These Latinas are in good company, too. According to New York-based research group Catalyst, companies with a higher number of women in senior management positions do better financially than companies with fewer women at the top.

Maria Gutierrez has firsthand experience in a solid Fortune 100 environment. As associate general counsel for New York Life, she works for the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States.

“When I interviewed for the position, I was very impressed by the people I met, particularly women in senior management positions,” she says. “It was clear to me that this was a company where women could rise — and in fact had risen — within the corporate ranks.”

Gutierrez is certainly one of those risers. She got her start at an established law firm in Chicago, where some of her pro-bono work included providing legal advocacy for immigrant women from Mexico and Central America. She eventually became a partner and parlayed that experience into a position with New York Life in 2001. A year later she was promoted to her current position, and her responsibilities were expanded to include corporate governance matters.

That has definitely been the case over the last 15 months, as she has spent the bulk of her time in Delhi, India designing and launching insurance products – including one aimed primarily at providing insurance benefits to poor women working as handicraft street vendors and in other informal sectors of the economy. Her next rotation within New York Life will be in its international subsidiary, where she’ll be responsible for all legal and compliance matters in the Asia region.

Cultural nuances are right up Alma Bañuelos’ alley, too. Vice president and regional trust manager for Wells Fargo’s Private Client Services, she’s proof positive that well-rounded women make well-rounded execs. “As women, we have a tendency to nurture all relationships,” she says. “Given the career I chose in trust and estate planning, which deals with family succession, family dynamics and family discord, it was a natural fit. Not to mention that growing up with two brothers gave me the added skill of mediator and referee.”

Bañuelos’ draws on her Latino heritage, too, in her work. “Being a Latina who was raised in the culture enables me to assist our Latino clients structure and plan this in line with those nuances.” she says. “This becomes ever important as we see the Latino population increase its wealth and increase its influence in the U.S. economy.”

Kristine Gagliardi is another Latina with a lot of responsibilities on her plate. As general manager of the San Francisco Marriott hotel, she’s currently the only woman at Marriott International managing a 1500-room property. That means she’s responsible for everything from the strategic and daily management of the hotel to generating revenue, carrying out hotel and corporate policy and juggling community affairs with associate and management relations.

Alma Bañuelos Vice President and Regional Trust Manager, Private Client Services Wells Fargo

Prior to her position as general manager, Gagliardi was the hotel manager in charge of running the $125 million hotel with a staff of over 1,300 associates. Her experience helped propel her to be named one of the 100 Most Influential Women in the Bay Area for two consecutive years by the San Francisco Business Times, and is a good indication of her involvement in the world outside her office. The Los Angeles native still finds time to mentor associates and participate in the greater San Francisco community, serving as a board member for the San Francisco Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Yerba Buena Alliance, Yerba Buena Arts & Events and the San Francisco Hotel Council. Such personal dedication is extraordinary but somewhat par for the course for a number of female executives. Magda Yrizarry, vice president of workplace culture, diversity and compliance at Verizon, is equally active inside and outside the office. “For me as a Latina, I believe I bring to Verizon a strong sense of community, of understanding individuality,” she says.

That’s because Yrizarry isn’t just responsible for wrangling the communication giant’s human resource issues as they relate to diversity and ethics —she’s also a vibrant member of the world at large.

A few positions prior to her current assignment, Yrizarry worked for Verizon’s philanthropic arm. She was responsible for managing the organization’s $75 million budget and overseeing a portfolio that included economic development projects, diversity initiatives and scholarship programs. A founding member of 100 Hispanic Women, Yrizarry is currently chairperson of ASPIRA of New York and Executive Board member of the ASPIRA Association. ASPIRA is the only national nonprofit organization dedicated solely to the education and leadership development of Puerto Rican and other Latino youth, and it’s fitting that Yrizarry should dedicate so much of her time there — after all, the group takes its name from the Spanish verb “aspire.”

As Yrizarry says, “Having that opportunity to serve the community is the greatest measure of success.”

Beatriz Perez, vice president of sports and entertainment marketing for the North American Division of The Coca-Cola Company, is another Latina with one foot in the philanthropic world and another in the corporate one. The University of Maryland graduate sits on a number of boards, including those of the Girls Outdoor Adventure for Leadership organization, the Victory Junction Gang Camps founded by Kyle and Pattie Petty, and the Camp Coca-Cola Board of Trustees. That’s in addition to her impressive job duties at the world’s largest soft drink company.

Perez oversees and develops national sports and entertainment partnerships with CAA, Premiere Entertainment, NASCAR, NHRA, NCAA, NHL and the NBA. As if dealing with a half-dozen different sports and media outlets wasn’t enough, she also works with athletes LeBron James and Lance Armstrong, and handles Coca-Cola’s partnerships in film, music, TV, product placement and sports. Her reputation as an influential corporate force is legendary, leading to her having been named one of Sports Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” for three years in a row.

Spirit’s parent company Sodexho is North America’s leading food and facilities management services provider, and its outsourcing solutions are almost as varied as Bracero’s own duties. Originally hired more than a decade ago as an hourly front line employee in the data entry department, she now oversees two departments and juggles an impressive number of duties. Her responsibilities include accounting and finance, payroll, administration, office management, information technology, marketing, advertising, customer service and recruitment for a burgeoning company dedicated to developing several different brands of cruises throughout the Eastern seaboard.

Bracero gauges how far she has come in a telling way. “Like the old-school Latina in me,” she says, “I measure success by going to my parents and reporting to them how I did at work. I know I have done well when my parents say, ‘Pues, mija, eso es lo que tienes que hacer siempre’ [Well, honey, that’s how you always have to do things]. In other words, they would expect nothing less.”

Nothing more and nothing less than a great success, each one of these women is brilliant in her own way. Whether through hard work, sheer dedication, community involvement or some measure of the three, they have proven themselves again and again as true corporate stars.