot of the consumer-oriented sectors are going to face their issues. The good news is we’re heavily weighted on higher-education institutions, health care, some of the financial institutions [and they] are really going to be the kind of focal points in helping the nation turn things around.
PBN: Is Rhode Island’s structural budget deficit a concern?
CUPELO: It depends upon how the political leadership in the state reacts to this crisis. There are numerous proposals on the table for how to handle this. Certainly from a business perspective, when we see issues related to slowing down revenues and issues regarding our budget we take multiple actions.
One is, we look at our cost containment, and at many times in our history we’ve restructured our business to make sure we’re being the most cost-efficient.
We believe that while the economy is in this situation and there’s relatively anemic job creation, now’s the time to encourage businesses that are willing to invest in the state to do so in a way that isn’t punitive. And what I mean by that is, the state cannot tax its way out of this current deficit. Any revenue generation ideas in the form of taxes really have to be weighed as to, what’s going to be the ultimate impact?
We look at that in every single state we operate in, and future investment decisions will be determined by the overall financial environment. Because our goal is just to make a fair financial return, so we can go back to our corporation and say – as we’ve been able to in the past – Rhode Island is a great place to invest.
PBN: After years of work to develop an innovation economy work force, Rhode Island is now losing jobs. What can be done?
CUPELO: One of the ideas that has been discussed … is looking at the various sectors to have a kind of multi-sector plan that has a close link between those entry-level jobs that can turn into high-earning jobs with good benefits – really going through those sectors and matching that with an education plan that supports the skill-set that is required by these industries … which cross the gamut, so that we won’t be soft or reliant upon one versus another. … So that we’re teaching our kids the right skills and providing them with the opportunity to intern in some of these industries, and demonstrating to the industries and some of these corporations that we have the talent to fill those positions.
I think if you look at some of the technology firms – whether it’s GTECH or a financial firm like Bank of America or Fidelity – each of those institutions, as well as our higher-ed institutions, our health care institutions, has a need for technology-oriented positions, which reinforces to us the work we’re doing in Rhode Island. … I think we have a plan now, we’re focused on the right things, and now we have to work together to execute it. •
interview: Donna C. Cupelo
POSITION: Regional president of Verizon Communications in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
BACKGROUND: Cupelo began her career with New England Telephone in 1978 and has held various sales and marketing positions within the telecommunications industry. Prior to becoming Verizon’s regional president in Rhode Island, Cupelo served as Verizon’s vice president and general manager for operations for central and western Massachusetts.
EDUCATION: B.S. in business marketing from Providence College, 1978; MBA from Babson College, 1982.
RESIDENCEs: Westerly and Franklin, Mass.
AGE: 52
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) is a New York-based Dow 30 company that delivers broadband and other communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers through its Verizon Wireless and Verizon Wireline divisions. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.
