hispanicexecutive.com

Ten years ago, I probably wouldn’t have felt this way, but now I have been exposed to so many fields and situations in both the corporate world and the public sector that I know I can bring value to a corporate entity at any level. I’ve always looked for challenges, and board service would be the right challenge for me now. I think it’s the right time to go into board service. He actually interviewed me and gave me the do’s and don’ts for my future interviews as a potential corporate board member.

According to Dan Siciliano, LCDA member and faculty for LCDEF’s BoardReady Institute (BRI), to succeed in the executive space, you need to get things done. It’s an argument I often make to boards that are starting searches and say, ‘Well, we really can’t risk having someone who doesn’t understand how to work on a board.’ At which point I say, ‘You just cut out seventy percent of the most eligible board members. It’s tricky for me because I don’t want to be selected for a board because I’m Latino, but my name doesn’t make it obvious that I am Latino. Dan Siciliano is a member of the Latino Corporate Directors Association, an instructor for the Latino Corporate Directors Education Foundation’s BoardReady Institute, an immediate past faculty member and Professor for the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University, and a member of the board of the San Francisco Federal Home Loan Bank.

I found it quite meaningful that everyone in the room was there to lift each other up; we heard from corporate leaders like Oscar Munoz who committed their time to provide insight, inspiration, and guidance for those of us recruited to the LCDEF BoardReady Institute. It was extremely empowering to know that Latinos who are already boardroom leaders prioritize their own time to serve as role models for those of us invited to participate in the program. By the year 2020, we’ll see a need across the globe for 40-45 million people skilled in medium- to high-tech jobs, and the ability to create an impact through re-skilling and education is meaningful personally and professionally. Educators—with the support of business community and community leaders—are developing the skills and creating the leaders that corporations want to hire.

As a lawyer who was an investment banker, CFO, and now COO, I understand the regulatory and legal concerns, and I weigh those risks in light of the overriding business and financial goals,” Mendes says. She is also a trustee of the Chicago Academy of Sciences and its Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, a member of the University of Chicago Women’s Board, a National Association of Corporate Directors Board Leadership Fellow, and was recently invited to the Latino Corporate Directors Association, which has a mission to move the needle on Hispanic representation on various boards. In establishing a career that was built not necessarily by design, Mendes says she’s learned these important lessons along the way that she wants to pass on to her daughters and other young women coming up in business. Working at a law firm often makes others automatically think she’s a practicing lawyer, as opposed to the COO whose business and strategic acumen help run the business.