Playing with Purpose and Leading with Principle at Cox

If you ask Neelam Nocera, there’s no one way to play — there are countless.  

She’s played on plenty of fields herself: first as a fearless kid who started soccer at age four, then as a student athlete who found her forever sport in volleyball, carrying it through high school and into college.  

Today, she brings that same competitive spirit and team-first mindset to her role as an ethics and compliance senior manager at Cox Enterprises, where collaboration and purpose aren’t buzzwords — they’re the game plan. 

Lessons in teamwork and resilience 

Team sports taught Neelam that every player has a role and that no one wins alone.  

In volleyball and soccer, collaboration isn’t a sometimes thing; it’s every point, every set, every rally. You show up for your position, yes, but you also help set the tone. You read the situation, keep the energy up and pull the group toward one shared goal.  

After a tough season tested her volleyball team, a message shared by her coach reshaped how she approached the game and life forever: “Throw out the bad experiences of the past and just focus on this moment. What can we do to make this moment good?” 

That reset, shifting from what went wrong to what’s possible, became her definition of resilience.  

“When things don’t go your way,” Neelam says, “You can replay the past or you can dig deeper, find your role in the present and keep hope for what the future could be.” 

Bringing purpose into play at work 

Neelam’s role on the ethics and compliance team sits at the intersection of people, principles and progress. As both an individual contributor and a people leader, she focuses on helping others move together toward a clear mission.  

Neelam explains that while navigating different perspectives and personalities can be challenging, it’s also where the opportunity lies. Bringing different voices together builds trust, strengthens decision-making and creates a culture where doing the right thing becomes the norm. 

It’s a mindset Neelam’s carried from the court: keep your head up, know your assignment and look for the pass that sets the team up to score.

Playing with purpose at Cox 

Neelam has served in many roles at Cox and is proud to be the kind of teammate who can be “deployed,” stepping into whatever the larger group needs to achieve the bigger mission.  

“That flexibility is part of the opportunity here at Cox,” she explains. “The chance to stretch, upskill and keep learning, surrounded by people who want to see each other win.” 

Neelam believes that the spirit of community is the fuel that drives everything. Whether it’s teammates on the field or fans on the sidelines, shared purpose makes you feel part of something bigger. At Cox, she sees that same spirit in the ways employees can connect with others beyond their immediate teams, including through employee resource groups (ERGs). For Neelam, that’s an invitation to reach outside your comfort zone, embrace the people who have your back and keep pursuing your personal passion, even at work. 

In other words: play together, play forward and always play with purpose.

Learn more about how our people play with purpose at Cox.

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