Laurene Gandolfo
Senior Vice President, Home Private Brands
Macy’s, Inc.
Diversity is a business imperative for Macy’s, Inc. Their commitment to diversity involves all areas of business whether in advertising, consumer relations or training. Working also with a diverse set of vendors ensures distinctive merchandise development and deep connections in communities through contributions, sponsorships and volunteerism.
To insure that the pool of potential recruits include Hispanics, Macy’s recruitment efforts include the Hispanic Scholarship Foundation which serves institutions as part of their mission to provide careers to qualified Hispanics. Macy’s employees stand committed to support a diverse and inclusive environment. Through programs such as Diversity Education, Diversity Awareness and Diversity Leadership, the message is active at all levels throughout the company. It is greatly encouraged from executives, associates, vendors and customers.
Macy’s successfully continues to incorporate a diverse workforce in all programs and avenues. Macy’s workforce reflects its diversity commitment; women represent 76 percent of their workforce and 65 percent of management. Hispanic women roles include regional vice president and store managers. LATINA Style applauds Macy’s for not only recognizing the value of diversity but also recognizing the value of Latinas in the workplace.
Laurene Gandolfo, senior vice president of Macy’s Merchandising Group, has lived the American dream. A daughter of Cuban immigrants, Gandolfo graduated from Brandeis University and pursued a MBA from New York University. Soon after, Macy’s offered Gandolfo a job as a senior assistant buyer for Men’s designs. She continues to thrive at Macy’s where she is a buyer for Men’s, Intimate Apparel Hosiery and Socks, Food, Candy and Christmas merchandise and vice president of Home Textiles.
Johnson & Johnson
Differences help connect Johnson & Johnson with the health needs of people in communities around the world. Attracting, developing, and retaining a base of employees that reflects the diversity of customers is essential to success. Success hinges on relationships with diverse professional and patient organizations, civic groups, and suppliers.
Johnson & Johnson champion’s diversity by offering resources that increase awareness and appreciation of how diversity helps maximize the effectiveness of the products and services it provides. As they move closer to achieving the vision, Johnson & Johnson helps establish important insights that drive innovation for the benefit of customers, employees, and communities.
Johnson & Johnson partners with Hispanic Organization for Leadership and Achievement (HOLA) to gain access to qualified and talented Hispanics, the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting (ALPFA), and the National Society of Hispanic MBAs, (NSHMBA).
Denice Torres is the vice president of U.S. Sales and Marketing for Johnson & Johnson Wound Management, a division of Ethicon, Inc. She has held various leadership roles in the past. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson in 2005 she was the vice president of Marketing for Ortho-McNeil Neurologics.
Throughout her career, Torres has been recognized for achieving exceptional business results. She credits this to her focus on developing an inspirational vision, fostering high performance teams, and identifying innovative solutions to meet customer needs.
Torres holds a M.B.A. from the University of Michigan, a J.D. from Indiana University School of Law and a B.S. in Psychology from Ball State University.
LATINA Style congratulates Johnson & Johnson for its innovative vision to become all inclusive to its customers and clients alike.
Denice Torres
Vice-President of U.S. Sales and Marketing for Johnson & Johnson Wound Management, a divison of Ethicon, Inc.
Tammy Tucker
Vice President, Account Management, California Large Group
WellPoint, Inc.
Diversity is at the forefront of WellPoint’s business model. WellPoint recognizes the unique approach on being able to reach everyone by addressing the community’s needs and concerns. It has demonstrated its commitment to diversity in the workforce and workplace, which translates to the marketplace. Diversity is a concept that is incorporated into every aspect of business. It’s also a guiding principle in the relationship WellPoint establishes between associates, partners and consumers in order to better serve their clients. The result is ultimately a better understanding of the challenges people encounter in day-to-day life, and to have a greater ability to improve health care and quality of life.
WellPoint strives to attract associates from many walks of life, diverse backgrounds, experiences, and extraordinary dedication to fulfill WellPoint’s mission: to improve the lives of the people we serve and the health of our communities.
At the core of WellPoint’s unique diversity initiative is diversity training and education programs. KnowledgeStart, an online diversity toolkit, provides practical tools on how to create dialogue about and effectively manage diversity-related situations.
Tammy Truxillo Tucker has been in the health insurance industry for over 25 years. As vice president of account management for WellPoint’s California plan, she oversees 4,700 commercial clients, with an estimated $4 billion in revenue. She has developed an account management strategy to ensure WellPoint’s growth which aides to a more diverse client base.
LATINA Style congratulates WellPoint for striving for total inclusion of all its clients it serves. Not only will it benefit WellPoint but also the community who looks to WellPoint in its desire for quality health care.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. believes business wins when everyone matters and the true strength of diversity is unleashed when each associate is encouraged to reach their full potential. Diversity then becomes the foundation for an inclusive, sustainable business that embraces and respects differences, develops associates, serves customers and partners with communities. Wal-Mart strives to make diversity a part of their business plan, ensuring to be a global leader in all aspects of diversity and inclusion. Through the Hispanic/Latino Associate Resource Group, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is able to support the promotion of Hispanic/Latino culture and values for the mutual benefit of the company and communities it serves.
Their commitment to diversity and inclusion helps serve Wal-Mart customers better, more than 176 million every week and it helps provide a positive work environment for associates, more than 2.1 million worldwide.
Gisel Ruiz is proud of her 17 years with Wal-Mart. In 2006, Ruiz was promoted to vice president, regional general manager, responsible for 150 Wal-Mart stores located in the Western Texas and New Mexico region. She was named senior vice president of people for Wal-Mart Stores in October 2008 where she leads HR organizations for over 3,800 stores across the Unites States.
Ruiz has been recognized for her ability to lead and teach associates, by mentoring and helping them to develop their careers as Wal-Mart associates. In 2008, she was recognized as one of the Top 25 Powerful Minority Women in Business by the Minority Enterprise Executive Council. Most recently, Wal-Mart announced the appointment of L. Mecole “Cole” Brown to Chief Diversity Officer. She will be responsible for the oversight and coordination of the diversity strategy for Wal-Mart’s U.S. business. It is with great honor to recognize Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. as one of LATINA Style’s top 50 companies for Latinas to work for.
Gisel Ruiz
Senior Vice President of People
Natalia Maria Ruderman
CFO and Vice President, Finance & Planning
IBM Corporation
IBM is a true leader incorporating diversity into their every day operations. As their demographics changed, IBM has adapted the workplace to be more flexible and began to focus on work-life integration. Over the past 5 years, IBM has introduced many core values, which helps implement diversity in the workplace. IBM’s focus on advancement of Hispanic women ensures that all employees have an opportunity to develop into successful leaders.
IBM recruits Hispanic women via career fairs and professional associations such as the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), National Society of Hispanic MBA’s (NSHMBA), Society of Mexican American Scientists (MAES); to name a few.
IBM strives to increase visibility and recognition of Latinas to serve as role models which ultimately supports initiatives aimed at Hispanic women. LATINA Style congratulates IBM on its efforts to boldly promote Hispanic women at all levels of IBM.
IBM America’s CFO and vice president of finance planning, Natalia Maria Ruderman, has more than 20 years of experience within IBM’s finance operations. She has lead worldwide financial consolidation efforts for the integrated supply chain organization responsible for IBM’s nearly $6 billion worldwide cost reduction activities and for the financial metrics of the unit’s $3 billion plan.
Ruderman was born and raised in Venezuela moving on to Portugal and then New York. She has also lived in Paris, Mexico, and Beijing and speaks Spanish, Portuguese, French, English and a little Chinese. She is a past member of the Financial Women’s Association and a member of the High School Mentoring committee and has been active in local mentoring groups.
McDonald’s Corporation
Diversity is an essential part of McDonald’s business strategy to communicate to its employers the diverse nature in which McDonalds aims to be. Diversity practices are implemented on a global level by choosing suppliers that represent the communities it serves.
McDonald’s Hispanic franchisees and employees continue to participate in leadership programs to better understand and serve the Hispanic consumer market. As a result, they developed the Hispanic Business Vision which is designed to make the brand more appealing and inviting to McDonald’s Hispanic employees, franchisees, suppliers and customers.
Seminars were one of the first diversity initiatives undertaken by McDonald’s, by employee networks in the mid ’70s. Today, they include the National Hispanic Employee Network, McDonald’s Hispanic Owner/Operators Association, Hispanic Leadership Council, Hispanic Steering Committee and the National McDonald’s Diversity Advisory Council, among others.
As executive vice president of McDonald’s, Gloria Santona leads McDonald’s worldwide legal, compliance, regulatory and corporate governance functions. As part of McDonald’s senior leadership team, Santona is also actively involved in the company’s strategic direction and growth. Santona has fostered the legal department’s diversity efforts and on-going engagement in pro-bono legal services, which have garnered the McDonald’s Legal Department awards in recognition of the legal and educational services it has provided to underserved communities.
Santona serves on the Boards of the Association of Corporate Counsel and the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago. She has received numerous awards, earning the Women with Vision Award from the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois.
Gloria Santona
Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
2009 Honorable Mention Companies
Every year, LATINA Style takes pride in recognizing companies that have a continuous commitment to diversity. These companies made it to the Honorable Mention list which recognizes their company for the commitment in recruiting, investing and contribution in including Latinas to their enterprise.
Burger King Corporation
Inclusion and diversity are at the forefront of Burger King Corp. Its inclusion efforts are measured by its workforce, community, guests and suppliers. Burger King also supports the initiatives of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR), League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), National Council of La Raza (NCLR), and the Hispanic Heritage Council.
Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc.
Dedicated in its commitment to creating and sustaining a work environment that is inclusive and respectful of all its employees, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., is committed to ensure diversity is respected and valued. In order to further the inclusion and advancement of women in the workplace, an internal focus group for women in non-traditional careers was formed and in 2008 they set records for hiring, promotions and women in upper management positions across the country.
General Motors Company
Diversity is one of GM’s strengths. Through the General Motors Hispanic Initiative team, GM is able to effectively maximize Hispanic opportunities to support diversity initiatives, support sales within the Hispanic community, and to support development of Hispanic talent. The HIT is one of 10 GM Affinity Groups, which are a formal link between diverse employee groups, GM Human Resources and diversity and senior management.
Ryder System, Inc.
As a leader in transportation services and supply chain solutions, Ryder System, Inc., is committed to programs that promote equal opportunity for employees. Diversity is a key to their success in the global marketplace, and it is incorporated through participation at the National Hispanic MBA conference, by hosting internal diversity networking events and through Ryder’s Small Business & Supplier Diversity Program.
Union Pacific Railroad Company
A leader in the railroad industry, Union Pacific Railroad prides itself in being a ‘family-friendly employer. Its benefit programs, resources for assistance, and health packages, attest to their commitment as an employer-of-choice for women. Through the Latino Employee Network, Union Pacific Railroad supports recruiting efforts, develops and retains talented Hispanic employees in its workforce.
