Ciena - 1792 Exchange

Rating Overview

Ciena is Medium Risk.

Ciena is Medium Risk. The company often yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. The company implements race and identity-based policies that replace merit, excellence, and integrity with preferential treatment and outcomes. Ciena occasionally embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues at times. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise.

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	Medium Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	High Risk
Employment Protection	High Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	High Risk
Funding	High Risk
Political Actions	Lower Risk

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Ciena integrates ESG into its business practices. From its 2024 Sustainability Report: “We also implemented a supplier engagement platform and set a goal for 54% of our direct suppliers with the highest emissions impact, as measured by spend, to have set science-based targets by the end of 2026” (1). However, the company has not canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors based on political views or religious beliefs (2).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Ciena likely uses Benevity as its charitable giving platform. Benevity vets charities according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hate List, which includes mainstream libertarian, conservative, family, and religious advocacy organizations (1)(2)(3).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Ciena appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its recruitment. From its 2024 Annual Report: “We regularly monitor our recruitment process in consideration of the diversity of our workforce and candidate pool” (1). The company operates a supplier diversity program. “Ciena’s procurement team is encouraged to source and include diverse suppliers from the communities we serve that add value, provide competitively priced quality goods and services, and align with our strategic business goals” (2). The company does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (3).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Ciena’s CEO Gary Smith signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge, which includes a commitment to promote DEI through bias education training in the workplace, strategize on DEI programs/initiatives with other signatories, and engage boards of directors when developing and evaluating DEI strategies (1)(2). The company is aligned with the Paris Agreement, which entails a commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 (3). The company supports DEI within its business practices, employing a Global Inclusivity Council (4). The company supports DEI within its business practices. From its 2024 Annual Report: “We believe inclusivity and diversity contribute to business success” (5). The company offers Conscious Inclusion workshops (6)(7).

Criteria:

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Ciena is a brass sponsor of Out & Equal (1). The company supports LGBT Tech, “an organization dedicated to providing technology resources and education for members of the LGBTQ+ community” (2). Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of the company using corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (3).

Criteria:

Uses corporate political actions and/or financial contributions for ideological, non-business purposes.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

Ciena does not operate a PAC at this time and has not used its lobbying for ideological purposes (1)(2)(3).