CEO of Fortune 500 Company
While following her mother’s advice, she lived her life on her own terms.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
UB was born in the U.S. to immigrants from Panama. Her parents separated soon after UB was born so she was raised by her single mother while living in a large city’s public housing project.
CHILDHOOD INTERESTS
Accepting and following the loving advice of UB’s mother enabled UB to avoid involvement with neighborhood gangs and hanging out with classmates who didn’t share her attention to schoolwork. Her mother’s advice to UB:
#1. Leave behind more than you take away.
#2. Don’t let the world happen to you. You happen to the world.
#3. God doesn’t like ugly.
#4. Take care of each other.
#5. Don’t do anything that wouldn’t make your mother proud.
#6. Where you are is not who you are (and remember that when you’re rich and famous).
EDUCATION
UB attended an all-girls Catholic high school in her large city. She went on to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from a city based technical institute, followed by a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from a city based, Ivy League university.
INTERNSHIP
Starting her business career as a summer intern, UB impressed her supervisors sufficiently to obtain full-time employment with the Xerox Corporation after she completed her Master’s degree.
FIRST ADULT JOB COMMENCES A CAREER PATH
The early focus of UB’s jobs for this large, international business were in product development and planning, where her intellect, work ethic and judgment were noticed and appreciated by management. When there was an opening for an executive assistant to a senior executive, UB became an obvious candidate to fill that position, which she held for several months until requesting leave from the company to take time off to get married and start a family, with the hope of eventually returning.
When UB was ready to return a year later, her prior work record earned the opportunity to become the executive assistant to the company’s C.E.O., which gave UB the perspective of the company’s entire operations – both what was profitable and what was not.
Soon the company promoted UB to Senior Vice President of corporate strategic services – a very important position which demonstrated to her and others that she would be no mere ‘figurehead’ due to her gender or ethnicity but instead, would have significant responsibilities affecting the company’s profitability.
As the company’s business model evolved, so did UB’s responsibilities transform from the company’s overall performance to helping guide it through an acquisition into more of the modern technology, which is where her engineering background would prove helpful.
CHALLENGE – ADAPTING YOUR BUSINESS TO THE CHANGING WORLD
During her several years at the top of her business, UB had to help others within corporate leadership recognize that the company’s focus had to move from tanklike copy machines to providing information within the world of emerging technologies. Not easily transformed, the company nearly went bankrupt, forcing management to make difficult choices such as outsourcing certain jobs.
UB took it upon herself to find the upside amid a lot of downsides. Thus, she knew as a leader, she must maintain an outwardly positive attitude to motivate those around her to keep plugging ahead during difficult times.
Editor – UB’s positive attitude reflects a song within the Broadway show of the 1950s, “The King and I” –
“Whenever I feel afraid,
I hold my head erect
And whistle a happy tune
So no one will suspect, I’m afraid.
While shivering in my shoes
I strike a careless pose
And whistle a happy tune
And no one ever knows I’m afraid.
The result of this deception
Is very strange to tell
For when I fool the people I fear
I fool myself as well.
You may be as brave
As you make believe you are.
BUSINESS SUCCESS WITHIN THE PRIVATE WORLD MAY LEAD TO OPPORTUNITIES FOR PUBLIC SERVICE
As C.E.O. of a major corporation, helping that corporation to steer its new course from an older business model to one more focused on technology, UB gained recognition within the worlds of business and politics outside her company. Thus, when the U.S. President wanted to initiate government programs to promote science and technology education and careers, UB was appointed by the President to lead the White House’s National S.T.E.M. program. She served for 7 years before moving to Vice Chairperson of the President’s Export Council.
LESSONS LEARNED WHILE JOURNEYING FROM PUBLIC HOUSING TO THE CORPORATE WORLD
Apparently influenced by her mother’s numbered list of advice, UB developed her own words of wisdom which she summarized after maturing while moving from the world of a child tenant within public housing to owning her own home while leading a major corporation:
Lesson 1 – Prepare for culture shock. Unlike many other C.E.O.s, UB had no early familiarity with well-known vacation spots of the rich and famous: Nantucket or Jackson Hole or with socially advantageous colleges.
“Skiing? What was that?” wrote UB within her published memoir. “Tennis? Really? Swimming? No way. I’m convinced that the colleges that mandate a swimming test for graduation created that requirement to keep poor kids from applying.”
UB still doesn’t know how to swim. And she doesn’t play golf, despite it being a favorite activity of one of her mentors. Once she became relatively wealthy, UB wrote, she still didn’t ski. She realized that she could enjoy life on her own terms.
Lesson 2 – Marry an older man. This one may seem controversial, but it worked for her when he, 20 years older, retired and took care of the children, enabling UB, one of life’s born workaholics, to focus on her career. (Editor – Including this lesson is not an endorsement of it. In these modern times, plenty of successful and happy adults choose to not marry anyone or marry a member of the same gender or marry someone the same or younger age. There is no formula – applicable to everyone – for success and happiness.)
Lesson 3 – Affirmative action matters. UB was helped by the social programs of the 1960s and 1970s and could not have attended college without them. She loves the phrase: “Talent is evenly distributed. Opportunity is not.”
Lesson 4 – Don’t be too nice. She didn’t think anyone should be gratuitously mean but too often, “We fail to say what we mean” which sometimes leads to supporting each other’s mediocrity.
Lesson 5 – Let them see you sweat. Once she became C.E.O., UB knew she had blind spots as a leader. She didn’t fear relying on the expertise of others.
Lesson 6 – Read these books: Nelson Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom,” Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon” and W.E.B. Du Boise’s collected essays. Why? Because early in her career, her mentor told her to, and he was right.
Lesson 7 – You don’t have to be an extrovert. UB was never the sort to linger too long in the hospitality tent, though she learned to come out of her shell. She wrote in her memoir: “Most of my living is between my two ears and always has been.”
Lesson 8 – It’s okay to follow your inner thoughts to prioritize your personal interests and safety, even if mentioning those thoughts to others might provoke a raised eyebrow. For example, “Don’t fly to Japan on a private plane.” UB believes that “If the plane goes down in the ocean and it was only me and the pilots, the rescuers might not look as hard for survivors as they would if a big airliner went down.”
Lesson 9 – (Included within Career Satisfaction, below.)
CAREER SATISFACTION
UB is proud to have earned the opportunities to work in business with significant personal responsibilities leading people and speaking the truth as she saw it.
She realizes that a lot of people looked out for her over the years. Thus, her final, most important lesson is that “You can’t do it all by yourself.” She learned to look out for others in turn.
This career story is based on an article written by Dwight Garner published June 8, 2021, in the New York Times. The article refers to UB’s memoir: “Where You Are Is Not Who You Are.”
