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Aleka Jones saw Cox Media Group (CMG) as the perfect place to leverage her eclectic skills. She attended Purdue to earn a degree in accounting before attending the Indiana University Maurer School of Law for her JD. Prior to joining the media conglomerate, Jones worked for several Big Four accounting firms, a top law practice, and a publicly traded company.
Jones didn’t have much time to enjoy onboarding and get to know her new colleagues when she joined CMG in February 2020 as assistant general counsel, employment, labor and compliance. Within just a few short weeks, Jones would be grappling with life as the only employment attorney at a major broadcasting company during the onset of a pandemic.
Instead of meeting her leaders and learning her way around CMG’s Atlanta headquarters, Jones found herself helping her new company manage an unprecedented crisis. How did she find success in what seemed like an impossible situation? “I had to step back and remind myself to breathe,” she says. “I quickly realized that my to-do list couldn’t be set in stone. I learned to prioritize and pivot.”
The shift removed some of the pressure Jones had placed on herself and allowed the new leader to gain the confidence she needed to rise and face the challenge before her. She sought out colleagues with important legacy knowledge of the company, asked important questions about resource availability, and started formulating a plan to keep employees safe and manage a wide array of employment-related matters unrelated to COVID-19.
“I quickly realized that my to-do list couldn’t be set in stone. I learned to prioritize and pivot.”
Aleka Jones
CMG operates fourteen TV stations in nine markets, forty-nine radio stations in ten markets, various streaming and digital platforms, and related advertising businesses nationwide. In 2020, a subset of employees worked from home while others continued to work in the field reporting the news, making it important for Jones to monitor shifting local, state, and federal mandates to help guide CMG in its decision-making regarding COVID-19. Jones turned to outside counsel for help with daily functions when she needed to increase her bandwidth and while she put together a strategy to guide CMG through this challenging time. For nearly two years, Jones operated as a team of one.
While important COVID-19 initiatives took most of her time, Jones had to go beyond COVID-19 and master the ins-and-outs of her daily role. Although the media industry was new to her, she was able to rely on her previous experience in taking on new activities related to M&A due diligence and integration and policy development as well as previous stretch assignments to manage the learning curve. “I’ve had wonderful bosses and great general counsels who have allowed me to take on extra duties and assignments throughout my career as part of my own professional development,” Jones says.
In 2023, Jones was promoted to her current role as vice president and associate general counsel. She says her willingness to jump in and find creative solutions made a difference and suggests others take a similar approach. “Be ready to seize every opportunity that comes your way and don’t be afraid to operate outside of your comfort zone,” she says. “That’s where growth happens.”
Cox Media’s outside counsel, Gerald Pauling, a partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, says, “Aleka is the consummate professional—sharp, charismatic, extraordinarily talented, and always prepared. She always exhibits a great grasp of the pertinent legal concepts and requirements and possesses a wonderful ability to achieve business objectives within the constraints dictated by the law. She’s truly an asset to her team.”
A year into her new role, Jones is thriving. She’s collaborating with her counterparts on important initiatives, managing litigation, and advising on complex employment matters. She also continues to look for new ways to add value.
Although she is now a Georgian, Jones was born and raised in the Midwest. And while she discovered her talent for persuasion early (Jones can remember convincing a high school teacher to change a grade), she chose to pursue accounting as an initial career to build an analytical foundation, which she believes has served her well in the in-house legal roles she’s held.
Upon graduation, Jones took her first job as an assurance and business advisory auditor with Arthur Andersen before moving to Deloitte. She has also worked at KPMG, Seyfarth Shaw, and US Foods.
“Be ready to seize every opportunity that comes your way and don’t be afraid to operate outside of your comfort zone. That’s where growth happens.”
Aleka Jones
Jones, who credits various mentors with preparing her for success, is passionate about helping young people discover the importance of a legal education and financial literacy. She currently serves on the Business Opportunity Program (BOP) Leadership Council at Purdue University. BOP is a groundbreaking program established in 1968 to provide support to undergraduate and graduate students seeking business degrees from the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, formerly the Krannert School of Management.
Along the way, Jones has focused on making herself a trusted advisor to each business. It’s something she intends to continue throughout her entire career. “We’re all works in progress so we can never stop learning and growing,” she says.
