ALUMNI NEWS: Susan L.
Reinhold receives College of Engineering
Distinguished Achievement Award on Oct. 21
urn
on the television in South Florida and you’ll probably see evidence
of Susan L. Reinhold’s leadership. Reinhold is vice president
of operations for telecommunications and cable television company Comcast’s
South Florida region, which serves more than a million customers. In
that role, she focuses on developing operational efficiencies that improve
customers’ overall experience with the company.
Under her direction, Reinhold’s department
of more than 850 staff members has engineered and optimized network
services to support all of the company’s products and processes.
In addition, its work has increased the South Florida region’s
revenue, employee- and customer-satisfaction, and technology-upgrade
performance against its goals. Her philosophy of success revolves around
creating teams focused on a common goal, while providing opportunities
for personal growth and development for herself and team members.
From the time a customer speaks with an account
executive to the point at which a technician completes a job at a customer’s
home, service is Reinhold’s No. 1 priority. She has designed and
implemented several initiatives within the company to ensure that staff
in all departments become familiar with new technologies and can pass
their information to Comcast customers.
She also developed rapid action plans after
four hurricanes hit Florida within a year’s time, assembling a
national team to restore normal service to more than 60,000 customers.
For her efforts, she and her team received the Comcast National Circle
of Success Award.
Reinhold’s first engineering experience
occurred when she was about 12. After the family’s lawnmower broke,
she took it apart—although she’s not sure if she put it
back together again. Interested in microwave engineering, she went on
to earn a bachelor’s degree in engineering mechanics in 1979 and
took her first job with Wisconsin Bell as a radio engineer, designing
micro-wave radio systems for voice communications. When Ameritech took
over the Midwest “Bells,” Reinhold stayed on, holding progressively
more responsible engineering, operations and leadership roles. When
she left in 1996 (after completing UW-Madison’s executive MBA
program) to join Comcast, she was overseeing Wisconsin’s two-million-customer
telephone system. Reinhold worked first as vice president of engineering
for Comcast’s Southeast Florida region, then moved to a position
as vice president and general manager of the company’s Montgomery
County, Maryland, office before assuming her current role in 2003.
Reinhold and her husband, Mark, have two daughters:
Stephanie and Michelle. In her free time, Reinhold enjoys short-distance
running, water sports and boating with her family on their 30-foot Sundancer,
The Happy Hour.
