Hispanic and Latino Business Women and Men Emerging as Influential Leaders

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Young business woman in a office environment.By Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief

Since 2009, the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR) has published the Corporate Inclusion Index survey, which seeks to ensure the inclusion of Hispanics in four core areas: employment, procurement, philanthropy, and governance. In the 2012 study, HACR enjoyed the highest participation ever, with 55 companies submitting responses, including eight new participants, 26 returning companies that improved on their rating from the previous year, and all seven commercial banking companies in the Fortune 100.

To the HACR, this represents a significant shift in the way the business community views the Hispanic population, as being valuable in both the workforce and as a group of influential consumers and clients. There is something to be said about the fact that Hispanics now represent the largest non-white group in the United States. According to the 2012 Corporate Inclusion Index survey, corporate America will experience more Hispanic and Latino workers in the talent pipeline who will replace an aging, predominantly white workforce.

This week on The Glass Hammer, we are featuring profiles of Latinas in business, representing the established and emerging leaders who are making a difference in their companies. We will also highlight national organizations like ALPFA and Proud To Be Latina that devote resources to the professional development of Hispanic business women and men.

Kelly Brennan is a Managing Director in the Securities Division at Goldman Sachs and in her interview with us, she pointed out that there are cultural differences that must be acknowledged and understood in order for business leaders to effectively tap into their Hispanic and Latino workforce. Taking a look at the results of the 2012 Corporate Inclusion Index survey indicates that major companies are making the effort to engage their Hispanic and Latino workforce.

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Voice of Experience: Yvonne Garcia, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Client Solutions, Investment Manager Services, State Street Corporation

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The Glass Hammer is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month by featuring profiles of Hispanic Women Business Leaders all week long!

yvonne_garciaBy Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief

Yvonne Garcia, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Client Solutions for Investment Manager Services at State Street Corporation, wishes she understood the value of professional networking and the reward associated with giving back early in her career. Although the knowledge of these important factors came along with experience, Garcia is building a strong foundation for her career on these professional tenets.

She explained, “It is at this point that it truly sinks in that you need to have access to resources, connections to decision makers, and supporters, as they will be critical throughout your professional and personal journey.”

Garcia is a true example of a professional woman who is being proactive in making sure future generations have access to the resources she identified as being so valuable to career advancement at any level. In addition to her SVP role at State Street, Garcia also serves as the National President for ALPFA, the largest Latino Professional Business Organization in the United States.

Career Path

Prior to joining State Street, Garcia served as the Director in Marketing and Distribution Strategy for Liberty Mutual’s Agency Corporation. In this role, she had the opportunity to contribute to the growth and development of new products and channels. Additionally, she was responsible for organizing a global team to ensure that all team members were delivering a consistent message true to Liberty Mutual’s brand.

Previously, Garcia also served as Vice President for Bank of America’s China Construction Bank Strategic Assistance. In this role, Garcia, along with her team, successfully created and implemented over eighty wealth management centers all throughout China. As a fully certified Six Sigma Black Belt, Garcia develops and adheres to well-planned processes and strategies and prides herself on delivering value to her clients at State Street using new approaches that are not typical within the financial industry.

In her current role at State Street, Garcia is primarily responsible for developing new client relationships, deploying cutting-edge technology and operational processes, and delivering complex consulting engagements for existing and potential State Street clients. She formulates client-focused strategies that enhance ROI for the prestigious list of the global clients she serves and creates business value for State Street.

She is particularly excited about the internal and external opportunities associated with operating a global business. Garcia said, “One area I am interested in right now is how to foster corporate cultures that encourage intelligent risk-taking behavior and how best to lead that change and get others to realize the necessity of this given the global shift in demographics (i.e. age, culture and ethnicity).”

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Janet Yellen and the Old Boys’ Club of Central Banking

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janet_yellenBy Pragati Verma (New York City)

All summer long there has been a debate, heated at times, about who is the best candidate to succeed Ben Bernanke as the Federal Reserve chairperson. These discussions have included talk about gender politics and glass ceilings in addition to the usual banter about monetary policy and inflation. Why? Because for the first time in the history of the Federal Reserve, a woman is among the leading candidates poised to take the reins.

If selected, Janet Yellen will be the first woman to head the world’s most powerful bank in its 100-year history. She will regulate thousands of banks around the country and control the supply of money in the US economy. Conversations around Yellen’s fiscal policies and gender increased in volume last week when her main opponent, Larry Summers, dropped out of the race, significantly increasing the likelihood that Yellen will become the next Fed chair.

Yellen must be used to sparking debates by now. When she joined the board of Federal Reserve governors in 1994, she broke the rules of hierarchy by eating in the cafeteria. Two years later, she dealt the Fed chairman, Alan Greenspan, his first and only defeat in a vote. Yellen talked Greenspan to a standstill, arguing that a little inflation was a good thing, when he was trying to drive annual inflation down to zero. She was also one of the first Fed officials to foresee problems in subprime mortgages.

A monetary economist with significant experience in the Fed, Yellen holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale and has taught at Berkeley, Harvard and London School of Economics. She enjoys support from liberal Democrats because of her focus on bringing down unemployment and could face opposition from Senate Republicans who are worried that her policies could accelerate inflation.

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New Recommendations for Strengthening the UK Pipeline for Executive Women

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iStock_000002379502XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

A recent report [PDF] released in July by the UK’s Conservative Women’s Forum and sponsored by Microsoft provides a robust group of recommendations for strengthening the pipeline of female executives. According to the report, in recent years, the proportion of women in executive roles in the UK has decreased dramatically.

For example, only three percent of CEOs in the FTSE 100 are female – down from five percent in 2011. Similarly, only 5.8 percent of executive directors are female, down from 6.6 percent just last year. And perhaps most distressingly, the pipeline of women for top jobs like CEO and executive director – women on executive committees – has shown a marked decline over the past few years, sliding from 18.1 percent in 2009 to 15.3 percent today.

The authors of the report, Mary Macleod MP and Dr. Thérèse Coffey MP, believe that this decline can be turned around by implementing a number of targeted initiatives in the business sector, encouraging women to be more strategic about advancement, and instituting government programs designed to level the playing field for women in business.

They also suggest that the key goal set by the Lord Davies report – to increase the percentage of women board directors in the FTSE 100 to 25 percent by 2015 – should be extended to the public sector and professional services. They write:

“We challenge the public sector and the professional services to embrace gender diversity at the highest levels. We believe fresh impetus is needed in both cases to replicate the progress made in FTSE boardrooms. The Government should extend the remit of Lord Davies’ work in order to cover the public sector and the professional services. This will make a real difference to the opportunities for women in all sectors to achieve their potential.”

Here are Macleod and Coffey’s suggestions for plugging the leaky pipeline of women to executive roles.

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Intrepid Woman: Robin Morgan, Co-Founder Women’s Media Center and Host of “Women’s Media Center Live with Robin Morgan” Radio Show

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robin_morganBy Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief

“Despite all of the myths of women’s competitiveness, we know how to stick together,” said Robin Morgan. To Morgan, this is one of the things that make women so special. “Solidarity is not just an abstraction to women,” she continued, “it’s a practical reality, day in and day out.” It is this unique element, according to Morgan, that keeps the women’s movement going strong in the 21st century.

Morgan stated, “I am extremely proud of the fact that I have had the opportunity to be a political activist in what is the most important social and political movement on the planet, at this point in history.”

Forging Her Own Path in Activism

Morgan explained, “I had been active in the antiwar movement and in the Civil Rights movement during the sixties and seventies, and like many young women I assumed we were all fighting for equality for everyone. I thought we were going to march with our brothers, arm-in-arm, toward this great revolutionary transformation– only to find that it didn’t include women.”

She continued, “Women were expected to make coffee, not policy. It was a complete mirror image of the patriarchy we were supposed to be fighting.” This realization was a radicalizing experience for Morgan, and influenced her involvement in founding the first feminist caucus in the Civil Rights organization SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), together with now-Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton. Morgan and women in other feminist caucuses of New Left groups faced staunch opposition from men, who pelted them with tomatoes, eggs, and even rocks when they tried to speak in meetings. This backlash was a major catalyst for Morgan’s decision to distance herself from what she came to refer to as the “male left.”

Another key moment for Morgan occurred in 1968, when the Democratic National Convention was being held in Chicago, and was expected to draw (and did) a significant amount of protest activity from radical groups. Instead of joining these protests, Morgan had already decided to organize what would become a historical protest at the annual Miss America Pageant. Here, during this nationally televised event, Morgan and other members of New York Radical Women brought attention to the Women’s Movement by outwardly protesting against symbols of female oppression.

In her final public display of separation from the male left, Morgan published a piece in an underground newspaper, entitled, “Goodbye to All That,” in which she named popular male leaders of the left and called them out for their degradation of women being no different than men of the odious right. “Being a writer, first and foremost, the pen was my most powerful tool. Depending on how you look at it, this piece became very famous–or infamous,” said Morgan.

“That shut the door,” she recalled. From here, Morgan went on to publish Sisterhood Is Powerful, one of the most popular and critically acclaimed books of the 20th century. Many people credit this collection of women’s essays with starting contemporary American feminism.

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Voice of Experience: Jun Wei, Managing Partner, Hogan Lovells, Beijing

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jun_weiWelcome to The Glass Hammer’s Spotlight on Asia Week. We’ll be featuring profiles of successful business women working in Asia all week long!

By Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief

Jun Wei, Managing Partner, Hogan Lovells is a stunning example of someone who has overcome adversity early in her life to become a successful lawyer, role model, and champion of women’s advancement in law.

When Wei was young, she was fortunate enough to live a privileged life as the daughter of parents who worked for the central government. But this came to a sudden end when the Cultural Revolution took place in China and Wei’s family was kicked out of Beijing. At this time, she was separated from both of her parents for a couple of years while her father went into custody and her mother was sentenced to work on a remote countryside.

With her unwavering optimism, Wei was able to find the silver lining for herself in all of the struggle and hardship her family endured. Wei explained, “The good part is that after the Cultural Revolution ended, China started to open its doors.” She continued, “I was one of the few fortunate young people, and only one of two females, who could attend the graduate school of Beijing University Law School. My classmates were all men who were at least ten to fifteen years older than me.”

At the undergraduate law school level, the female representation was much higher at 25-30 percent. Wei explained that unlike the United States, law school in China is both undergraduate and graduate school. The first law degree you earn is LLB and the second degree is LLM. When the Cultural Revolution ended, both schools opened at the same time and Wei was admitted at the graduate level.

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Voice of Experience: Siew Choo Ng, Senior Vice President, Head of Global Network Partnerships, Asia, American Express

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWelcome to The Glass Hammer’s Spotlight on Asia Week. We’ll be featuring profiles of successful business women working in Asia all week long!

By Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief

Siew Choo Ng, Senior Vice President, Head of Global Network Partnerships, Asia, American Express based in Singapore, has held many different positions and worked in many different markets during her 20+ year career with American Express.

By gaining all of these valuable business perspectives, Ng has been able to successfully apply her knowledge and experience in her new role as Head of Global Network Partnerships in Asia . “One of the benefits of working in so many different businesses and markets is the ability to network and adapt,” said Ng.

Ng has successfully navigated the company’s different businesses, but there is one thing that she has learned throughout her career that she wishes she knew when she was first starting out. “It is important to know how to manage your boss,” remarked Ng. “He or she is the one who can be your sponsor and help you with your career. Often times you are competing for their time and sponsorship with your other team members, so it helps to distinguish yourself from the pack.”

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Voice of Experience: Wei Hopeman, Managing Director and Head of Asia, Citi Ventures, Shanghai

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wei_hopeman_smWelcome to The Glass Hammer’s Spotlight on Asia Week. We’ll be featuring profiles of successful business women working in Asia all week long!

By Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief

Wei Hopeman, Managing Director and Head of Asia for Citi Ventures, stresses the importance of taking risks, embracing the unknown, and cultivating strong relationships in business. Hopeman joined Citi Ventures in 2010 to lead activities in Asia, which is the venture investing and innovation arm of Citi. “We act as the eyes and ears that identify new technologies to bring into Citi to help our company stay ahead of the competition,” said Hopeman.

Career Path

When she first started out in the in financial industry, Hopeman worked as a buyside analyst on the Asian portfolio of a Los Angeles based firm. “The Asian portfolio was about one billion dollars. I was asked if I wanted to move to Hong Kong to help set up the Asian office for the firm,” recalled Hopeman. “I jumped at the opportunity, which was such an amazing experience for someone my age.”

After successfully establishing the Hong Kong office for her firm, Hopeman decided to take a detour from the traditional career path in finance when she received a phone call from a friend about joining a new real estate start-up. “I knew nothing about real estate or running a start-up, but I saw it as a great opportunity,” said Hopeman. “We started in a 10×10 windowless office, raised capital, hired a staff, and developed a business plan. Eventually we grew from just two people to having offices in Hong Kong, Japan, and China.”

Although it was somewhat of a departure from her career in finance, Hopeman values the time she spent growing her start-up. “Even though this experience happened early on in my professional life, it played a huge role in how I viewed the rest of my career. It taught me that you shouldn’t be intimidated by things you don’t know because you can always figure it out if you are smart and hard-working.”

After successfully fulfilling her goals as an entrepreneur, Wei returned to the financial services industry and spent a couple of years working for an Investment Banking and Private Equity firm whose primary focus was helping European multinational companies complete strategic acquisitions in Asian markets. Always looking for the next opportunity, Hopeman decided that it was time for her to expand her industry knowledge by attending business school at Stanford.

“In business school I caught the technology bug and fell in love with the Bay area,” Hopeman said. She continued, “I became a technology investment banker and spent the next eight years learning about emerging technologies and helping technology companies with strategic initiatives.” During this time Hopeman was presented with another opportunity to relocate to Asia and help her firm establish an office in this market.

In her current role with Citi Ventures, Hopeman spends a lot of time thinking about ways to keep Citi one step ahead of the competition. “We are facing some non-traditional competitors in our industry right now like Google, Amazon, and Alibaba who are creating customer centric and data driven financial services with the end user in mind. This makes us think about new ways of conducting our traditional business and how to enhance the customer experience with new technologies and capabilities.”

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Voice of Experience: Lorna Chen, Partner, Global Asset Management Group, Shearman & Sterling LLP, Hong Kong

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lorna_chenWelcome to The Glass Hammer’s Spotlight on Asia Week. We’ll be featuring profiles of successful business women working in Asia all week long!

By Michelle Hendelman, Editor-in-Chief

Lorna Chen, a Partner in the Global Asset Management Group at Shearman & Sterling’s Hong Kong office, wasn’t always sure where her career would take her, but she always knew that she would do something great. “If you ask me what made me what I am today, it is my subconscious belief in myself,” said Chen.

“I was born and grew up in Beijing as a native Mandarin Chinese speaker. I completed all of my schooling in Beijing and as an undergraduate and in graduate school, I specialized in English Language and Literature and American Studies. This turned out to be a very firm foundation for my future.”

Career in Law

“I think it was destiny that after I finished graduate school, I met a group of people who were opening up their own law firm. This was right around the time that China was beginning to open its doors and privatize the legal industry. I decided to join them because it was very challenging and interesting to work for a law firm.” She continued, “I took the first National Exam ever administered in China to become a trademark agent and I ranked first. My job was to go to the Chinese administration and address issues around major trademarks being copied without permission.”

This experience motivated Chen to take the bar exam in China despite not having her law degree, a practice that was, and still is, allowed in China. It was a very exciting time, explained Chen, since China was just starting their legal system. “Originally, I planned on attending business school to earn my MBA, but after I passed the bar exam, I decided that if I was going to stay in the legal field, I needed to get a law degree to become a lawyer.”

In 1997, Chen took advantage of a unique opportunity to spend six months in Frankfurt as an international associate for a leading German law firm that was considering expanding their practice into China. “Because I spoke English very well, I was the only person chosen out of about 2,000 lawyers to go to Germany. This experience started my journey in the legal profession outside of Beijing,” said Chen.

“I had already started to take charge in my firm, so I had a first mover advantage upon going to Frankfurt,” explained Chen. After accumulating so much experience in Beijing and Frankfurt, Chen decided the time was right to start applying to law schools in the United States. However, she was asked by the partners of the Frankfurt firm to stay on board for the rest of the year because one of their mid-level associates in their Hong Kong office was leaving the firm. “The year I spent working for Bruckhaus was very valuable and really opened my eyes to what it was like to work as an international associate.”

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Voice of Experience: Kathy Matsui, co-head of Economics, Commodities and Strategy (ECS) Research in Asia, chief Japan equity strategist, Goldman Sachs Japan

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Kathy_Matsui_GSWelcome to The Glass Hammer’s Spotlight on Asia Week. We’ll be featuring profiles of successful business women working in Asia all week long!

Although she was born and raised in the United States, Kathy Matsui became interested in living and working in Japan while she was there as a Rotary Scholar after finishing college. When Matsui returned to the US to attend graduate school in Washington D.C., she decided to focus on Japan Studies in order to expand her knowledge of the Japanese economy.

During graduate school, Matsui had the opportunity to return to Japan as an intern at a large Japanese bank. She recalled, “It was a tremendously eye-opening experience to work in a Japanese institution and I gained an interesting perspective on what it was like to work in a domestic organization.” Matsui continued, “After this experience, I decided that I did not want to work for a traditional Japanese company, mainly because I was concerned about how long it would take me to get to the level I knew I wanted to be at.”

Career Path

After graduate school, Matsui relocated to Japan and began looking for a job in an organization where she would be evaluated based on her performance. “I started in Japan’s financial industry in 1989 at the peak of the asset bubble and I was fortunate to have received several job offers,” said Matsui. “I accepted a job in the research department at Barclays de Zoete Wedd Securities where I was one half of a two person team,” she added.

Matsui has always worked in research and has always been based in Tokyo, which makes her career path unique compared to many other senior people in the financial industry who often work in different business divisions and different markets. “I love doing research,” said Matsui, “And this is where I enjoy working the most.”

In 1999, Matsui authored a landmark research study around the theme of “Womenomics” in Japan that had a major impact on her career and the Japanese business culture. In her research, Matsui outlined ways in which the Japanese economy would benefit as a whole by including more females in the labor force. She argued that if Japan could close its gender employment gap, it could boost the level of GDP by as much as 14-15 percent.

She said, “I picked this subject because I thought it would be an interesting topic to write about, and all of a sudden the research took off and I was being invited to speak about the topic frequently both inside and outside the industry.” Matsui continued, “In many ways, coming to Japan as a foreigner allowed me to gain insight into aspects of the economy and culture that I might not have had otherwise.”

According to Matsui, given the severe demographic pressures of a rapidly-aging society, there is a growing emphasis on getting more women to participate in the workforce in Japan. While Matsui still focuses on women’s empowerment through her research, she spends most of her time analyzing the Japanese economy and stock market, as well as helping to manage a macro research team spread across the Asia region.

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