Vice President, Engineering & Property Services

Jacqueline Maestri is the Vice President, Engineering and Property Services at Johnson & Johnson. She is responsible for providing strategic direction across Johnson & Johnson’s 1000+ properties worldwide, including global real estate administration, capital construction project management, engineering and design standardization, crisis response coordination, and facilities operations. Maestri took on this role in the summer of 2016 and is honored to be the first woman to lead WW Engineering for J&J. In this role, she and the team are driving facilities transformation across the J&J enterprise, harmonizing services and amenities, enabling business growth, and implementing forward-thinking workplace innovation that optimizes the employee experience, including activity-based neighborhoods, healthy lifestyle amenities and collaborative technology. She is also a member of the Johnson & Johnson Supply Chain Leadership Team.

Prior to this role, Maestri was the Vice President, Quality Systems and Services, at Johnson & Johnson.

Maestri has over 30 years of experience in the medical device & life science industry spanning roles in R&D, Operations, Regulatory Affairs, Quality and Compliance across Quality, Safety, Environment, Healthcare Compliance and Privacy domains.

Maestri holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering specializing in Computer Engineering from the University of Miami and a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in International Business from Florida International University. She is a Certified Quality Auditor and ISO Lead Assessor. She is also a graduate of the Johnson & Johnson Executive Quality Leadership Development and Accelerate Enterprise Leadership programs, and participated in the Smith-Tuck Global Leaders Program for Women. Maestri also serves as sponsor for various Women’s Leadership & Inclusion (WLI) chapters, as well as the Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Manufacturing and Design (WiSTEM2D) program.

 

President – AT&T Louisiana

As President of AT&T Louisiana, Sonia Perez is responsible for developing the overall strategic direction of AT&T’s corporate activities in the state. Appointed to her position in 2010, Perez leads AT&T’s state workforce of more than 3,600 employees and 6,200 retirees, oversees AT&T’s operations including its technology deployment and infrastructure investment in the state, and directs teams responsible for implementing public policy, legislative, regulatory and philanthropic initiatives.

She is the first woman to serve as President-AT&T Louisiana. Perez currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of Xavier University of Louisiana and also holds positions as Chair of Louisiana’s business roundtable, The Committee of 100 and as Chair-elect of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry. Additionally, she has had the distinction of being appointed by Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards as Chair of his Economic Development Transition Team and to the Workforce Investment Council.

Perez has received numerous distinctions and awards: 2015 Weiss Award from the New Orleans Council for Community and Justice, among others. New Orleans City Business Magazine has also named her to its Women of the Year list.

She holds a Bachelor of Journalism Degree with Honors from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was named a 2017 Distinguished Alumnus. Her hobbies include studying World War II history, and she is proud to serve on the board of the National World War II Museum. Perez and her husband, Javier, are the proud parents of three children.

Vice President, Head of Investments & Pension Solutions

Senior Global Inclusion & Diversity Managing Director

One of FORTUNE and the Association of Latino Professionals for America’s 50 Most Powerful Latinas of 2017 and 2018, a highly respected senior leader with global experience spanning nearly three decades, Nellie Borrero is known for her unwavering passion for inclusion and diversity and sharp focus on equality.

Borrero joined Accenture in 1986 and created the first role for diversity efforts. A deeply committed advocate for change, Borrero believes strongly that Accenture’s rich diversity makes the company stronger and more innovative and is focused on increasing the representation of women and ethnicity in its workforce. In her current role as Senior Global Inclusion & Diversity managing director, Borrero sets the vision and strategy behind the company’s diversity initiatives, working with its most senior leaders.

Outside of Accenture, few are better poised to speak about diversity. She is a sought-after speaker for her inspirational impact, seeking to raise awareness of the development and advancement of women and ethnic minorities in the workplace. Borrero has spoken at prestigious events including The Global Summit of Women in New York and most recently at the SHRM Diversity Conference, LATINA Style Top 50 and others.

Borrero earned a B.A. in Management. She currently serves on the board of Comprehensive Development, Inc. and has received a coaching certification from the Hudson Institute and the International Coaching Federation. Borrero is married with two children – a daughter and son.

Senior Vice President and Regional General Counsel

Brenda Durham, Senior Vice President & Regional General Counsel for Marriott International, Inc., serves as primary legal counsel for Marriott’s hotels and resorts located throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. In this capacity she provides oversight guidance to Marriott’s law department group supporting the region.

Durham joined Marriott in 1999 and is Marriott’s senior ranking Latina. Durham has a comprehensive practice that includes (i) negotiating financial, equity, and management agreement transactions and (ii) hotel owner relationship development and dispute resolution. During 2012 to 2014, Durham supported the integration of AC by Marriott brand in Madrid, Spain.

In January 2016, she was selected as the Caribbean and Latin America business lead for the integration of Starwood-branded hotels in the region, which will substantively conclude with the systems merge at the end of 2018.

Durham is the region’s account executive for a large portfolio owner of mixed-brand hotels. She is one of the region’s executive representatives on the Owner Franchise Advisory Council. In her prior role, Durham served as the primary legal counsel supervising Marriott’s law department group for international global operations providing counsel and oversight to attorneys supporting Asia Pacific, Middle East Africa and the United Kingdom.

Durham is an Ambassador Council member for N Street Village. N Street’s mission is to empower homeless and low-income women in Washington, D.C. to claim their highest quality of life.

President & CEO, JPMorgan Chase Institute

Diana Farrell is the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the JPMorgan Chase Institute. Previously, she was a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company where she was the Global Head of the McKinsey Center for Government and the McKinsey Global Institute.

Farrell served in the White House as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council and Deputy Assistant to the President on Economic Policy for 2009-2010. During her tenure, she led interagency processes and stakeholder management on a broad portfolio of economic and legislative initiatives. Farrell coordinated policy development and stakeholder engagement for innovation and competition strategies broadly, and led financial policy initiatives including the passage of major legislation. She also served as a member of the President’s Auto Recovery Task Force.

Farrell currently serves on the Board of Directors for eBay, The Urban Institute, and Washington International School. In addition, she is a Trustee Emeritus of Wesleyan University, a Trustee of the Trilateral Commission, and served as a Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Council on Economic Progress. Farrell is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Economic Club of New York, Bretton Woods Committee, and Aspen Strategy Group. Farrell holds a M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and has a B.A. from Wesleyan University from where she was awarded a Distinguished Alumna award.

Vice President Third Party Distribution Client Services Operations

Vice President, Legal, Fire & Security Products

Diana Morales is a senior level executive with over 20 years of UTC experience globally; she is based in Jupiter, Florida. Morales is the Vice President, Legal, Fire & Security Products (FSP) for United Technologies Corporation Climate, Controls & Security (CCS). Together with her legal team, she is responsible for providing comprehensive legal and compliance support to the Fire & Security Products business globally (USD 3.4 Billion in Sales with over 14K employees worldwide) and reports to the FSP President and the CCS Vice President, General Counsel.
In 2016, Morales was the Executive Sponsor for the CCS WHQ United Way campaign and assisted CCS employees in the Jupiter, Florida location learn more about the important work done by the United Way and its partner agencies. Morales also represented CCS on the Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce Trustee Council. She joined Carrier Corporation in 1996, and has held positions of increasing responsibility within Carrier and other UTC companies, including assignments covering the United States and Latin America, and overseas assignments in Europe and Asia.

Morales holds a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Connecticut, School of Law. She is a member of the Connecticut bar and Florida Authorized House Counsel. She is married, has two children and two dogs.

Executive Vice President, Global Operations

Grace Puma is executive vice president, Global Operations of PepsiCo, where she leads make and move global operations, global procurement, concentrate operations, safety and security and advanced manufacturing systems. PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world, and generated more than $63 billion in net revenue in 2017. With a product portfolio that include a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages such as Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker, and Tropicana, PepsiCo generates more than $1 billion in estimated annual retail sales in 22 brands.

Working across a complex operating environment that is evolving at a rapid pace, Puma is valued for her ability to find innovative solutions and build strong business relationships to meet the needs of customers and consumers.

Puma is also a seasoned executive experienced at transforming organizations into globally connected, locally wired business functions that drive performance. When she joined PepsiCo in 2010 as chief procurement officer, she globalized procurement and consistently delivered above-plan productivity and cash flow results in the process. Prior to joining PepsiCo, Puma was Chief Procurement Officer at United Airlines and held a variety of senior leadership positions in global procurement at Kraft Foods. She is a current board member for Williams-Sonoma and previously served as a board member for Steppenwolf Theatre and Marietta Corporation.

Sr. Mgr. Supply Chain Management Finance 

Victoria Bashlor is a second-generation American (father was born in Mexico, mother of Puerto Rican descent), she spent 16 years dedicated to earn her education in order to capitalize on her potential while sustaining a young family with four children.

Bashlor is Head of Supply Chain Management Finance for FCA US. In this position, she oversees logistics; production/demand planning and capacity, supplier delivery risk management; and market management and sales reporting, among a long list of leadership responsibilities.

“Over the past 20 years, my drive, passion, and determination has afforded me the opportunity to lead global teams in more than 10 countries for several multi-national companies,” Bashlor noted.

Bashlor earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Services and her MBA from Wayne State University. She is also involved in two of the Company’s Business Resource Groups (BRGs), the Women’s Alliance and Latins in Connection.

To her credit, Bashlor has never forgotten the challenges she stood up to in her life and career journey and is active helping young Latinos forge paths to a bright future. She supports a Michigan based organization that raises funds to provide college scholarships to financially challenged Latino students…and has done so for more than a decade.

Executive Director, GEM Product Marketing

Sigal Cordeiro is the Global Product Marketing Executive Director for General Motors’ growth market vehicles. In this role, she works to ensure that future cars and SUVs for countries like Brazil and China exceed customer expectations, deliver on the brand promise, and align with the company’s business priorities. Cordeiro joined General Motors in 2000 as part of its Marketing Leadership Program and since then has held numerous positions in Marketing, Market Research, and Product Marketing in the US and Germany. Her most recent experience was as General Director for Chevrolet Global Marketing, where she led the globalization efforts of the Chevrolet brand, developing a single, consistent brand vision and guidelines adopted by over 100 countries. As the highest-ranking Latina at General Motors, Cordeiro is an active member of the Leadership Advisory Board for the GM Latino Network, providing strategic guidance and support to the employee resource group. She was instrumental in leading the recent revitalization of the group driving significantly higher engagement among its members. Cordeiro’s past experiences include working at TAM Brazilian Airlines in various marketing capacities, and at NBCUniversal as Director of Consumer Insights for its Owned Stations division.

Cordeiro holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Fundacao Getulio Vargas in Brazil, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. She has also completed the Chief Marketing Officer Program from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Senior Vice President, General Manager, Network Platforms Group

Sandra L. Rivera is senior vice president and general manager of the network platforms group at Intel Corporation. She is responsible for the Intel business group charged with providing innovative technology and solutions to the networking industry. She is also Intel’s 5G executive sponsor and is responsible for guiding Intel’s strategy, commitments, and deliverables for 5G. Rivera leads a global organization in Intel of >2500 employees to drive the transformation of network infrastructure to Intel-based solutions. The network infrastructure business is one of the Data Center Group’s fastest-growing businesses, enabling Intel to become a market leader for network logic silicon, an annual $20B market segment.

Rivera joined Intel in 2000 as a marketing director after the acquisition of Dialogic Corporation. During her Intel career, she has held various marketing and business development roles focused on network, communications and storage infrastructure. In 2015, Intel recognized Rivera with its highest honor, the Intel Achievement Award. Before joining Intel, Rivera co-founded and served as president of The CTI Authority, and served as president of the computer telephony division at Catalyst Telecom. She spent seven years at Dialogic, culminating in her role as director of Dialogic’s sales organization in the eastern United States and Canada. Rivera holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from The Pennsylvania State University. She sits on the governing board of the Linux Foundation Networking project (LFN), and is a member of the Intel Hispanic Leadership Council.

The LATINA Style 50 survey is distributed to CEOs whose companies have demonstrated a commitment to diversity and inclusion throughout the United States. Companies are evaluated on a variety of metrics such as employee statistics, continuing education programs, recruitment and retention initiatives, employee benefits, advance opportunities for women among additional factors such as leadership programs and Latina and Latino representation on board of directors.

Due to the wide scope of questions, different departments within the company collaborate to obtain the most accurate information. The process can take weeks to months depending on the company structure. The company’s representative submits a completed survey that is carefully reviewed by the LATINA Style committee. Each company and its programs are also thoroughly examined and measured. Companies are evaluated using a scoring system that has been designed by Latina employees as to what are the most important factors for them in the evaluation of their workplace. Extensive public research information of the company and interpretation of the written responses provided by each company in the survey contribute to final evaluation.

The selection committee ensures to gather all of the survey data and then thoroughly evaluates the survey using a point system. The final survey includes a portion where companies highlight their highest-ranking Latina, the Hispanic affinity groups, recruitment efforts, supplier diversity information, and much more.

The final ranking is not based only on the published chart, it is only a portion of the final review. The evaluation period takes around a month to make sure every answer is taken into consideration. Each survey is reviewed to ensure more opportunities for Latinas are taken into consideration

The LATINA Style team wants to thank all of the companies who participated in the 2018 LATINA Style Report. Every year your participation helps provide us with the most accurate insight into the top companies for Latinas to work for. Participation in the survey provides companies an opportunity to monitor their progress from year to year, as well as, benchmark themselves against other leading companies. We thank you for your participation and entrusting us with highlighting your company. Congratulations to the top 50 best companies for Latinas to work for!

Great efforts are taken to ensure that Latinas can find best places where to nurture their careers and selecting the Company of the Year for Latinas to work for in the United States is not an easy task. This year we commend Johnson & Johnson because throughout the years, they have demonstrated faithfulness to the Latino community. Not only are they responsible to the communities in which we live and work but to the world community as well.

Johnson & Johnson embraces the mission to encourage the Latino workforce and open more opportunities for the Latina community. Inclusion at Johnson & Johnson is about creating a deep sense of belonging. The culture is valued, ideas are heard, and most important they remain focus on growing, nurturing and propelling groundbreaking women leaders as they transform healthcare today and the future of healthcare tomorrow.

In 1886, eight of Johnson & Johnson’s first 14 employees were women. Today, 43 percent of management positions in the U.S. are held by women. Every day, women play leading roles throughout the company, this is why Johnson & Johnson is at the top chart as the best company for Latinas to work for in the U.S. Congratulations to Johnson & Johnson for its continued effort to nurture Latina excellence among its ranks.

Assessing the 2018 LATINA Style 50 Report

Making a Business Case for Supporting Latinas in the Workforce

As a Latina professional, having worked in Corporate America, I understand the challenges that we face while climbing the corporate ladder. Not only do we embody the historical and still present gender-bias in the workforce but add to that the cultural dissonance evident in corporate human interactions. For years, both women and Latinos have lobbied and continue to do so in efforts to be recognized as viable contributors to society, specifically to a company’s bottom line.

I can understand the potential bias I may have in stating my value to Corporate America as a Latina. Why would I argue in opposition to the essence of who I am? Therefore, I am elated to be part of an exercise that introduces the objective reality of numbers/data into the conversation. As a Latina Financial Advisor, we promote ROI to our clients in their investments and businesses. So, the question is, does supporting and promoting Latinas in a company’s workforce provide a positive ROI?

Since 2001, Allgen Financial Advisors (www.allgenfinancial.com), a Registered Investment Advisory Firm, has been comparing the returns of companies in the LS50 to the stock market by using the S&P 500 index and the results for this year are in.

In 2017, the S&P 500 gained an average annual return of 21.83 percent, while the companies in the LS50 gained an average 32.25 percent, a positive difference of 10.42 percent.
Since this report has been commissioned, the LS50 has outperformed by offering a total average annual return of 12.15 percent, while the S&P 500 has returned 7.98 percent, a positive difference of 4.17 percent during the period.

To put these numbers into context, a hypothetical investment of $100,000 in the LS50 in the beginning of 2001 would have resulted in a final account balance of $532,905 while an equivalent investment in the S&P500 would have resulted in a final account balance of $283,610 at the end of 2017. That represents approximately an additional $250,000 for an investor choosing to invest in the LS50 index versus the S&P500.

While this analysis is by no means comprehensive, as there are additional variables that must be considered when making investment decisions, it is difficult to argue against the power of diversity and inclusion, especially when data proves its positive results. We must applaud and continue to support the efforts of companies that recognize our value and are committed to offering us Latinas opportunities for career advancement and growth.