Recap from ATLeaders Lunch at Cox Enterprises, April 14, 2026
Got to go listen in to a fireside chat with Katie Kirkpatrick of the Metro Atlanta Chamber and Dallas Clement this week at the ATLeaders lunch hosted at Cox Enterprises. Dallas is the President of Cox and has been there for 34 years. That's not a typo. Thirty. Four. Years. Started in 1990 and has been in the room for every major inflection point the company has hit since.
The whole conversation was gold. Here's what stuck.
Day one, halo vest
Not a metaphor. Dallas literally showed up to his first day at Cox recovering from a bike accident, wearing a halo vest. That kind of tells you everything about the guy.
Since then, he's moved through the Cable Group, the Time Warner merger in '95, taking Cox Communications public, running investor relations, leading strategy, serving as CFO of AutoTrader and then Cox Automotive, and now running the whole company for the last decade.
That's a resume built by showing up, including when it's hard.
Dyslexia shaped how he leads
One of the most honest parts of the conversation. Dallas talked openly about how dyslexia forced him to learn differently. He comes at problems from multiple angles. Asks more questions than most people are comfortable with. Builds strong foundations before he moves fast.
He doesn't treat it like a limitation. He treats it like his leadership superpower. And it shows.
His hiring framework reflects the same thinking. He evaluates on "what and how." The "what" is vocational skill. The "how" is whether someone can actually be a boundary partner, someone who works well across teams and relationships. Simple, but I loved it.
They killed sacred cows and it worked
Cox stepped away from broadcast TV in 2019. Then they let go of cable, selling to Charter. These were not small moves. Cable was the business for decades.
But Dallas was clear about the logic. They were at a scale disadvantage. Competitors were five times their size. Instead of spreading capital thin trying to compete, they refocused on higher growth opportunities. After the Charter deal, Cox became the largest shareholder of the combined entity, secured three board seats, and kept a significant Atlanta headquarters presence.
This is a "burn the ships" move at scale. I wrote about this years ago, the idea that sometimes the smartest thing you can do is stop, turn around, and run in a different direction. It's not retreating. It's advancing somewhere better. Hearing about a company the size of Cox do it at this level was wild to hear.
The philosophy I keep mulling over
The decision framework Dallas kept coming back to: "What's the worst thing that could happen?"
If he's comfortable with the downside, he moves forward.
That one has been rattling around in my head since I left the lunch. It's such a simple question. But it's also a really honest one. Am I actually living by that framework? Or am I letting fear of made up worst case scenarios keep me from making moves I know are right?
It was challenging in the best way. The kind of question that makes you want to go audit a few decisions you've been sitting on.
One thing about Cox Automotive that blew my mind
Cox is processing 70 to 80 percent of EVs through Manheim auctions.
Let that land for a second. What started 60 years ago as local automotive media advertising is now handling the majority of EV auction flow in this country. They're building EV battery condition ratings, creating a secondary market for batteries, running recall processing for OEMs, hosting pre market new cars for manufacturers, and growing a fleet services and mobility group on top of it.
Side note: Steve and I recently bought an EV and we love it. So hearing just how deeply Cox is plugged into that ecosystem hit different. It felt like we were part of this whole quiet infrastructure shift without even realizing it.
Dallas also had a really sharp thesis on autonomous vehicles. Fewer people will own cars, but total miles driven will go up. That creates massive opportunity in fleet services, maintenance, and logistics. Cox is quietly setting up to own that shift.
Clean tech is the next chapter
And in case you're wondering, yes, clean tech is very much a Cox thing too. Cox Conserves is a huge part of it. They already have zero waste to landfill designation, meaning they divert 90% of waste. But they're going further. The team analyzed 99 segments, filtered them against Cox's capabilities, and narrowed to 8 to 10 broad sectors they want to pursue over the next decade.
One that really blew my mind: controlled environment agriculture. Who would have thought Cox now has a farm where they're doing regenerative farming? They acquired BrightFarms and invested in Mucci Farms. It's not where you'd expect Cox to play, which is exactly why it's interesting.
The family business advantage
Governor Cox's original will basically said: do right by employees, customers, and communities. Dallas referenced it naturally throughout the conversation. It's not a poster on the wall. It's the actual operating system.
This reminded me a lot of what David Cummings has written about over and over: the companies that build around real core values are the ones that hold up over time. Values aren't nice to haves. They're decision making tools. Cox is proof of that playing out over a century plus.
That long-term vision also gives them flexibility most public companies just don't have. They can maintain control, merge down to a minority stake, or exit entirely, all based on what's right for the long term. No quarterly earnings pressure dictating strategy.
My takeaway
Dallas Clement is proof that you don't have to be the loudest person in the room to make the biggest moves. His approach is methodical, curious, and grounded in pattern recognition built over decades.
For founders, the lessons are real. Know your scale disadvantage. Be willing to walk away from legacy businesses, even the ones that built you. Stay anchored to your core values when things get hard. And always, always stress test your downside before you move.
Big thanks to the ATLeaders crew for putting this together, and to Cox for hosting.
