Comcast Business, the division of parent company Comcast that serves enterprise-level customers, has begun focusing its efforts on serving the greater Southern California region, which includes Los Angeles, Orange County, the Inland Empire and San Diego.

By leveraging a strong network, broad portfolio and strategic alliances, Comcast Business delivers secure network solutions like advanced security, SD-WAN services and reliable connectivity. Businesses continue to undergo rapid digital transformation — and Comcast Business is here to help with a recently announced expansion of their workforce into these markets.

A major expansion like this calls for major talent. To lead the company’s efforts in Southern California, Comcast has tapped Tim MacDonald, a veteran sales leader with over 30 years of experience. A graduate of UCLA, where he received his bachelor’s degree in economics as well as his M.B.A., MacDonald currently resides in San Diego, so he knows the SoCal market well. He also knows the industry: Prior to joining Comcast in January, he served as vice president for a global telecommunications consulting firm and managed solutions provider. Prior to that, he worked at AT&T for more than three decades, where he held numerous leadership positions across enterprise business sales, product management and product marketing.

A bold, empathetic leader who prefers to lead through encouragement and reinforcement, MacDonald sat down for an interview to discuss his approach to leading world-class sales organizations through today’s changing digital economy.

What attracted you to this opportunity? What are some of the challenges?

Comcast has a great culture that values kindness and inclusivity and places a strong emphasis on caring for and supporting its people. You see that reflected in the growth opportunities for employees. People know this is a place you can start, nurture and grow a career. All of that provided a great foundation from which to build out our new SoCal sales team, which is now 35 people strong.

With this incredible team in place, our biggest challenge now is generating awareness among local businesses that we’re here and would like to showcase the leading technology we have to offer. We’re doing everything we can to get out there, talk to folks, attend events, support the community and demonstrate our innovative products. We are a leader on the global stage and now we want to make a name for ourselves here in SoCal.

What services and solutions does Comcast Business provide?

Disruption of traditional business models is the new norm and businesses are looking for a steady state of evolution to “future-proof” and enhance their technology infrastructure.

We offer a full suite of best-in-breed connectivity, communications, networking, cybersecurity, wireless and managed solutions that help relieve the pressures associated with maintaining fast, secure and reliable digital infrastructure. These products and services are available to SoCal businesses right now.

For businesses with multiple locations, our software-defined wide area network, or SD-WAN, solutions are an especially important offering. These solutions help businesses secure and simplify their network by creating encrypted data “tunnels” over the internet between geographically dispersed access points. Our expert teams deploy and manage these solutions for our business customers so that they can keep their focus on driving revenue and creating value.

Our cybersecurity services are increasingly a core part of our value proposition. Our security teams operate 24/7, 365 days a year, so we are always on, proactively and preemptively protecting the network. As the business community faces down the $10 trillion global cybercrime threat, we’re proud of our role in helping companies of all sizes secure their data through technologies such as endpoint detection and response, vulnerability scanning and managed detection and response, and distributed denial of service (DDoS) mitigation.

Not only do we have the largest facilities based network in the US, but we also have global networking capabilities in 115 countries across five continents, which allows us to serve your business regardless of where you’re located.

Why has Comcast Business decided to expand into Southern California?

In a word: opportunity. The six counties that constitute Southern California have a GDP that, if they were a country, would make them the world’s 12th largest economy. As a growing company always looking for opportunities to expand and help businesses through the rapidly changing digital economy, now is the time. Southern California represents an enormous and very natural next step for Comcast, who has been a leader in the Northern California region for decades.

Competition for technology services in SoCal is stiff. How does Comcast plan to differentiate itself?

Comcast is unmatched in its scope, scale and depth. With that advantage comes the ability to hire a world-class IT and product development staff. It also enables us to achieve a number of productivity and cost efficiencies. Comcast Business has been consistently recognized by industry analysts such as Gartner and ISG for being a leader in managed solutions. We are considered a leader and an innovator, and we’re one of the fastest-growing providers of ethernet services. All of those benefits accrue directly to our customers and partners. In this way, Comcast Business managed solutions provide access to high-quality digital infrastructure for all sized companies.

Our service is another point of distinction. It starts with our expert teams who work with customers to understand their business needs and create cost-effective solutions. That high-touch customer experience also extends to our support teams. We know that uptime is critical in our connected world, so our customer service centers, the majority of which are located in the U.S., are staffed around the clock with technicians who can diagnose and remedy issues as they appear.

How is Comcast investing in the Southern California communities it serves?

In my time with the company, I’ve yet to attend a leadership meeting at Comcast that didn’t include a philanthropic component. As a business, we invest in our communities through financial, in-kind offerings and employee volunteerism.

I’ll share a few statistics. Through Project UP, we’re advancing digital equity with programs and community partnerships that connect people to the internet, advance economic mobility and open doors for the next generation of community leaders. This is backed by a $1 billion commitment to reach tens of millions of people. With Comcast RISE, we’ve supported over 14,000 small businesses and counting with technology services and marketing resources, as well as millions of dollars in grants. More than a dozen of those recipients are small businesses in Southern California.

As an organization with corporate social responsibility as part of its DNA, we’re always searching for ways we can make a difference. Expect to see additional investments in Southern California as we grow our footprint here.

Comcast Business offers a full suite of connectivity, communications, networking, cybersecurity, wireless and managed solutions to help organizations of all sizes prepare for what’s next. Powered by the nation’s largest gig-speed broadband network, and backed by 24/7 customer support, Comcast Business is the nation’s largest cable provider to small and mid-size businesses and one of the leading service providers to the enterprise market. Comcast Business has been consistently recognized by industry analysts and associations as a leader and an innovator, and we’re one of the fastest-growing providers of ethernet services. To learn more, visit our website.