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LS 50, 10th Year
Anniversary
LATINA Style 50 Awards Ceremony
and Diversity Leaders Conference
It has been a decade since
LATINA Style made history by
launching the most respected
evaluation of corporate
America’s best practices and
polices as they pertain to the
professional Hispanic Women, the
LATINA Style 50 Report. On
February 7, LATINA Style
celebrated the 10th year
anniversary of the LATINA Style
50 Awards ceremony and fifth
annual Diversity Leaders
Conference at the Renaissance
Hotel in the nations’ Capital.
Since it’s inception in 1998,
the number of companies applying
have tripled and today it sets
the standards by realizing the
goal of its founder, Anna Maria
Arias, by providing Latinas an
extensive research tool that
would address their needs and
concerns as professional
Hispanic women in the workplace.
Attendees were offered career
advice, a wide range of
workshops and following the
conference, award recipients
were directed to an exclusive
White House reception where
remarks were given by Sara
Martinez Tucker, under secretary
of Education and Jovita
Carranza, deputy administrator
of the U.S. Small Business
Administration, Josefina G.
Carbonell, assistant secretary
for Aging at the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services (HS)
and Ivette Fernandez, associate
director for the Office of
Public Liaison, at the White
House.
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State
Farm,
Christina
Sandoval;
Ruth
Sandoval,
BusinessconX;
Michelle
Jordan;
Marie
Quintana;
David
Gonzales,
PepsiCo;
Chris
Parsell,
State
Farm;
Ernest
McFadden,
PepsiCo;
Art
Ruiz,
State
Farm |
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With
elation, on the evening prior to
the event, LATINA Style
kicked off with an elite Latina
Leadership dinner at one of
D.C.’s favorite restaurants,
Oyamel. With laughter and
jubilation White House
executives, members of Congress,
CEO’s and executives of the top
selected companies for Latinas
to work for enjoyed a delicious
Mexican-style cuisine.
The
following day initiated with
breakfast and welcoming remarks
by Belinda Garza, manager of
Federal Government Relations at
Wal-Mart. “I’d like to thank
LATINA Style for naming
us again one of the top 50
companies for Latinas to work
for,” she said. “As a top
company being recognized today
we will continue to make
improvements and strive to
always be an employer of choice
for Latinas.” |
Wal-Mart
and P&G have distinguished
themselves by having Latina
executives responsible for not
only million dollar budgets but
billion dollar budgets.
Everyone
gathered to celebrate a common
purpose, “To better serve
Latinas not only in our
companies but within our nation,”
said Scott Stewart, director of
Multicultural External Relations
at Procter & Gamble. “LATINA
Style comes to represent for
us a major point of connection
with our Latinas. As you learn
through today and as you look at
what the plans for 2008 will be,
think about the importance of it
not only as a magazine but an
organization that can play a
significant role in advancing
your agenda. We are grateful to
LATINA Style for making
the 50 what it is today and we
could not be happier to help
celebrate 10 years.”
Rep. Joe Baca, chairman of the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus
Institute provided opening
remarks during the breakfast.
“It’s an honor to be with such
distinguished individuals, such
as you Latinas,” he said with
enthusiasm. “You are a future in
terms of role models for many
other individuals; you are an
inspiration for many others.” As
he spoke, he reassured that the
future of corporate America were
among those sitting in the room,
stating the importance of
opening doors for Latinos and
Latinas in the U.S. “I am going
to work hard to make sure that
we promote more Latinos and
Latinas in that structure, to
make sure that when we look at
corporate America, that
corporate America looks like we
do.”
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Scott
Stewart,
P&G;
Lourdes
Ribera,
P&G;
Roger
Guzman,
Wal-Mart |
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Congressman
Joe
Baca
(D-CA) |
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The doors
are open for women to achieve,
and many attendees learned the
“How to” by attending the
several sessions given
throughout the day. The first
session of the day “Nurturing
Excellence: Developing Latina
Executive Talent,” was moderated
by Marie Quintana, vice
president of Multicultural Sales
at PepsiCo, panelist included
Elizabeth Custodio, first vice
president, Regional Mortgage
Community Development at HSBC;
Patricia Perez-Ayala, vice
president and general manager,
N.A.
Feminine
Care, Brand Franchise manager
for Procter & Gamble; Mariana
Brugger, Human Resources vice
president for the Northeast
Division at Wal-Mart and Raquel
Valerio-Struck, director in the
Financial Accounting Group at
Credit Suisse.
Each of these Latinas shared
their journey to success, their
commonalities, what works, what
doesn’t work, how can Latinas
move forward and help other
Latinas as well. “Networking is
important,” said Valerio-Struck
as she moved forward talking
about the importance of
mentorship. “My greatest mentor
and my greatest inspiration has
been my mother, especially with
her drive, dedication, and the
pursuit of always wanting to do
your best while still being
yourself.”
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According
to Perez-Ayala, it is important
to acknowledge the negative but
to focus on the positive at the
workplace. Because of this, she
sets on two principles: passion
and motivation to keep moving
forward. “Passion is what makes
me love what I do,” she said. “I
love the work that I do, I love
the people that I work with, I
love the company that I work for
and that is what keeps me going
that’s what gets me up everyday
and that’s what makes me do
things.”
“Ten years
ago we had to explain why
diversity is important,” said
Patt Romero Cronin, IBM general
manager of Integrated Technology
Delivery for IBM, as she
moderated the second session,
“The LATINA Style 50
Companies: A 10 Year
Retrospective.” Panelists
included, Elizabeth Nieto,
Global Talent and Diversity
director for Citi; Annette
Martinez, Operations executive
assistant for State Farm; and
Maria J. Trafton, senior vice
president, Wealth Management,
Private Banking director at
Wachovia.
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David
Gonzales;
Marie
Quintana;
Congressman
Joe
Baca;
Ernest
McFadden;
Congresswoman
Grace
Napolitano;
Robert
Bard,
LATINA
Style;
Michelle
Jordan;
PepsiCo |
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“We at IBM
have an education,” said Romero
Cronin, “Each employee, all of
us have to do diversity training
over the year. Every manager
gets evaluated on how they are
helping and developing as they
move forward, and we’ve
established many different
programs within the company to
help diversity.”
Each
company recognized the efforts
they put into promoting
diversity and inclusion in the
workplace, how committed they
are to the needs and concerns of
Latinas. “We have an employee
resource network,” said Trafton.
“It allows our employees to get
to know each other, to share
best practices, to be able to
share informal as well as formal
mentorship and also speak about
obstacles.”
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Marie
Quintana,
PepsiCo;
Raquel
Valerio-Struck,
Credit
Suisse;
Mariana
Brugger,
Wal-Mart;
Elizabeth
Custodio,
HSBC;
Patricia
Perez-Ayala,
P&G |
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Anna
Owens,
U.S.
Census
Bureau |
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