42. Susan Jin Davis - People First

42. Susan Jin Davis - People First

“If people aren't first, I don't think you can have a good team. And I don't think you remember that there's people on that team and that those people are individuals that you have responsibility for as a leader.”

 

Guest Info:

Susan Jin Davis has 30 years of experience in the telecommunications, media, entertainment, and technology industries. She currently serves as Social Impact Officer for Al Roker Entertainment, a leading producer of TV, digital, branded programming and entertainment. She is also an advisor for ALO Advisors, a firm specializing in areas of sustainability, diversity, and corporate social responsibility.

Ms. Jin Davis serves as on-call faculty for the Center for Creative Learning in the areas of organizational leadership, women’s leadership, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. She likewise serves as adjunct faculty for the Betsy Magness Leadership Institute, Betsy Magness Graduate Institute, and the Rising Leaders Program of Women In Cable Telecommunications and she is a highly-demanded public speaker on diversity, equity, & inclusion, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility. Over the past decade, she has helped to create leadership development programming for Comcast’s Asian American employees and is currently creating curriculum and programming focusing on executive leadership development for AAPI professional women.

She is also serving as a Senior Advisor on Social Impact & Sustainability for Philadelphia Soccer 2026, as part of Philadelphia's application team to be a host city for the World Cup games in 2026. Her focus is on human rights such as worker rights, housing, discrimination, safety and security, and grievances.

 

Most recently, Ms. Jin Davis was a senior executive at Comcast Corporation, where she held a multitude of roles over a 15-year career at the Company. 

Ms. Jin Davis is an experienced executive in the area of sustainability and environmental responsibility. As Comcast NBCUniversal’s first Chief Sustainability Officer, Ms. Jin Davis was responsible for identifying sustainable strategies and priorities and for implementing the company’s Sustainability Program across all of Comcast NBCUniversal business units and functions. She created the framework for the company’s Environmental, Social, and Governance disclosures; she established Comcast NBCUniversal’s renewable energy strategy and implemented energy efficiency initiatives across Comcast Cable, NBCUniversal and Comcast Spectacor. Plus, Ms. Jin Davis created Comcast NBCUniversal’s zero waste strategy and she co-led its future of fleet strategy, transforming the company’s fleet to low-carbon vehicles.

 

Ms. Jin Davis is highly experienced in a multitude of areas of corporate compliance. Prior to her promotion as CSO, Ms. Jin Davis served as Senior Vice President of Operations Compliance at Comcast, where she implemented product policies, operationalized regulatory and legal requirements, reduced costs to the cable business, and managed business compliance. In this capacity, she established and managed a customer call center that dealt with customer issues on privacy, data security, piracy, and cybersecurity. She was also responsible for Comcast’s environment, health, and safety function. Ms. Jin Davis also served as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Communications and Data Services and Vice President of Corporate Development, Voice Services where she managed voice, data, and wireless policies such as emergency services, privacy/customer proprietary network information (CPNI), interconnection, and online safety and security.

 

Ms. Jin Davis is a well-experienced and well-respected executive in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion. While at Comcast, Ms. Jin Davis negotiated a historic Memorandum of Understanding between Comcast and the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) national community as part of the company’s acquisition of NBCUniversal. This created ground-breaking diversity commitments in the areas of programming, supplier and employment, and community investment. She served on Comcast’s Internal Diversity Council and she was the company liaison to the external Comcast NBCUniversal Joint Diversity Council. Ms. Jin Davis was the executive sponsor of Asian Pacific Americans at Comcast, a company-sponsored employee resource group, which focuses on the recruiting, promotion and development of Asian American and Pacific Islander talent. Ms. Jin Davis established Comcast’s partnerships with AAPI national community organizations in the areas of civic involvement and political representation, media and entertainment, leadership development, civil and human rights, and youth empowerment. She was also responsible for the creation of Comcast’s Cinema Asian America, the first-ever video-on-demand offering of Asian and Asian American television and movie content on the Comcast network.

 

She led the launch of Comcast’s Internet Essentials Program, which offers affordable high-speed internet for low-income households. Now in its tenth year, Internet Essentials is Comcast’s largest, most successful community investment initiative, which has connected more than 10 million low-income Americans to all the opportunities of a digital world through low-cost, high-speed internet at home. She was responsible for the pricing and packaging strategy, marketing and community engagement, and managing the call center that handled customer applications, installation, and trouble ticketing.

 

Prior to Comcast NBCUniversal, the trained attorney served in various roles of increasing responsibility at the Silicon Valley-based technology company, Covad Communications, where she held roles such as Assistant General Counsel, Interim General Counsel, Vice President of Government and External Affairs, and Vice President of Investor Relations.
Other experience includes MCI Communications Company in a multitude of counsel roles in government and external affairs, specifically in federal and state regulatory affairs, and federal legislative affairs, as well as the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, as an Assistant Consumer Advocate in the Office of Consumer Advocate. There, Ms. Jin Davis was responsible for representing Pennsylvania consumers on energy, water, and telecommunications matters.

 

Recognized by Forbes as one of “Five Women of Color Who Should Be On Your Radar Screen,” she completed the Women in Cable Telecommunications Senior Executive Summit at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, the Women’s Executive Leadership Program at the Wharton School of Business and the Cable & Telecommunications Association (CTAM) Executive Management Program at the Harvard Business School. She received the 2010 Paragon Award of the National Association of Multi-Ethnicity in Communications and was a Fellow in the Betsy Magness Leadership Institute of the Women in Cable Telecommunications esteemed program. She has been named one of the “Most Powerful Women in Cable” by CableFAX Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Most Influential Minorities in Cable” by CableWorld for many years.

 

An advocate for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in business and corporate America, she is active in the AAPI community nationally. She serves as the Chair of the Board of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) and serves on the Board of the Asian/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce & Entrepreneurship (National ACE). Additionally, Ms. Jin Davis is a past board member of Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc. (LEAP) and the Asian and Pacific American Scholarship Fund (APIA Scholars). Her other volunteer leadership service includes the Board of Directors of the Juvenile Law Center and the Board of Trustees of her undergraduate alma mater, Bryn Mawr College where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.

 

She holds a Juris Doctor degree from the Dickinson School of Law of Penn State University. The active runner, jazz lover, and foodie lives in Kennett Square, Pa. with her daughter, Sophia.

 

Favorite Quote:

"The time is always right to do what is right." — Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Resources:

• Susan on LinkedIn (@susanjindavis)
• Susan on Twitter (@sjindavis)

Credits:

Susan Jin Davis. Production team: Ian Devitt, Sheep Jam Productions.