Voice of Experience: Valeria Strappa, Head of Efficiency and Cost Management for Citi Latin America

This week The Glass Hammer is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with profiles of senior Hispanic women in the financial and professional services. Check back all week long to read more.

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to Valeria Strappa, Head of Efficiency and Cost Management for Citi Latin America, defining a career path and learning to get comfortable with negotiation are critical for women to advance in their careers. What I think is important is to first be the designer of your own destiny and second, to learn that you might not necessarily get what you think you deserve, you will get what you are able to ask for and to sell for your results

Strappa has quickly risen through the ranks at Citi, distinguishing herself as a skilled turnaround expert with a passion for results. She continued, “A lot of times women think people will recognize their work. And they do, but that doesn’t mean you get what you were expecting for it. You have to be able to solve a big problem for a big leader and of course be able to stand up and show your results.”

She added, “This is something I learned from my boss. He once told me: you don’t delegate to your parents the decision of who your husband will be right? Then why delegate designing your career path to your boss? I was shy about this before. But just by letting people know what I want and sharing what I was doing – it made things much easier to get what I wanted.”

Career in Business Strategic Transformations

Strappa, born in Argentina, moved to Mexico when she was 14 years old when her father was transferred to a new role in the company he worked for. She grew up there and went on to become a professional tennis player, becoming the second in the world for players under 18.  When she joined the Women’s Tennis Association, she was ranked 143.

Soon, she left professional tennis and went on to finish high school. She then started working on her engineering degree in Argentina, and then finished university in Mexico. She had been recruited to work for McKinsey, but after 9/11, the firm enacted a hiring freeze so her job start was delayed. In the meantime, she spent almost a year working for Techint Engineering Company.

In June of 2002, she began working for McKinsey. Three years later, she was about to leave to get an MBA when she received a call from the GE Consumer Finance CEO.

“I had always wanted to work for McKinsey, GE, and have a career in the banking industry so I took the opportunity,” she explained. “I joined GE and launched the business to consumer unit, developing and launching the Branch network in Mexico for GE Consumer Finance.” Before that, she explained, GE had operated through co-branded credit cards with companies like Wal-Mart or Macy’s, but this would be the first time the company was opening its own retail branches.

She spent a year and half rolling out the project before she was asked to help turn around GE’s near prime mortgage business. “Then the CEO invited me to work on his priorities for the company,” she recalled.  “A year after that Citi invited me to build and lead the Latin America reengineering unit.”

“I was moving from a company of roughly 8,000 employees to a company 10 times bigger. It was a huge step forward. On top of that, it was 2008 during the global financial crisis.”

But Strappa took on the challenge, and when she was successful, she assumed additional responsibilities, which led to her most recent role: Channel Development and Reengineering for Mexico. “It was a way to get closer to the business while being able to have a more strategic perspective on how to transform our business model,” she explained. “It was basically designing and implementing an integrated model and P&L for the remote channels in Mexico.”

Then three months ago, she continued, “The CEO for Latin America asked me to lead strategy, reengineering, cost management, and innovation for Latin America.”

As Head of Efficiency and Cost Management, Strappa’s mandate is to build a Business and Functional model that is customer focused while connecting Citi’s Latin America franchise across its 22 geographies. “We’re working to enhance our customer focus and efficiency at the same time, to set a standard across the region.”

Points of Pride

Strappa says her proudest achievement so far has been her ability to integrate into Citi’s team when she first joined the company. “Compared to my peers, I was by far the youngest. I was a woman. I was a foreigner. And I joined during the toughest part of the financial crisis.”

She continued, “Looking back, I feel extremely proud not only to have been successful in that role, but that I became part of the team. I was working with lifetime bankers, who had spent thirty or forty years in the bank.”

“This is what I believe led to my being asked to work with the regional CEO leading one of his strategic priorities,” she explained. “Being able to work on a critical project while effectively navigating a matrix to produce tangible results for the past five years has been one of my proudest professional accomplishments.”

She also believes her passion for her job has served her well. “Living, feeling and breathing the business is something I am passionate about,” she explained, which has helped her succeed in leading, launching and turning around businesses at GE and Citi. “When I was at GE, one day I was presenting to the Global CEO in Prague, and the next day I was sweeping the floors shoulder to shoulder with my team to open for our launch.”

Her passion has also enabled her to grow into a leader, Strappa believes. “For leaders, it’s not just about getting things done through your direct reports. It’s about leading through influence – aligning colleagues with your goals and getting them to follow you and climb mountains for you.”

Currently, Strappa is excited about her new role at Citi. “It’s a transformation. Being able to move the right needles, having the opportunity to lead the business model and interacting with the leaders in the organization fascinates me. We have the right leaders driving this change.”

She continued, “Working with the local and global teams, we’re moving forward and designing a model that is the bank of the future. I’m privileged to be in this position.”

Women in Banking

Strappa says that it is her perception that it is more difficult for the financial industry to attract key talent, particularly women. She explained, “It is a very intense, demanding industry so it can be hard to attract women who are willing to build their careers in finance At Citi, we work hard to attract, retain and develop the best talent. It cannot be achieved without a value for diversity and gender equality as this is something that helps any company get better results.”

She says the challenges for women are real, but they are surmountable. “Until now, women have been fighting for equality in a way that was blind to our biological differences. I think we should strive to have equal opportunities, while addressing our differences.”

For example, she said, pregnancy can be considered a potential career setback for women, who generally may not travel later in their pregnancy,  and then afterward, are on leave caring for a baby. “When you think about the Latin culture, where you don’t have paternity leave, women have a double burden of children and work.”

She continued, “Without a system in place to address these cultural differences, it makes it harder for us to achieve equal opportunity. We need to begin looking to the future.”

Advice for Professional Women

Strappa encouraged women just beginning their careers to be courageous and to speak up. “Put yourself in front of a leader who will be interested in what you are doing or who you are, speak up when you have a solution and for what you think you can do and go ahead and make it happen,” she said.

“It’s my perception that women tend to be more conservative, and speak up only when circumstances feel exactly right. I see women who are very quiet about expressing their opinions yet supporting others who are being more courageous when expressing themselves. So speak up.”

She continued, “The second thing is to learn to think like men. I don’t mean to act like men; however, we are in a male dominated industry so we need to adapt. Learning how they think and communicate can be useful for professional advancement. Adapt and adjust to your environment.”

“Third, you have to have a sponsor willing to take a risk on your potential based on your performance,” Strappa said. “I have had great bosses and all of them became my board of advisors. They are fabulous, spectacular people who are willing to help me get through a situation. This is a true partnership were we care about each other´s challenges and goals.”

She said she hoped senior women would take the lead when it comes to building systems that support women’s professional development and advancement in the industry. “We don’t have to choose to be successful either in business or in our personal lives. We can have both.”

She continued, “Citi is spectacular at addressing these issues, yet we still have a long way to achieve our goals.”

“Citi is really looking at diversity and has provided leadership development opportunities for high potential high performing women, that include a review of research on women and leadership which I’ve been fortunate to participate in.”

One program Strappa particularly enjoys is Women Leading Citi. Sponsored by the CEO and led by Citi Diversity, the program is designed to support mobility to new opportunities in senior management by building leadership skills and pairing high performers with an advocate to help them network and serve as their advocate with senior leadership.

She is also participating in the Women For Citi global diversity program, and sits on the women’s council at the regional level as well. She is also excited about a fellowship Citi is sponsoring for her through the International Women’s Forum which will help her strengthen her leadership skills and share best practices with her team.

In Her Personal Time

Outside work, Strappa says she stays active in sports. While her professional tennis days are behind her, she enjoys hiking and has participated in five Iron Man competitions.

“I also have a passion for animals,” she said. “I think, in a few years, I’ll buy some land and collect stray animals and place them with families who want them.”

She is also very close to her family. “My mother, father, and sister have always supported me. Without that support I wouldn’t be here or able to continue growing.”