Granite and Granite CANDID Issue Statement Condemning Anti-Asian Violence & Discrimination

Communications Service Provider Donates $50,000 to Support Asian-American Communities

QUINCY, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Granite Telecommunications, LLC, a leading provider of communications services to multilocation businesses and government agencies, announced today that it is donating $50,000 to Asian-American support groups and, through the company’s CANDID organization for racial equality, providing resources to Granite teammates on how to foster tolerance in the community.

“Granite has always strived to promote a culture of equality and inclusion. The success that we’ve enjoyed isn’t just with a diverse group of teammates; it is because of the diversity of our teammates,” said Granite CEO Rob Hale. “Hostility toward Asian Americans runs contrary to everything we stand for. We take particular offense to it given the large Asian community in our hometown of Quincy, Massachusetts – a community that has not only led to the hiring and promotion of many members of this community but supported our growth and success in many other ways.”

Granite is investing in two Asian American support groups in its local community:

• Quincy Asian Resources, Inc. (QARI), the go-to resource center for Asian and immigrant residents in Granite’s hometown of Quincy, Mass., that is actively working to stop violence against Asian Americans.
• Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC), a group with offices in Boston and Quincy that empowers Asians and new immigrants to build healthy families, achieve greater economic success and contribute to thriving communities

In addition, Granite is encouraging its 2,300 teammates to get involved with the company’s CANDID diversity group. CANDID is engaging in discussions about violence and discrimination against Asian-Americans and providing resources to Granite teammates on ways to create change.

Granite formed CANDID (Community Awareness Networking Diversity Inclusion Development) in June 2020 following the murder of George Floyd. CANDID promotes diversity and racial equality for all, including people of Asian descent, currently in the national spotlight as targets of hate crimes.

“We must rally together to Stop Asian Hate,” said Kyle Swist, Chair of CANDID and Vice President of Talent Management at Granite. “These heinous crimes being perpetrated across the country against Asians have hit the communities that Granite calls home. It’s imperative that we use our voices to support our teammates and the communities in which we work and live.”

In addition to joining CANDID discussions, Granite is encouraging Granite teammates to actively observe their surroundings and pledge not to be passive bystanders in the face of racial violence – either verbal or physical – and educate themselves about discrimination against Asian-Americans by visiting https://stopaapihate.org/.

About Granite

Granite delivers one-stop communications solutions to multilocation businesses and government agencies throughout the United States and Canada. The $1.65 billion company serves more than two-thirds of the Fortune 100 companies in the United States and has 1.75 million voice and data lines under management. Granite launched in 2002 and grew quickly by helping businesses to simplify sourcing and management of local and long-distance phone services with one point of contact and one invoice for all their office locations nationwide. Today, Granite is the leader in aggregating Plain Old Telephone Services (POTS) and has extended its unique value proposition – “one company, one contact, one bill” – to include a range of advanced business communications services, including Internet access, SD-WAN, wireless WAN, wireless POTS, hosted PBX, SIP trunking, mobile voice and data, mobile device management, managed security, network integration and more. Granite employs more than 2,300 people at its Quincy MA headquarters and nine regional offices nationwide. For more information, visit www.granitenet.com.