Under New Management- Latino Exec Retrospective
Latino professionals such as Maria Gutierrez are increasingly moving into positions of influence in the nation’s corporate sector
When she began working as lawyer, Maria Gutierrez made a conscious decision to focus on Latin America, particularly her native Mexico. Little did she know then, her interest in faraway places would soon take her in another direction entirely.
Ms. Gutierrez, a vice president and associate general counsel at New York Life Insurance Co., is currently on a rotational assignment with New York Life International in Hong Kong. Before that, she spent a year developing and launching insurance products on behalf of New York Life in India.
MS. Gutierrez has enjoyed success in each of her overseas postings in part, she says, because of her ethnic background. In fact, she believes the latter goes a long way toward explaining her career achievements generally.
“While I would not say that I have received any preferential treatment by virtue of being Latina, I believe that whatever success I have had is attributable in part to the traditional values I consider part of my Latina heritage – values such as hard work, loyalty, and integrity,” says Ms. Gutierrez, who relocated to Hong Kong in February.
“In addition, I think that growing up Latina in the U.S. has given me a heightened sensitivity to and an appreciation of the differences among various cultural perspectives, which have proven valuable in international business.”
Ms. Gutierrez is emblematic of Hispanics’ growing profile in the higher echelons of Corporate America. While Business Week reported last year that just 15 percent of U.S. Hispanics hold managerial or professional jobs, there is evidence to suggest that figure may be misleading.
As the outreach efforts highlighted in this year’s Corporate Diversity Honor Roll make clear, companies have grown increasingly covetous of minorities, including Hispanics, for specialized professional positions. Many firms in fact now have elaborate programs that go well beyond traditional recruitment initiatives. At New York Life, for instance, officers in each business unit actively monitor progress toward departmental diversity goals. The company also has a diversity taskforce that serves the same function company-wide.
Such efforts have helped fuel the growth of organizations such as the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and the Hispanic National Bar Association.
Hispanics Increasingly Visible
Moreover, Hispanics are increasingly visible among Corporate America’s elite. Antonio M. Perez, who became CEO of Eastman Kodak Co. in June, serves as a prominent example. Others include Nike CEO William Pérez and Carlos Gutierrez (no relation to Maria), who before his current tenure as commerce secretary served as CEO of Kellogg Co.
In the case of Ms. Gutierrez, it’s easy to see why she’s a hot commodity. A native of Guadalajara whose family immigrated to Illinois when she was in grade school, Ms. Gutierrez is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Portuguese. She’s also an accomplished attorney. Prior to joining New York Life, she was a partner in the New York office of Baker &McKenzie, where she specialized in international mergers, acquisitions, private equity, joint ventures, and corporate finance transactions.
“New York Life valued what I brought to the table, no question about it. But I also liked what the company had to offer,” she says. “As any good lawyer would do, I researched New York Life before interviewing with the company, and I learned that it had a reputation for seeking input and creative involvement on the part of employees. That appealed to me, and I later experienced it for myself.”
She also lauds New York Life’s “commitment to diversity” and its community involvement and humanitarian goals, and says her rapid rise within the company is attributable in significant part to mentors who have taken an interest in her professional development.
More broadly, Ms. Gutierrez says she owes her success to mentors of another kind.
“I have been blessed to have an incredibly supportive family, particularly my parents, who have always encouraged me” and expected me “to excel at whatever I chose to do,” she says.
Her younger siblings no doubt feel the same way. Her sister is a doctor, and she has a brother who is an architect and another who is an accountant.
College, Law School and Spanish Language
Ms. Gutierrez graduated magna cum laude from Northern Illinois University with degrees in political science and Spanish before attending Northwestern University Law School, where she developed an interest in international law. That and her fondness for Spanish led her to join Baker & McKenzie’s Chicago office in 1990.
There she focused on Latin American corporate and finance transactions and participated in the firm’s Spanish-language legal clinic, advising immigrant women from Mexico and Central America. Ms. Gutierrez went on to spend two years in the firm’s Mexico City office before relocating to its New York operation in 1996.
“Even before I decided what type of law to pursue, I knew that I wanted to use my Spanish-language ability in my practice. As an international corporate lawyer, I have used my Spanish extensively in transactions in Spain and Latin America. And then there was my experience at the Spanish-language legal clinic. When I return to the U.S. after my current assignment, I expect to have other opportunities to contribute to the Hispanic community,” she says.
Joined New Your Life
Ms. Gutierrez joined New York Life in 2001 as assistant general counsel, with responsibility for mergers and acquisitions, subsidiary oversight, and investment transactions. The following year, she was promoted to associate general counsel and her responsibilities were expanded to include corporate governance matters. She was also selected tube a member of the company’s Sarbanes-Oxley working group.
Later that year, she co-led an interdisciplinary team that won an intra-company competition for new business initiatives. In 2003, Ms. Gutierrez was chosen to co-lead the group developing and launching the new products her team had proposed: international micro insurance and credit life for the Indian market. Her experience in New Delhi over much of the subsequent year was featured in the company’s 2004 annual report.
Working Abroad
In her current position, Ms. Gutierrez advises the regional CEO and managers throughout Asia on corporate governance and international compliance matters as well as mergers and acquisitions and private equity transactions. Her job takes her throughout the region, and she occasionally returns to New York. New York Life International also has operations in South Korea, Taiwan, China, Thailand, India, the Philippines, Argentina, and Mexico, and just received a license to operate in Vietnam.
Though she’s been doing international work now for 15 years and is accustomed to adjusting to life overseas, Ms. Gutierrez says she was grateful that the company provided her with a one-day cultural training course soon after she arrived in Hong Kong.
“It was very helpful in that didnt focus on any one country in region but touched on the cultural differences throughout the region, “she says, adding that her assignment in India had entailed more of an adjustment. Even so, Ms. Gutierrez says her bicultural background gives her a decided advantage when doing such work, and in the corporate arena generally. She says that is why companies such as New York Life are increasingly reaching out to people like her and rewarding their hard work.
“This company has been simply wonderful in terms of providing me with opportunities. They demand a lot of me, but they reward my effort, and that’s what makes it fun and exciting,” says Ms. Gutierrez, who despite being based in New York for the past eight years considers Chicago home.
“Forward-looking companies recognize that Latinas and Latinos like me offer a unique set of attributes, which is probably why I’m seeing more of us at the senior level here at New York Life and at other companies. It’s very promising to see people I can follow who have climbed the corporate ladder.”
Editor’s note: This article is a 2005 originally appeared in our sister publication Latin Business magazine.
