As might be expected, many of the "50 Most Important Hispanics in Technology and Business" are engineers, many of whom repeat here from last year. Engineers, modern wizards whose scientific mastery drives American industrial progress, are the people who create America's wealth. But not all of the "50 Most" are engineers. Many are savvy executives, managers who understand how technology is to be used and sold, marketers whose sophistication in meeting customer needs undergirds the success of entire enterprises. Some started as engineers and learned business skills while mastering the difficult art of turning ideas into products.
We begin by looking closely at a few exemplars, to show the breadth of Hispanic success.
Cranking Up an Auto Career
Consider Ford Motor Company's Jim Padilla, chief operating officer and chairman of Worldwide Auto Operations.
Padilla's grandfather left Mexico early in the last century, and Padilla grew up in Detroit. He figured his interest in math and science would lead to success, and it did. Padilla majored in chemical engineering at the University of Detroit, but co-op work took him into auto plants.
Metallurgy was the main dream, but he found that "a car is the most diverse collection of alloys you can find."
On a five-year co-op plan, with frequent, intense immersion in manufacturing, Padilla earned enough credits to finish his B.Sc. in engineering and a master's degree in polymer engineering, as well as an M.Sc. in economics.
He began as a quality control engineer in 1966, climbing as he learned.
Padilla moved through product engineering and manufacturing assignments, rising to operations manager for the Ford Escort and Mercury Tracer, Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique, and Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable car lines. Car analysts at the time wrote that the Taurus assembly lines in Chicago and Atlanta set new standards for U.S.-built car quality, and the Mexican plant making Escorts consistently won consumer praise.
Offshore Posting
Then Ford took over the British Jaguar. Padilla, then director of engineering and manufacturing for Jaguar Cars, Ltd., had to revive a failing brand. The Jaguar marque had a distinguished history and exotic image, but poor reliability and "fit and finish" were killing it in a market flooded by well-made Pacific Rim products.
"At the time, it didn't seem like the best of opportunities," Padilla says, but the British team was excited to learn American lessons. His success in "teaching them to build a great product, as well as great new products like the XJ series, the Jaguar XK-8," the Aston-Martin DB-7, and the Jaguar S-type won plaudits, as did his later work on the Lincoln LS, whose road-handling surprised U.S auto writers. This accelerated his career.
In November 1996, Ford named Padilla president of South American operations, to handle a major restructuring after the breakup of Autolatina. In 1999, he became group VP of global manufacturing, and in a year and a half he was North American group VP. A stint as North America president prepped him for his current job.
Padilla, a Fellow of the National Academy of Engineering since 2001, was the 2000 Engineer of the Year at the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference. A 1978-'79 White House Fellow, he was special assistant to the U.S. secretary of commerce.
Polishing the Imagers
Chief operating officers, executives at the top, are not so rare among Hispanics in technology any more. And automaking is not the only U.S. industry with strong Hispanic impact. Consider Antonio M. Perez, Eastman Kodak Company's president and chief operating officer. The Spanish-born Perez worked a 25-year career at Silicon Valley's oldest success story, Hewlett-Packard Company, before leaving to be an entrepreneurial risk-taker. At HP, he had been corporate vice president and member of the Executive Council. He headed the consumer business and led digital imaging and electronic publishing initiatives, launching consumer products with world-wide revenue of more than $16 billion. In five years under Perez, HP's world-wide installed inkjet base grew from 17 million to 100 million.
In June 2000, Perez, then CEO of Gemplus International SA, took the company public on the NASDAQ and on Paris' Premiere Marche. Perez, a University of Madrid B.Sc. in electronic engineering, turned Gemplus into the leading smart-card solution provider in the wireless and financial markets. Revenues grew 70 percent, from $700 million to $1.2 billion. Perez joined Kodak a year ago, and oversees Digital & Film Imaging Systems, Commercial Printing, Display and Components, Health Imaging, the Commercial Imaging Group, Global Manufacturing and Logistics, the Chief Marketing Office, Research & Development, the Corporate Kodak Operating System, and international regional operations.
Top Sales Leader
Xerox Corporation's Patricia Elizondo is an example of the climb of Hispanic women toward full participation in all functions of American industry. Elizondo, who studied finance at Indiana University and completed an M.B.A. at Notre Dame, joined Xerox in 1981 as an internal auditor. Moving beyond the strict columns and rows of accountancy, Elizondo went from operational and field financial management to credit management, positions leading customer service, and management of marketing support operations. Then she moved into sales.
Elizondo held key posts in Northeast Ohio and became vice president and general manager of the Maryland/Virginia Customer Business Unit and then senior VP for financial/professional and health care industry sales operations.
As senior vice president of major accounts, Elizondo now is responsible for providing products and services as well as achieving customer satisfaction for Xerox' largest commercial customers, and she delivers annual revenue exceeding $2 billion.
Bridges, Bridges, Bridges
Juan A. Murillo works in an entirely different area, and he is a living demonstration that Hispanic engineers are all over the landscape of 21st century America.
Murillo, a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute civil engineer with B.Sc. and master's degrees and P.E. certification, got to work with the legendary Jean Muller, a Frenchman who pioneered and introduced segmental bridge construction in the U.S. Some Murillo projects were the all pre-cast segmental bridges in the Florida Keys, Tampa's famous Sunshine Skyway, Virginia's James River Bridge, and North Carolina's Linn Cove Viaduct. In 10 years, Murillo rose to assistant technical director and engineering VP.
In 1986, Murillo joined Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc. an employee-owned consulting engineering firm with 220 locations around the world and more than $1.3 billion in sales. Starting as technical director for cable-stayed and segmental bridges, he created a Bridge Service Center and worked on the Talmadge Bridge in Savannah, Ga., and Connecticut's Baldwin Bridge. The Loma Prieta earthquake forced reexamination of construction techniques in California, and Murillo joined the Caltrans Seismic Retrofit Program. He's the principal designer for the temporary bypass structure for the replacement of the east spans of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. His bio goes on and on, but you get the idea: Murillo's bridges are everywhere.
That could be said about Hispanics in technology generally, as a look at the following achievers will show.
Ralph Alvarez Chief Operations Officer McDonald's USA
Alvarez, a cum laude business graduate of the University of Miami, first joined Burger King Corporation and perfected his skills across several brands. He rose to managing director of Burger King Spain, president of Burger King Canada, and regional VP for Florida. He moved to Wendy's International, Inc. in 1990, as corporate vice president and Florida division VP. He joined McDonald's Corporation as regional VP for Sacramento, then became regional director for Chipotle Mexican Grill, a McDonald's Partner Brand. He moved up to president, Central Division, at McDonald's USA, responsible for 4,300 restaurants. Now, as COO, he's responsible for all divisions.
Thaddeus Arroyo Chief Information Officer Cingular Wireless
Arroyo directs Cingular's information technology infrastructure. A former senior VP for product marketing and development at Sabre Corporation, he has been the main manager of technology initiatives while bringing order to Cingular's enterprise computing and communications applications and implementing a new billing system. His experience at Sabre, where he also was senior VP for IT, and in IT posts at Southwestern Bell, stood him in good stead. Arroyo majored in math at the University of Texas at Arlington, and has an M.B.A. from Southern Methodist University. He won the 2002 "Georgia Global CIO of the Year Award" for his leadership and creativity in planning and deploying enterprise systems at Cingular.
Dan E. Arvizu, Ph.D. Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Federal and Industrial Client Groups CH2M HILL, Inc.
Dr. Arvizu, a New Mexico State University mechanical engineer with a Stanford M.Sc., oversees technology development and acquisitions for this employee-owned engineering, construction, and projects delivery company, generating more than $2 billion in yearly revenues. An AT&T Bell Labs and Sandia National Laboratories alumnus, he formerly directed research centers for advanced energy technology, material and process sciences, and technology commercialization. An advisor to the National Academies of Science and Engineering, he participated in two National Research Council studies of energy R&D. He's also on the Energy Department's National Coal Council.
Paulino Barros President BellSouth Latin America
Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Barros moved across industry lines to arrive in the telecommunications industry. Barros, who earned degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering before coming to the U.S., worked in the food, automotive, gas, and chemical industries before his telecommunications career. Barros joined BellSouth International in 2000 and earlier served as chief planning and operations officer and then regional vice president for Latin America. Barros also worked for Motorola, Inc. as corporate vice president and general manager for its Latin America Group. Earlier, he had held a number of posts for the Nutrasweet Company in Chicago and for Monsanto Co., in St. Louis and in Brazil.
Mario Bolaños Director, Semiconductor Group Packaging Technology Development Texas Instruments Incorporated
Leader of the only TI organization to win two prestigious "Ideas in Action" Awards, Bolaños has 10 technical patents for semiconductor packaging. His group supports the Semiconductor Group's high-growth, $8-billion-a-year digital signal processor and analog product businesses, and his superiors describe his group as one of the most creative, issuing nearly two patent disclosures per person per year, besting the average by TI's general engineering staff. Over a 27-year career, Bolaños produced consistently strong results as an executive and technical manager, and this won him his current vice-president-level post.
Jaime Borras Corporate Vice President of the Technical Staff and Director of Technology, iDEN Subscriber Group Global Telecom Solutions Sector Motorola, Inc.
Borras' group is part of Motorola's Global Telecommunications Solutions Sector, where he develops breakthrough products and technologies that ultimately become key success elements for high-volume businesses. Joining Motorola 30 years ago as an electrical engineer, Borras has worked up the communications division ladder and was there at the beginning of the wireless revolution. Borras was honored for Outstanding Technical Achievement at the 1996 Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards. He is a Motorola Science Advisory Board Associate and was named a Motorola Distinguished and Master Innovator in 1992 and 1994 and, in 1996, conferred the title of Dan Noble Fellow, the highest award for technology excellence at Motorola. Borras holds 38 U.S. patents and a Motorola Engineering Award for Excellence.
Jovita Carranza Vice President of Air Operations UPS
Carranza began as a hub clerk in UPS' Metro Los Angeles District in 1976 and excelled in supervisory and managerial assignments before landing her first operations post in 1991. She moved up to Central Florida District manager, district manager for Wisconsin, then, in 1999, district manager for the Americas Region, responsible for operations in the Mercosur trading bloc as well as Chile and Bolivia. She stepped up to UPS president for Latin America and the Caribbean, and today, running day-to-day air operations in Louisville, Ky. — technology, engineering, brokerage, ground support, human resources, and security departments — she is the company's highest-ranking Hispanic female.
Juan N. Cento President FedEx Express Latin America & Caribbean Division
Cento manages more than 3,000 employees in 50 countries, covering some seven million square miles, with people speaking four languages. He began his 27 years in air cargo and transport at Flying Tiger Line Inc. and joined FedEx as part of a 1989 merger. Cento, who was born in Cuba, attended Miami Dade Community College and Florida International University Business School and has held the posts of managing director for South and Central America and VP of Mexico, Central America, and the FedEx Global Services Provider Network. He won the 1998 Vice President of the Year Award for leading Mexico to peak growth.
Michelle Cervantez Vice President, Marketing Mercedes-Benz USA
Cervantez directs U.S. product marketing for passenger cars and light trucks, marketing communications, and advertising. She joined Mercedes-Benz in 2003 after 15 years at Ford Motor Company, where she had risen to global process and strategy manager for autos, leading brand strategy throughout the world markets. She had been marketing vice president for Jaguar Cars, North America. Ad Age magazine named her one of the "Women to Watch," Automotive News cited her as one of the "100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry," and Hispanic Business magazine named her one of the "100 Influential Hispanics." A business graduate of the University of Southern California, she has an M.B.A. from Notre Dame.
Mario Concha President-Chemical Georgia-Pacific Corporation
Concha, a native of Bogota, Colombia, joined Union Carbide Corporation after getting his B.Sc. in chemical engineering at Cornell University. He held executive positions in the U.S. and Europe, then joined Occidental Chemical, rising to international vice president before he left to head international business for steelmaker GS Industries, Inc. He had helped lead a team that formed GS Industries out of a leveraged buyout of an Armco Steel division. Concha joined Georgia-Pacific in 1998 as vice president for chemical and resins, and rose to president, running one of the leading producers of chemicals and resins in building products, papermaking, and other industrial and specialty operations.
Patricia Romero "Patt" Cronin Vice President, Transformation Initiative IBM Global Services IBM Corporation
Before taking her current post, Cronin led her division's practice for the e-business Services and Integration Group, directing more than 12,000 consultants. Cronin also led development of software to track Olympic entrants that was used for the Sydney 2000 Games. Cronin, whose parents came from El Salvador and Guatemala to go to college, has a B.Sc. in combined sciences from the University of Santa Clara and a Golden Gate University M.B.A. Cochair of La Familia Technology Week, she is an active member of the Pan American Roundtable, focused on boosting Latino women's college-going rate. In 2001, she won the award for Executive Excellence at the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards.
Gregory S. Deveson Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Saab Automobile General Motors Corporation
Deveson got his B.Sc. in industrial administration from the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) in 1984, and began his career as a Fisher Body Division production supervisor. He successfully climbed the ranks in manufacturing and engineering, on the way getting his M.B.A. at the University of Indiana in 1988. Deveson has managed metal casting, car assembly, and powertrain manufacturing in the Midwest, and now leads GM's Saab Group as executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Heriberto Diaz Vice President of Operations and General Manager Guidant Corporation
Diaz, a B.Sc. electrical engineer from the University of Puerto Rico, worked nine years at Prime Computer, Inc., before joining Guidant in 1990. He has held management posts on the island of his birth and on the mainland, and now supervises all departments at Guidant Puerto Rico, including human resources, manufacturing, technology transfer, finance, information technology, quality and compliance, and supply chain. Guidant Puerto Rico has logged revenue growth of 106 percent and production volume growth of more than 402 percent, and its customer satisfaction index has reached 99.5 percent. The Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association named him Manufacturing Executive of the Year in 2003.
Philip A. Dur, Ph.D. Corporate Vice President and President, Northrop Grumman Ship Systems Northrop Grumman Corporation
Retired Navy Rear Adm. Dur was previously vice president for program operations at Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems Sector, responsible for business operations, program execution, and acquisition/alliance activities. He also chaired the command, control, communications, and computers integrated product team. On active duty, Adm. Dur had been assistant deputy chief of Naval Operations, director of the Navy Strategy Division, and commander of the U.S. Sixth Fleet Battle Force. A bachelor's and master's degree graduate of Notre Dame University, he also has a master in public administration degree and doctorate in political economy from Harvard University.
Michael L. Escobar Assistant Vice President, Information Technology Allstate Insurance Company
Escobar is leading a major transformation initiative to turn Allstate's Applications Services Organization into a new, consulting practice business model. The organization, which has more than 2,000 IT professionals and a major budget responsibility, had been operating along traditional lines for years, but Allstate decided the rapidly changing financial services industry required a new business model. Escobar, a 26-year employee with a B.Sc. in business from Central Connecticut College, had risen through positions in accounting, operations, and information technology before accepting his present post.
Angel Garcia Corporate Vice President, Global Services and International Operations StorageTek
Garcia came to StorageTek from IBM Corporation, where he had been managing director of IBM Chile. Earlier, he had played significant roles at Xerox Corporation as vice president for Global Tele-Web Operations, vice president for marketing and operations, and head of U.S. operations. He has held country manager positions in Ecuador, Chile, Venezuela, Portugal, and Spain. Now responsible for growth markets, including Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, he holds the M.B.A. from the University A. Ibanez.
Edsel Garciaméndez-Budar Director, IP and Data Network Engineering MCI
Garciaméndez-Budar leads design, engineering, architecture, technical support, vendor technical management, and lab certification of equipment used in MCI's Global IP and Data Networks. He also supports MCI's own advanced network requirements, overseeing technical and architectural evolution of MCI's multiservice and data convergence platforms. Before joining MCI in 1994, he held management and engineering posts at British Telecom North America and Tymnet. Garciaméndez-Budar has master's degrees in operations research and industrial engineering from Stanford University and a bachelor's in engineering from Mexico's Ibero American University.
Richard A. Gonzalez President and Chief Operating Officer, Medical Products Group Abbott Laboratories, Inc.
Gonzalez, a former research biochemist at the University of Miami School of Medicine with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the University of Houston and an M.Sc. from the University of Miami, joined Abbott in 1977. He held several positions in the diagnostics division before being named divisional vice president in 1992. He was elected president of Abbott HealthSystems Division in 1995 and senior vice president for hospital products three years later. He rose to his present post in December 2001 and also was elected to Abbott's board of directors.
Si Gutierrez Vice President of Central Planning and Production Control National Semiconductor Corporation
Gutierrez, a former director of Worldwide Planning at LSI Logic Corporation, earned his bachelor of management degree from San Jose State University. At National Semiconductor, he is responsible for strategic direction of supply chain planning, revenue planning, evaluating production and inventory levels, and implementing systems to ensure optimum customer service and productivity from the company's manufacturing facilities.
John Ladaga Vice President and General Manager of Americas Delivery EDS
Responsible for management of $7 billion in revenues, a third of EDS' annual total, Ladaga manages more than 30,000 employees in the provision of services. His portfolio includes clients in Canada, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the U.S. in several industries: transportation, telecommunications, energy, financial, consumer and retail services, and manufacturing. A pioneer in development of decision support systems, Ladaga and his team discovered innovative ways to marry legacy applications to Web-enabled technology, transforming legacy data into new decision-making tools. He has been recognized with the top-rank EDS Leadership Award because of his team's customer satisfaction and contributions to the firm.
