Susan Anable, director of public affairs for Cox Communications, is no stranger to the state legislative process. As the former director of the research staff for the Arizona Senate, Anable spent 10 years focusing her efforts on several issues including the preservation of Arizona’s water resources and the improvement of air quality.
“I felt very proud to have been involved in some pretty monumental legislation,” says Anable in a phone interview.
As a lobbyist for Cox Communications, she takes great pride in her involvement in obtaining tax and regulatory relief for her company and its customers.
One of the biggest challenges that she faces today, however, is helping people understand how Cox has evolved over the years.
“The most difficult part of my job is helping public policy-makers understand that my company isn’t a sleepy little cable TV company any more,” she says. “We are a multi-facetted critical communications provider with data and telephone products and that we are also a media company.”
Anable has been influenced by many people over the course of her lifetime, including her grandfather, and former State Sen. Herb Guenther. Guenther now heads the State Department of Water Resources.
She praises Guenther as “somebody who has operated with a way of being that I would like to emulate.”
Anable says she has always felt that government involvement was her true passion.
“I’m an unashamed fan of our democratic form of government and I always have felt that I had an obligation to help influence good public policy and to not take for granted the fact that we have the ability to do that in this country.”
Of all the great advice Anable has received over the years, there is one conversation in particular that stands out.
Current boss and vice president at Cox Communications Ivan Johnson once said, “Passion can fuel and emotion can undermine. Be careful not to confuse the two.”