Glenwood Graduates Making Their Mark As Executives For Fortune 100 Company

What are the odds?

Two talented and successful women in leadership positions at a Fortune 100 company are working under the same roof at an office in Colorado, sharing ideas on projects with one another and helping develop company strategies without knowing they both grew up in the same community and graduated from the same high school in southwest Iowa.

It’s during a call to discuss the company’s Spectrum Mobile services that Charter Communications executives Katie (Marshall) Collins and Lucy (Collins) Hansen come to the “shocking” realization they’re both from Glenwood, Iowa.

“We only realized it fairly recently, although we had been working together for years,” said Collins. “We even took a leadership class together.

“I’ve always been fond of Lucy. I’ve always thought she’s a great human being and I’ve always enjoyed working with her. I was just shocked to find out we were both from the same town. Then, when we started to chat, I think we went to the same church, did a lot of the same activities in high school, so we were destined to meet some day.”

The surprising revelation of their Glenwood connection only happened by chance.

“We met and worked together but didn’t know the other one was from Glenwood,” said Hansen. “I think we were on a call and I had mentioned the Spectrum Mobile connectivity, or something, and we were troubleshooting. I said sometimes I notice the service kind of goes in and out when I’m driving, for example, across Nebraska to go from where I’m from in Iowa. Katie was like, ‘Where’s that?’ I said, ‘Oh, some small town you’ve probably never heard of.’  She said, ‘Where?’ I said, ‘Glenwood.’

“It’s a small world.”
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Different Paths To Success

They are both Glenwood Community High School graduates – Collins in 1992 and Hansen in 2001 - but they took different paths to get where they are today in their professional careers.

For Collins, her entire career in telecommunications has been spent in Colorado.  It started with earning a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Colorado School Of Mines.

“At the time I was getting ready to leave college, my Uncle Jim was working at U.S. West and recommended their internship program,” Collins said. “That’s how I got from college graduate straight into the telecommunications industry – as a college intern.”

After completing her internship and working her way through the ranks at U.S. West, Collins took a position at Level 3 Communications, a large internet provider. At Level 3, she led strategic development for some of the world’s largest companies. She worked at Level 3 for a decade before making a career-changing move to Charter Communications.

Currently, Collins serves as Charter Communications’ Vice President of Mobile Product Management. She leads the design, development and delivery of the company’s Spectrum Mobile, the fastest-growing mobile provider in the industry. Her achievements include launching the industry’s first Speed Boost feature, allowing Spectrum Mobile customers to enjoy speeds up to 1Gbps on their devices when connected to home Wi-Fi. Additionally, she has spearheaded the development of eSIM Activation, enabling instant activation of Spectrum Mobile lines with eSIM-enabled smartphones.

In addition to her Bachelor’s degree, Collins has earned a Master’s degree in business administration from the University of Colorado-Denver.

While Collins’ climb in her professional career has been straight and steady, Hansen’s journey has taken some “unique twists and turns.”

“I went to a college in Des Moines, Iowa, to play soccer and decided that wasn’t for me,” she said. “Then, I moved to San Francisco for a bit, then to Chicago and then back to Iowa (University of Iowa).

“I started out studying English, then that switched to journalism and then graphic design. I ended up finishing my journalism degree but also got a Bachelor of Fine Arts in graphic design.”

Hansen graduated from Iowa in 2006 and landed a job in Phoenix, where she worked as a graphic artist doing illustrations and website builder. She moved on to a different position doing marketing and website work before moving to Denver in 2009, where she initially worked for an advertising agency as an art director. Later, she moved on to another company where she was a creative director doing digital work and building apps and websites.

“Then I had twins and being creative director was really demanding so I decided to move in a contract role part-time so I could spend more time with the twins,” she said. “That’s what led me to Charter. I actually started at Charter maybe nine years ago, just as a contractor because I wanted to pump the brakes a little bit on the demanding career.

“That didn’t last long, I think about six months in. I converted to a full-time employee and I was their director of product design.”

Over the past decade, Hansen’s been involved in several areas of the business, including the launch of the company’s Spectrum Mobile brand. Today, she’s on the enterprise side of the business, serving as Vice President Of Product Design, Digital Product Development, Research and Service Design.
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Professional Growth and Development

Charter Communications, headquartered in Stamford, Conn., is the second largest “cable” provider in the country.

“Cable company is an old term for us, but we’re a leading provider of connectivity and entertainment, operating in 44 states,” Collins noted. “We provide internet, WiFi, voice services and starting in 2018, mobile phone service to residential and large and small customers in the states that we operate in.”

Charter Communications has approximately 100,000 employees across the nation with major concentrations of workers at large operations in Denver, St. Louis, Charlotte and Austin. Each office has its own role within in the company. Product design and development and technology are the focus of the Denver operation, located in the “Tech Center” suburb of Greenwood Village.

Collins and Hansen said they’re grateful to work for a successful company in a positive environment that fosters professional growth and development for its employees.

“I love my job, I love the management team that I have and my team that I’ve built,” Collins said. “And, I feel so proud about being part of Spectrum Mobile from Day Zero, getting our first customer to now over 10 million – a $3.5 billion business.”

Along with her job, Collins serves as a mentor to other women at Charter Communications and in the telecommunications industry. It’s is a badge Collins wears proudly. For the past three years, she’s served as a mentor through her involvement in the WICT (Women In Cable Telecommunications) Network, an organization dedicated to empowering women in media, entertainment and technology. The local WICT chapter is very active in Colorado, Collins said.

Hansen is especially appreciative of the growth and leadership opportunities she’s been given at Charter Communications.

“Career-wise, I just feel so grateful to be with such a wonderful company,” she said.  “I’ve been very fortunate to participate in all sorts of really wonderful leadership programs, many of them specifically geared towards women and helping women grow in their careers.”

“I want to continue to grow in the technology space that I’m in now, in  software development. I think one of the things I’m most excited about is playing a role in helping the company figure out how to leverage new technology, such as AI (Artificial Intelligence). I have kind of a customer-experience background and in that space, I think about how we can humanize AI and leverage it as an enabler so that we can provide more better and high quality experiences to all the millions of customers that we support.”
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Growing Up In Glenwood

Although they graduated from high school nearly a decade apart, Collins and Hansen had similar experiences growing up in Glenwood that set the foundation for their successful careers.

“For me, my parents (John and Diane Marshall) always encouraged me to stretch myself, do my best and I could do anything,” Collins said.  “I wasn’t limited by traditional roles. ‘Engineering, that’s a man role.’ Never were those words spoken at our house. My parents gave me that foundational belief that I could do or be anything that I wanted.

“I grew up as a country kid about 3.5 miles north of town on a small acreage – doing chores, helping Dad in the shop, watching Dad doing soldering or welding or working on machines just gave me that informal background in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). STEM is the buzz word today. STEM, especially for girls, women in technology is an important field, but I was naturally exposed to STEM by my upbringing out in the country.”

Hansen received similar support and encouragement from her parents – Pat and Sue Collins.

“Growing up, I was encouraged by my parents to do whatever I was passionate about,” she said. “I think some of the kind of stereotypical gender roles, etc., wasn’t really limiting. My mom worked her whole career in corporate America at the same company. She started, I think, as a receptionist and then left as a senior level executive from Mutual Of Omaha and my dad was an entrepreneur – he had his own business. I think just having that really strong work ethic and foundation and having that just small community of support that you have in Glenwood was important.”
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Lasting Impact Of Glenwood Teachers

In addition to the upbringing from their parents, the education they received in Glenwood had a lasting impact on Collins and Hansen.

“My education at Glenwood, I thought, was a great foundation,” said Collins. “Mr. (Ron) Kohn, he was my science teacher for a couple different classes, and then Mr. (Bob) Glenn, also my science teacher.

They tended to be my favorite teachers and also my favorite subjects.

“Early leanings toward science and math really helped set me up for success in my current field and career.”

Mary Langille and Marrianne Driml were two GCHS teachers that left a lasting impression on Hansen.

“Mrs. Langille and Ms. Driml, as well, who taught language arts – both of them made such as positive impact in terms of encouragaing the creativity and the writing,” said Hansen. “I think going into graphic deisgn, that really stems from doing photography and yearbook with Mrs. Langille. I definitely brought that with me. I think that’s what led to an eventual path in graphic design.”

Collins and Hansen were involved in similar activities in high school, including marching band and yearbook.

“Fun fact, we were both yearbook editors,” Collins pointed out.
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Hitting The Slopes In Colorado

Collins and Hansen are achieving success in their professional careers and enjoying their lives in Colorado. Both are married and have children.

Collins’ husband Mick was born and raised in London. She has two children - daughter McKenna Hockabout and son Mitchell Hockabout (and wife Kayla). She also has a grandson – Lalo.
When she isn’t working, Collins enjoys traveling and skiing, a love and skill she acquired as a child during her family’s annual ski trips to Colorado.

“That (skiing) is probably one of the main reasons I came to Colorado,” she said.

Collins does make it back to Glenwood on a regular basis to visit family.

“Mom and Dad still live in the house I grew up in,” she said. “

Hansen’s husband, Nathan, is a Kansas native. They have three children - Zach, Vayda and Wyatt.Skiing is one of her family’s favorite pastimes, also.

“We’re cliché. We love to ski,” Hansen said. “We’re in Colorado. You can’t live here and not love skiing. I have successfully taught all three of my kids how to ski.”

Hansen, too, makes it back to her hometown on a regular basis to visit family, which includes her parents, a brother and some nieces and nephews.

“Gramma Sue and Papa Pat’s house in the country in Glenwood, Iowa, is the highlight of the summer for my kids,” she said.

While Collins and Hansen are both enjoying their lives in Colorado, they also have a strong appreciation for the community they were raised in.

“Thanks to our solid roots grown in Mills County, we experienced a solid foundation for future success in life and business,” Collins said.