The Business Council of Fairfield County elevated the bar for annual meetings recently at the Stamford Marriott when, seemingly without effort, it hosted a lunch for 280 executives, provided a national-caliber keynote speaker and attended to parliamentary matters in the span of two hours.
Maggie Wilderotter, chairwoman and CEO of Stamford-based Frontier Communications Corp., which serves 30,000 nonurban markets in 27 states and is acquiring AT&T”™s landline business, delivered the keynote address.
Among the parliamentary matters, Reyno Giallongo Jr., who heads First County Bank and its 15 branches in Fairfield County as its chairman and CEO, remains atop the Business Council”™s board of directors for another three-year term, and accounting firm O”™Connor Davies L.L.P., with a Stamford office, remains the council”™s auditor.
Giallongo opened the event by thanking, in particular, companies assisting the Business Council”™s education initiative, including his own, First County Bank. The others included The Ahforth Co.; Deloitte; Frontier Communications; KPMG L.L.P., whose Kenneth J. Seel introduced Wilderotter; PwC L.L.P.; UIL Holdings Corp.; and Wells Fargo Bank N.A.
Many in the room had potentially seen the dark side of computing: hacking and theft. Wilderotter said Frontier is a leader in preventing cyberfraud and cyberattacks, having enrolled 1 million clients in its security program, more than any other program nationally. “Small businesses need the same protections,” she said. “We”™re trying to stay ahead to protect data and experiences.”
Wilderotter said Frontier typically services 34 clients per mile, whereas bigger players have several hundred per mile. Yet the Frontier goal is to provide high-speed broadband to all its customers; it has already reached the 90 percent goal. She said it is a business model that works, with Frontier stock paying a 7 percent annual dividend. She said lower taxes and fewer regulations would help further.
