Surviving CEO scandal, Qwest Foundation looks to leadership and an education focus

By Danielle Lee

When former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio resigned from the telecommunications carrier in 2002 during an insider trading scandal, he left in his wake a disbanded Qwest Foundation, effectively shut down after the US West merger in 2000.

Richard Notebaert stepped into the CEO role after Nacchio left and worked on re-energizing the foundation and restoring community outreach as a company priority.

With that history, Ric Padilla, Qwest’s Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility, understands the importance of C-level support. Current CEO and Chairman Ed Mueller brought even clearer focus to these issues when he took the reins last August.

“It’s absolutely vital that the top executive team is supportive of corporate citizenship efforts,” says Padilla. “Without that support from top, including primary funding, there’s no way to succeed.”
Success also hinged on involving employees in the process of reintroducing the foundation, a task which Padilla says they “gladly re-embraced.”

Qwest surveyed employees about what causes resonated most with them, discovering the “overwhelming” response to be education.

Consequently, the cause was adopted as a primary focus of the foundation two years ago, with a specific emphasis on pre-K through grade 12 education.

Qwest, headquartered in Denver, supplies grants to numerous local schools, with one program in particular rewarding teachers who bring innovative uses of funds into the classroom.

The foundation’s focus extends beyond those walls, however, with partnerships it has forged in other arenas, such as those with professional sports teams the Seattle Seahawks, the Denver Nuggets and the Phoenix Suns.

The Qwest leadership challenge encourages high school students to get involved in the community by offering the chance to attend a game of the sponsoring team and a breakfast with motivational speakers. One student is chosen each year to receive a scholarship.

Qwest employees are also given incentives with the “Matching Time” program. Through this initiative, employees who volunteer 60 hours or more over six months will receive a $500 check from Qwest written to the organization they volunteer with, and a $1,000 check if it’s an education program.
“An expectation of the executive team is...a very large company acting local in many ways in various states,” says Padilla. “Executives feel it’s important to sit on [nonprofit] boards or be active in volunteering.”

This activity amounted to an accumulated one million hours of volunteering by Qwest employees and retirees last year.

“Corporate citizenship and involvement has to be a key business strategy; it shows and underlies the values of the company’s mission,” says Padilla. “[The involvement] doesn’t have to be complex, it can be simple messaging, but it has to be supported from top down.”

In addition to the “Matching Time” program, Padilla points to the simplicity of the United Way campaigns, which add 75 cents to every dollar donated by employees.

The Qwest Foundation also partners with America Supports You, a Department of Defense program that facilitates messages of encouragement from the public to military personnel abroad. Qwest has folded this alliance into its partnerships with sports teams by ensuring military recognition on the field at games, and providing high-speed Internet terminals at stadiums so fans can send their positive notes to the troops.

The foundation also integrates its technology into an annual “beeping” Easter egg hunt and a beeping baseball world series. Both events involve small sound devices—inside the eggs and baseballs—that activate a beeping sound to help blind children find the eggs or play baseball. Retired telecommunications employees developed the technology, and Qwest employees and retirees have volunteered their time for the more than 20 years both events have taken place.

The easter egg hunt has “expanded now to 10 states and has just been tremendous,” says Padilla.
It also demonstrates the mix of business technology, pragmatic partnering and inclusive view of education stressed by the foundation itself.