Top Businesswomen of 2016
Women that are transforming the corporate Latin American landscape. Latin Trade has published the 2016 edition of Latin America’s Top 25 Businesswomen.
Latin American corporates still have a long way to improve the number of women in leadership positions. As of 2015, none of Latin Trade’s Top 50 companies have a female CEO.
The above figure adds evidence to the data collected by AS/COA, which shows that women hold only 5.6 percent of board seats in Latin America’s top companies, compared with 21.2 percent in the largest publicly listed European companies, as reported by the European Commission.
But where they lack in numbers, they certainly make up for in sheer skill. Take for instance one of the new additions to the list: Mayra Gonzalez, appointed President of the Mexican unit of Japanese carmaker giant Nissan in May this year. She is the first female President of any of Nissan’s global operations, and she was also the first woman to be in Nissan Mexicana’s board. In her previous post as Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Distribution Network Development, González broke an industry sales record.
Mexican dairy firm Grupo Lala (12th in Dairy Foods Magazine list of Top 100 North American dairies, and the only Mexican company in the list) has Lucía Dourritzague San Román. She is the company’s Global Innovation Director. Innovation is perhaps one of the hottest topics in business and government leadership, and a crucial aspect for any company seeking to grow in an environment of constant technological advancements. Grupo Lala certainly knows how to apply it for growth, having consolidated its presence in the United States this year after creating Lala U.S., headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
The women in this list have been chosen due to their key positions at the top of the largest corporations working in, or with the region. They have also been drivers of mergers, acquisitions, and an array of deals that have lead to expansion or improvement of their companies’ position, all while navigating through the current economic and political headwinds in Latin America and the world.
See the full list below:
Mayra González, President Nissan Mexicana
Mayra González was appointed President of the Mexican unit of Japanese carmaker Nissan in May this year.
She is the first female President of any of Nissan’s global operations, and she was also the first woman to be in Nissan Mexicana’s board.
In her previous role as the company’s Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Distribution Network Development, González broke an industry record with more than 347,000 units sold during 2015, up 19 percent from the previous year and giving Nissan a 25.7 percent share in Mexico automobile market.
Mayra González studied Marketing at the Universidad Tecnológica de México, and holds a post-graduate degree in Marketing from the Universidad Anáhuac del Norte, as well as a post-graduate degree in Business from the International School of Canada.
Elane B. Stock, group president of Kimberly-Clark International
Since 2014, Elane Stock is group president of Kimberly-Clark International, which comprises the Company’s fastest-growing consumer businesses in all operations beyond North America – Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Middle East/Europe/Africa (MEA). Previous experience includes management positions at McKinsey & Company both in the U.S. and Ireland. Stock graduated with honors from the University of Illinois with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science. She also holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and completed a fellowship in International Economics at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.
Rosario Córdoba, Board of Directors, Grupo Argos, President of the Private Competitiveness Council
As president of the Board of Directors at Grupo Argos, Córdoba is involved in planning and executing the Colombian multinational’s strategy.
The Grupo Argos conglomerate has large investments in cement, energy, road and airport concessions, and banking, and is present in Colombia, the United States, Panamá, Honduras and the Caribbean. She also heads the Private Competitiveness Council, an organization which monitors competitiveness and recommends policy and private actions.
Córdoba holds a degree and Master’s in Economics from the Universidad de los Andes.
Melissa Bethel, Board of Directors, Atento Brasil
Melissa Bethel has a long and varied career in business.
Aside from being a member of the board of directors at Atento’s Brazilian division, Bethell has served as a member of Topco’s board of directors since the consummation of its acquisition in December 2012 and a member of the Issuer’s board of directors since March 2014.
Bethell is a Managing Director of Bain Capital, which she joined in 1999 and relocated from Boston to London in 2000 as a member of Bain Capital’s European investment team. Before joining Bain Capital, Bethell worked in the Capital Markets group at Goldman, Sachs & Co., with a focus on media and technology fundraising.
Bethel has a Master’s in business administration with distinction from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor degree with honors in Economics and Political Science from Stanford University.
Carmen Rosa Graham, Board of Directors Camposol, Ferreyros, Interbank, and Nextel
Graham is one of Peru’s most powerful businesswomen, serving on the board of directors of several large Peruvian companies, including agro-industrial company Camposol (since 2014), equipment-supplier Ferreyros (since 2011), Interbank (since 2007), and wireless company Nextel (since 2013). Before this she served as CEO at various IBM local offices in Latin America including for IBM Colombia and IBM Peru & Bolivia. She also served as President of Peru’s Universidad del Pacífico from 2007-2009, and worked for four years with Peru’s ProMujer, which provides microfinance opportunities to empower Peruvian women.
Graham holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Universidad del Pacífico in Peru, and an MBA from Adolfo Ibañez Business School in Miami.
She has also studied other courses at Harvard, Georgetown and Monterrey Universities.
Ernestina Herrera de Noble, Chairwoman Grupo Clarín
Ernestina Herrera is the largest shareholder of Argentina’s Grupo Clarín, the country’s largest media conglomerate with net sales of more than $2.08 billion in 2014, a 39 percent increase from the year before.
She also serves as the director of the group’s newspaper, Clarín. The newspaper’s website is the 10th most visited in Argentina, according to analyst firm Alexa.
Iris Fontbona, Owner of Grupo Luksic
Iris Fontbona is the richest woman in Chile and the 10th wealthiest woman in the world, with a fortune estimated at $11.7 billion. She co-owns with her family Grupo Luksic, a conglomerate with business in mining, industry, finance, food and telecommunications.
The group controls 65 percent of miner Antofagasta, has a controlling stake in Quiñenco, and owns two hotel chains in Croatia.
Antofagasta has a total market capitalization of some $16 billion, making it one of the world’s largest mining companies.
Quiñenco operates in the energy, beer, manufacturing, banking, transport and services sectors, employing almost 70,000 people.
Isabel Noboa, CEO Consorcio Nobis
Isabel Noboa leads Consorcio Nobis, one of Ecuador’s largest business groups with operations in agriculture, industry, real estate and tourism.
Other roles Noboa has held include President of the INCAE Business School in Ecuador and President of the Ecuadoran Competitiveness Committee.
Noboa also dedicates her time to several philanthropy causes, and is the founder of FANN, an adoption foundation, and founder of Fundación Nobis, which benefits more than 100,000 people in Ecuador living in poverty.
Noboa holds a degree in Economics from the University of London and post graduate studies in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
Deborah Rosado Shaw, Senior Vice President, Chief Global Diversity and Engagement Officer, Pepsico
Deborah has been Chief Global Diversity & Engagement Officer and Senior Vice President at Pepsico, Inc. since July 2014. Her responsibilites in the post include providing leadership in guiding PepsiCo’s global Diversity and Engagement strategy to bring together diverse strengths, backgrounds and perspectives to achieve its strategic business imperatives.
She is also founder of Rosado Shaw Group, LLC., a career success and leadership development company focused on women’s leadership and diversity.
Throughout her career, she has helped Fortune 500 companies and organizations engage diverse workforces to support their business strategies.
Deborah holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Barnard College, Columbia University.
Mary Barra, Chairwoman, CEO, General Motors
Mary Barra took on leadership of General Motors in January 2014, replacing Dan Akerson. Previously, Barra had been the company’s Executive Vice President of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain.
In the same year, she appeared on the cover of Time in the magazine’s edition of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
Barra holds a Bachelor’s degree in Science and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
General Motors (54 in the LT500) is one of the most well-established car manufacturers in the region, and is currently second-place in sales in Mexico.
Maria Patrizia Grieco, Chairman, Enel
Grieco became chairman of Italian electricity and gas giant Enel in May 2014.
She also serves as director of Anima Holding, a management company with some 67 billion euros under management, and is a board member of the global non-governmental organization Save the Children.
Her previous posts include: Chief legal and general affairs directorate, and CEO of Italtel, CEO Siemens Informatica, Director Fiat Industrial (Today CNHI).
Grieco studied Law at the University of Milan.
Enel is a major player in Latin America. The company is currently building the largest solar plant in Latin America: the 292-MW Nova Olinda project in Brazil.
Julie T. Katzman, Executive Vice-President and COO of the Inter-American Development Bank
Katzman reached her current role –one of the highest at the IDB– in 2011, after only 18 months of joining the organization.
Katzman began her career in investment banking, focusing primarily on private equity, developing expertise in financial structures across numerous industries.
In her current role, she is responsible for managing the overall operations of the IDB, and is focusing especially on pioneering an institutional transformation in measuring and reporting the bank’s tangible results through tools such as mapping software.
She graduated from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and earned a Master’s in Management from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.
Kathy Fortmann, Director Cargill Business Services
Kathy Fortmann is responsible for building Cargill Business Services, the company’s global shared service organization, which currently offers services in IT, human resources, finance, transportation and logistics, and strategic sourcing and procurement to Cargill businesses around the world. Fortmann oversees six Cargill shared service centers located in Bangalore, India; San José, Costa Rica; Sofia, Bulgaria; Nanjing, China; Uberlândia, Brazil; and Rosario, Argentina.
Lucía Dourritzague San Román, Directora de Innovación Global Grupo Lala
Lucía es Ingeniera Química por la Universidad La Salle. Tiene Experiencia de más de 30 años en Coca Cola de México, en donde desarrolló sus competencias y gestionó una sólida carrera liderando áreas de planeación, investigación de mercados, tendencias, nuevos negocios, innovación y mercadotecnia. Su última asignación fue dirigiendo la Vicepresidencia de Estrategia y Planeación, función que ocupó los últimos 9 años en esta compañía.
Donna Hrinak, President of Boeing Brazil, President Boeing Latin America
Since November 2014 Hrinak is responsible for the development and implementation of Boeing’s strategy in Latin America. She was appointed President of the aircraft company’s Brazilian operations in October 2011.
Before these posts, she was the Vice President of Global Public Policy and Government Affairs of PepsiCo, and previously was the corporate affairs director of Kraft Foods for Latin America and the European Union.
Hrinak also has strong diplomatic experience, having served as the U.S. ambassador to Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, and deputy assistant secretary of state for Mexico and the Caribbean.
Hrinak holds an honorary doctorate of humanities from Michigan State University, where she graduated with a bachelor’s in Social Science.
Flavia Altheman, Executive Director of Marketing, Via Varejo Brasil
From December 2013, Altheman, named one of the five Women to Watch in Brazil 2015, is responsible for marketing at Via Varejo, Brazil’s number one advertiser and one of the largest distributors of household appliances and furniture in the world. The company (89 in the LT500) operates 978 stores across Brazil.
Previously, Altheman was Via Varejo’s Executive Marketing Director.
She holds a BA in Marketing and a Post-Graduate degree in Strategic Planning, both from the Fundação Getúlio Vargas.
Cynthia H. Grossman, Member Board of Directors, Arca Continental
Grossman has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of Grupo Continental since 2000 and a member of the Board of Directors since 1983.
Monterrey, Mexico-based Arca Continental manufactures and dsitributes beverages and is the second-largest Coca-Cola bottler in Latin America and third largest in the world.
In August this year, Fitch reaffirmed the company’s ‘A’ rating, citing its solid business position in Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador and Peru.
Eva Gonda de Rivera, Stakeholder FEMSA
Gonda de Rivera is the fifth wealthiest person in Mexico (189th in the world) with a fortune estimated at around $6 billion. She and her daughters hold a majority stakehlold in FEMSA, the largest independent Coca-Cola bottler in the world and operator of Oxxo, the largest convenience store in Mexico.
She was married to former FEMSA chairman Eugenio Garza Lagüera.
Rivera holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology.
Mónica Aparicio Smith, Member Board of Directors, Avianca Holdings
Colombian economist graduated from Universidad de Los Andes. She is an independent consultant of multilateral organizations. She served as Executive Director of Fondo de Garantías de Instituciones Financieras, country manager and CEO of Banco Santander in Puerto Rico and Colombia, International Vice President of Colombian central bank, Banco de la República, and Representative of the Colombian Government to the World Bank among others.
Luiza Trajano Donat, Founder and President Magazine Luiza
Magazine Luiza is the ninth largest retail company in Brazil, operating some 731 stores across 16 states in the country.
The company also operates its own insurance subsidiary, Luizaseg, which generated gross revenue of $52.8 million in 2013, 26 percent more than in 2012.
Magazine Luiza employs some 24,000 staff and runs eight distribution centers.
Luiza Trajano studied Law at the Faculdade de Direito de Franca in São Paulo state.
Aimeé Sentmat de Grimaldo, President Banistmo
Panama-born Aimeé has been the President of Banistmo since 2013. Aimeé has a long career in finance having served as Vice President of Commercial Banking at the Banco Latinoamericano de Exportaciones, and Director of Commercial Banking at HSBC in Panama.
Banistmo is part of HSBC Group and is present in Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Cayman Islands, Peru, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Colombia. As of June 2016, the bank had $9.1 billion in assets, an increase of more than $380 million compared with the same month a year before. Standard & Poor’s and Fith both reaffirmed their BBB- credit rating for the bank.
Aimeé holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the Universidad Católica Santa María la Antigua and an MBA from Universidad Nova Southeastern.
Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
Mexican biologist Alicia Bárcena has been the Executive Secretary of the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean since July 2008.
Prior to her current position, Bárcena was ECLAC’s Deputy Executive Secretary, where she promoted the implementation of the Millenium Development Goals and Financing for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean. She has also served as ECLAC’s Chief of the Environment and Human Settlements Division, where she worked on public policies for sustainable development.
Other posts Bárcena has held during her career are Coordinator of the United Nations Environment Programme, and UN Under-Secretary-General for Management, appointed by Ban Ki-moon
Bárcena holds a degree in Biology from Mexico’s UNAM, and a Master’s in public administration from Harvard.
Sylvia Escovar Gómez CEO, Terpel
Escovar became CEO of Terpel, Colombia’s largest gasoline and oil derivatives retailer, in 2012 after 10 years with the company. Terpel is the third-largest company in Colombia by revenues, and the 101st in Latin America. Escovar holds a Bachelor’s degree from Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, with studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, and began her career in the public sector.
Blanca Treviño, President and CEO, Softtek
Blanca Treviño leads Softtek, one of Latin America’s largest private IT vendors. The company operates in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. Among the company’s services are application software development, testing, security and support, business process outsoucing, and IT infrastructure management. It is also a value added reseller, and trademarked the term “nearshoring” to describe the provision of outsourced services to customers in other countries that are in proximity. Blanca Treviño became the company CEO in 2000, and through her leadership, Softtek is now a Latin American IT giant.
She also serves as board member for Wal-Mart Mexico, The United States – Mexico Foundation for Science, the University of Monterrey, and TecMilenio University.
Some deals Treviño has led include the acquisitions of Spain’s Itarvi Consulting in 2015, India-U.S. firm Systech Integrations in 2013 and Mexico’s SCAi in 2012.
Susan Segal, President and CEO, AS/COA
Susan Segal was elected to her current position in August 2003, after a career of more than 30 years in Latin America’s private sector. During that time, Segal has served as: partner and Latin American Group head at JPMorgan Partners/Chase Capital Partners and Senior managing director focused on Emerging Markets Investment Banking and Capital Markets at MHT/Chemical/Chase Banks.
Segal is also a director of the Tinker Foundation, Scotiabank, Mercado Libre, and the Latin American Venture Capital Association, and has won several awards including the Orden Bernardo O’Higgins (Chile); Orden de San Carlos (Colombia) and the Orden Mexicana del Águila Azteca (Mexico).
Photo: Mary Barra/WEF; Maria Patrizia Grieco/Enel; Isabel Noboa/Asamblea Nacional del Ecuador