Interview

1.  Let’s spend some time talking about your journey through Corporate and a little bit about what your childhood was like.

  1. Interesting question because she thinks Roxanne – youngest of three girls – like many children of immigrants, there was no roadmap or guidance to getting into Corporate. Certainly hasn’t been handed to me. Grew up in suburbs of NYC and exposed to different cultures and that energized her. Spent a lot of time in the homeland of Puerto Rico (Father) and Ecuador (Mother at 25) – this was a very important part – there are many ways of living and none are better than the other – in cultures and countries where they have less things, people were way happier and that has stuck with her. Here we work so hard and success is defined by material gain and she has learned through those experiences are relationships, legacy and also the experiences – this is what she tries to focus on. She tries to expose her kids to this because they are growing up so differently. Her mother had come to the States because brother was ill, her Dad was a Nurse who administers anesthesia. They relied on themselves because they didn’t have a large family.
  2. Went to college in Massachusetts – the fortunate thing was that her parents taught her the value of a solid education and how that was the gateway to success and because of that she went to a private high school on private scholarship, and a prestigious private college on partial scholarships. The middle sister also went and she frequented – her dad advised her that she went to Jesuit because of the solid foundation. Approach things with curiosity, discerning information that you take in, making connection through seamless unrelated. Men and women for others. It helped broaden her perspective and that has served.
  3. First job of college – the out services – the automotive team as Sales Executive. Graduated in 1994 in the middle of the recession. Studied English in college. Then moved back to NY because she wanted more diversity in terms of her social life and found many times – she came back but uncertain about what she wanted to do. Through a referral got a legal assistant post at Brown and Wood, and other classmates were going on to law school – she thought she could do it, but realized that it wasn’t for her – it wasn’t dynamic, she was more of a people person. What energizes me? it was working with people and that how she transitioned to HR – got a role placing administrative staff and creatives – did that for a few years then moved to corporate HR à went to Scholastic – had strong company values and she could be aligned with the purpose of the company, which is important when you’re thinking about job satisfaction and there she was exposed to the Diversity & Inclusion. Got to recruit diverse students and tell them about careers in publishing – they were hearing this for the first time. She was super fulfilled by the work and decided she wanted to do the diversity work for the first time. Got this job through HOT JOBS at Penguin – they weren’t even talking about inclusion and she got a Diversity à then bigger role at Pearson looking at the financial subsidiaries of Pearson, then joined board of Madrinas, and met Monica Diaz and she got her in at Microsoft. They had an opening on the team. She would have never considered a big organization had it not been through the referral. The tech field was new to her – the longest she has worked.

2.  Describe your current role at Microsoft, and what it means to be a manager in the Diversity space?

  1. Over the 6 12/ years she’s involved tremendously, there was a lot of activity but it wasn’t aligned to an overall structure – people felt good about the activity and the insights she was able to bring was how success was measured, beyond representation – right away people think about percentages and do I have the right mix and number and today, it isn’t just enough brining people in – are they be heard, valued, supported so they can do their best work – always evolving and changing. Currently working on culture, Learning and Development and how managers and leaders create a culture where people who can do their best work. Has a great leader who is really supportive and has set the tone for them to transform their culture. One of his key messages is empathy. She thinks that work at a tech company gets done through relationships. If you’re a manager and people leader you have to learn how to understand people as professionals and humans – when they feel valued as an individual that’s when you get best.

3.  If you hadn’t chosen and HR/Diversity field, were there other fields you had interest in or considered?

  1. Wanted to be a journalist, really interested – before the age of the internet – but she could find no journalist, and discovered they didn’t make a lot of money. Her dad worked 3 jobs and she kept thinking about how she could give back to them – wish she had someone in her life that she could have built – in the short term she didn’t want her parents to support.

4.  What expectations did you have when you decided to enter the field? Have those expectations been dramatically different from the reality?

  1. Doesn’t know that she had any expectations but what worked for her at Penguin and Pearson, they were new roles so she was able to define the direction – has a very big entreprenuer spirit – the thought of coming in and build it on her own excites her. So it is best that she didn’t have expectations. A lot of ideas, but putting thiese ideas into a tangible stragegy.

5.  Business culture is tricky. It may go against the grain of our beliefs. How do we service in a professional space when our morals differ from how our organizations operate?

  1. Retain your values while still trying to navigate the corporate values – super critical for these two to align and when there is misalignment it becomes difficult to be excited about your work. So you have to make sure that your work is align with your values – it doesn’t mean you jump right away. There has to be some comprise – an important exercise is to be clear about who she is, what her purpose is and what her values are. Make sure that your comprises and shifts, behavior don’t counter to your primary goals and values – no matter what this is what you stand for – and perhaps you have some secondary values. Will this experience get me to my purpose and vision – maybe okay for a short term – if you’re clear about the bigger picture, then it is easier to decide your tolerance.

6.  Culture plays an important part if our behavior and success. How do you use your heritage to succeed?

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7.  I think it’s important to discuss hair, dress, skin color and appearance in general. So much of our authenticity shows through our appearance and yet our appearance may be so different from those around us – give your perspective on how looking different can be positive.

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8.  Your story in unique but also serves as a paver for others who aspire to be in your field. What advice do you give, or would you give to our young women, and men?

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9.  When you’re not at work, or with your family what do you do for yourself? What do you do for self-care?

  1. Not very good. Two years ago her friend was battling cancer and she took part in that. This year she was in a role that was demanding and she let her self care go and not exercising impacted her resilience – never compromise because that’s the foundation for success. A stronger physical self.
  2. Any volunteer initiatives or board assignments?
  3. Board of Trustees for college of Holy Cross
  4. Co-lead for Girl Scouts Troop – to see her daughter have her in action.