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The 2011 LATINA Style 50 Awards Ceremony and Diversity Leaders Conference
By Ada Mariela Ortega and Gloria Romano
 The 2010 highest-ranking Latinas from the top 50 companies for Latinas to work for. |
On Thursday, February 3rd, leaders from around the nation gathered in Washington D.C. for the 13th annual celebration of the LATINA Style 50 Awards Ceremony and for the eighth annual Diversity Leaders Conference at the Washington Marriott Hotel. The LATINA Style 50 Report, which provides Latinas an extensive research tool that addresses their needs and concerns as professional Hispanic women in the workplace, identifies the companies that provide the best career opportunities for Latinas in the United States. Corporations represented at this one-day event have demonstrated their commitment to diversity in the company and continue to create a progressive work environment where Latinas can achieve their true potential.
Commending Latina triumph in the United States, CEO’s and executives of the top selected companies for Latinas to work for were recognized for their commitment to advancing the careers of professional Hispanic women in their respective companies. This year, significant workshops discussing issues relating to Latinas in corporate America were presented. LATINA Style also showcased three informational panels, presented the 2010 LATINA Executives of the Year, the Employee Resource / Business Resource Group selected for 2010, and the highlighted top 50 companies selected for Latinas to work for in 2010.
With the presence of the most accomplished Latinas in corporate America, the Leadership dinner, held on Wednesday, February 2nd, took place at the Washington Marriott hotel. The intimate reception provided a platform for networking and jubilation. Sponsors, speakers, partners and prominent leaders in the Hispanic community gathered prior to the conference to celebrate the career success and leadership of Latinas.
 (L-R) Emilio Egea, Prudential Financial; Marie Quintana, PepsiCo; Patricia Crawford, Wells Fargo; and Major General Bruce A. Casella, Army & Air Force Exchange Service. |
 J.W. “Bill” Marriott, Jr., Chairman and CEO, Marriott International, Inc. and Brenda Durham, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, Marriott International, Inc. |
The next morning, attendees were welcomed with a pleasant breakfast and opening remarks by Robert Bard, president & CEO of LATINA Style Inc. “Thank you so much for being here to celebrate the LATINA Style 50 for 2010, where we recognize companies that have demonstrated a full commitment to be some of the most visionary and leading companies for Latinas to work for in the U.S.,” he said. “For all the Latinas that came from all the different places, thank you for being here.” With delight, the audience welcomed Virginia Gonzales, vice president of Operations, State Farm Insurance Companies, whom provided remarks on behalf of the company as the 2010 Employee Resource Group of the Year. “Our Hero Group is the Hispanic Employee Resource Organization, and it serves as an invaluable resource to State Farm for recruitment and development of our employees,” she stated at the podium. “The people of HERO have helped us achieve a more diverse customer base and employee workforce. We are catalysts. We are turning our company’s desire for internal as well as external diversity into a profitable business reality.”
According to Gonzalez, Employee Resource Groups give a voice to employees and allow the business world to build their cultural fluency. “We engage our business departments to learn about our market,” she said. “Private enterprises have never been more influential than in demonstrating the benefits that are financial, intellectual, as well as spiritual in creating an environment that is not blind to our differences, but embraces and builds on the gifts of every group. That is why Employee Resource Groups and recognition of diverse and inclusive workplaces, such as those we celebrate today, are so important. We are not operating a vacuum. Each of us here is helping corporate America build and understand the Latina market. Thank you, on behalf of HERO for this recognition. We promise to continue to do our best to be worthy of this recognition. Gracias LATINA Style.”
Moving forward, Marie Quintana, senior vice president, Multicultural Sales PepsiCo, Inc., and Chair of the LATINA Style Corporate Advisory Board (LSCAB) proceeded with informing the attendees the importance of the corporate advisory board. “As we look at the corporate advisory board, it is going to be one of the most effective and influential corporate entity for the advancement of Latinas in the country,” she states. “In conjunction with LATINA Style and our non-profit organizations, we are coming together to do research that I think will be one of a kind in the country. It is the research to assess corporate professional Latinas. What is the state of the professional Latina today? What are the gaps? And how can we then take this research and help companies and Latinas at all levels to enable advancement in their careers. It is a very exciting opportunity, and I am so honored to serve as the chair of the board with some of the most outstanding women and men in corporations and non-profits today.”
 LATINA Executives of the Year 2010: Dagmar Rosa-Bjorkesen, Novartis; Gisel Ruiz, Walmart; and Virginia Gonzales, State Farm. |
 (L-R) Jessica Negron, Citi; Roxzana Kelly, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Marlene Quijano, Kraft Foods; Alma Lorena Anguiano, McDonald’s USA, LLC; and Virginia Gonzales, State Farm. |
 (L-R) Barbara Puig Cook, State Farm; Marlene Quijano, Kraft Foods; Alma Lorena Anguiano, McDonald’s USA, LLC; Jessica Negron, Citi; Roxzana Kelly, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. |
 Robert Bard and LS 50 recipient, Maria Elisa Carvajal, Colgate Palmolive. |
 Major General Bruce A. Casella, Army & Air Force Exchange Service. |
 MC Awards Luncheon: Nitza Soledad Pérez, Telemundo. |
Soon after, the Awards ceremony of the companies ranked 26-50 and the 2010 Honorable Mention companies were announced to receive their award on stage.
The first session of the day LATINA Executives of the Year: Nurturing, Developing and Leading focused on the importance of establishing strong mentoring relationships in a career path. The panel was moderated by Gisel Ruiz, executive vice president of people for Walmart U.S. Panelists included: Dagmar Rosa-Bjorkeson, vice president, head of the Multiple Sclerosis Business Unit at Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation (NPC); Virginia Gonzales, vice president of Operations at State Farm Insurance; Susan Santiago, vice president of food and beverage – North America operations for Hyatt Hotels & Resorts; and Mina Pacheco Nazemi, director, Credit Suisse Customized Fund Investment Group (CFIG). The common idea among all presenters was the importance of building strong mentoring relationships at their respective companies. Accordingly, they have also identified mentorship relationships as a key component of an employee’s successful development in the workplace.
The second session entitled Empowering the Employee Resource Groups / Business Resource Groups, provided insights on ways Employee Resource and Business Resource Groups support and develop Hispanic talent. The moderator was Virginia Gonzales. The panelists included Marlene Quijano, senior director, R&D Kraft Foods North America; Alma Lorena Anguiano, director of Human Resources for McDonald’s USA; Jessica Negron, assistant vice president at Citi; Roxzana Y. Kelly, MS, Clinical Trial Head-Cardiovascular & Metabolism Franchise Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.
“McDonald’s believes mentoring is huge in terms of helping Latinos advance in our company,” stated Anguiano when asked about ways the Hispanic Business Network support the development of Latino talent. “Our executive sponsorship, inclusion and diversity team does a very good job of insuring that we are constantly looking at our Latino talent. From a network standpoint, we are constantly getting together and looking for ways how to educate our employees from all levels of restaurant positions, whether it be the cashier or the person sitting in marketing.”
Other companies such as Citi, indicated ways their company network increases the representation of women and Hispanics in senior levels. “Citi is committed to fostering diversity in the workplace, including among other things, the representation of minority candidates and women at senior positions around the company,” said Negron. “The Citi Hispanic Network partners with Citi’s head recruiters, student organizations, and also non-profit organizations such as Management Leadership for Tomorrow and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, and we create events together to help identify key candidates that we can bring to Citi.”
 Yesenia Barahona and Gloribel Rivera, SPRINT. |
 Parents Step Ahead (PSA) 1st Annual Legislative Visit to Washington: (L-R) Lupita Colmenero, Founder & Chair PSA; Penan Stewart, PSA Teacher Ambassador (Urban Park Elementary, Dallas TX); Michelle Hornbuckle, PSA Teacher Ambassador (Jack Singley Academy, Irving TX); San Juanita Nekunazarazad, PSA Teacher Ambassador (Daugherty Elementary, Garland TX), and Tanya Jones, PSA Teacher Ambassador (Thomas Haley Elementary, Irving TX). |
 Steve Jett, National Marketing Communications Manager Lexus Division, Toyota Motor Sales. |
 Novartis Hispanic Leadership Network (HLN) representatives receive their award as one of the top ERGs of the year among LS 50 companies. |
 Leadership dinner co-sponsor: Annette Martinez, IBM. |
 J. W. “Bill” Marriott, Jr., Chairman and CEO, Marriott International, Inc. |
Moreover, Kelly discussed the challenges employee resource groups may face. “A very important challenge that ERG’s face, in particular with the Hispanic Leadership Network is membership engagement and participation,” she explained. “HLN has tried to address this in such a way that we not only allow for different times of days, but we present different events.”
The third and final session of the day, Diversity Roundtable: Diversity as a Business Imperative was presented by Marie Quintana, PepsiCo. Panelists included, Major General Bruce A. Casella, AAFES; Pat Crawford, senior vice president and head of Enterprise Diversity and Inclusion, Wells Fargo; and Emilio Ejea, vice president, Chief Diversity Officer of Human Resources at Prudential.
“It is an honor for me to be here today as the commanding general and the chief executive officer of the Army Air Force Exchange Service,” Major General Casellas stated. “Today we do business with 98 Hispanic-American Organizations. This represents about $17 million in retail and non-retail business. Mostly with companies that have less than 500 employees or associates that work for them. We are trying to bring those businesses up and be part of our organization.”
Crawford addressed ways Wells Fargo maintains partnership with their employee resource groups. “Our approach is that our team members are our greatest ambassadors,” she stated. “We cannot do it without them. Not only internally with the work that they do every day, but externally as well because they are the faces of our community.”
 Patricia Andrade-Gordon, Johnson & Johnson. |
 Leadership dinner co-sponsor: Madeleine Gray, US AIRWAYS. |
 2010 Latina Executive of the Year, Gisel Ruiz, Executive Vice President, People, Walmart U.S. |
 Selina Urbina & Renee Alexander Sherrod, TIAA-CREF. |
 Jon Muñoz, Sprint Nextel Corp., and Patricia Crawford, Wells Fargo. |
 Dineen Garcia, MACY’s |
 Robert Bard, Lissette Friere and Ipyana Spencer, UnitedHealthcare. |
 Monica L. Villalta and Terhilda Garrido, Kaiser Permanente. |
According to Crawford, commitment has to be from the managers when it comes to achieving diversity in the company. “We have to do a better job at hiring diversity in the senior ranks. Both team members and costumers look up when they look to companies. The reason why they do that is that if they see someone that looks like them, they feel that the products and services that are being delivered reflect their needs. Team members are very key on this because that also gives them inspirational ideas of ‘what can I do?’” she stated. “The challenge is building that bench-stretch. Wells Fargo’s philosophy has been ‘growth from within.’ But we understand that if we just follow the same course, we won’t make the progress that we need. I have this philosophy of interrupting the status quo: you have to do things differently. Sometimes that’s not comfortable, because it walks outside of your normal process. But it is something that you have to do. The pipeline issue is something has to be worked on in many ways, just not one way.”
Since driving diversity is imperative for companies, Ejea stated there are three business structures at the company that are relative to diversity: the marketplace, talent, and organization. “We work three things, the head, the hand, and the heart,” he stated.
Similar to other companies, Prudential also faces challenges when it comes to achieving diversity. Like many, they want good employees, good customers, but some of the barriers are the lack of diverse leaders in the senior positions. “We have to take our senior leaders and take them out of their comfort zones and put them in situations where they are in the ‘minority’,” stated Ejea. “We work with them to surround themselves with people who are different and have a different kind of perspective, so they can get better insight and go back to building authentic relationships with people who are different. And that’s where the real breakthrough occurs.”
The LATINA Style Awards Ceremony luncheon proceeded with welcoming remarks by mistress of ceremonies, Nitza Soledad Pérez, Anchor, of Telemundo. The afternoon followed by remarks given by Robert Bard, who announced the 2010 Latina Executive of the Year, Gisel Ruiz, executive vice president, People, WalMart U.S., to the podium. “I’m very humbled by the recognition from LATINA Style. I will never forget how you make me feel with this great honor,” she said. “I stand before you with so many talented, smart, compassionate, beautiful, powerful Latinas from all across this beautiful country of ours. Their achievements are both amazing in their personal and professional lives and I’m honor to be here included in the company of each and every one of you I have received so much, including today’s recognition.”
To culminate the event attendees made their way to the Grand Ballroom for the Awards Ceremony Luncheon, where LATINA Style congratulated the 2010 Company of the Year, Marriott International, Inc. Based in Bethesda, Maryland, Marriott International, Inc., is one of America’s premiere operators of hotels and lodging facilities. Founded in 1927, the company has 18 brands that offer various types of lodging options to a range of customer segments. Marriott currently welcomes guests at more than 3,400 properties in nearly 70 countries and territories.
Keynote Introduction was presented by Brenda Durham, vice president and assistant general Counsel, Marriott International. “Marriott has a long history of being a welcoming and progressive company and it is proud of its diverse associates,” she stated with pride as she gladly introduced J.W. “Bill” Marriott, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Marriott International, Inc., to the podium. “My great thanks to LATINA Style for recognizing Marriott International as the 2010 company of the year,” stated Marriott Jr. “I’m delighted to be here to accept this honor on behalf of the million wonderful Latina associates. I am also pleased that some of our Latina associates are here to join us today. As we continue to grow as a company, our people are the cornerstone for the success that we have. The more that we can create a climate, where they feel respected, empowered, and stronger, the more successful we become, that’s why our culture of opportunity is such a core value at Marriott and always will be. Again, thank you very much for this wonderful recognition and thank you for being such great citizens of your country and our country.”
 Theresa Barrera and Carla Dodds, Walmart. |
 LATINA Style Gift Bag |
 Eileen Miller, Citi and Stacy Sharpe, Allstate. |
 Yamila Frias, Prudential Financial. |
 Stacy Guevara, WellPoint. |
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