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Executive Round Table: Diversity as a Business Imperative

Norma Martinez Lozano
Sr. Vice President - Merger Transition
AT&T Services, Inc.

As Sr. Vice President - Merger Transition for AT&T Services, Inc., Norma Martinez Lozano is responsible for merger transition related to re-branding, and ensuring the implementation of the AT&T/BellSouth merger conditions.

Lozano began her career with Southwestern Bell in 1979 as a network engineer in San Antonio, TX. She held numerous positions throughout the former SBC Communications’ territory. In 1990, Lozano was appointed General Manager of a new subsidiary, Southwestern Bell Messaging Services, Inc. In this position, she was responsible for the formation of this new subsidiary, and the development and introduction of voice messaging services for consumers and small businesses. In 1994, Lozano became the first Hispanic to be appointed an officer of the former SBC Communications. She served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Southwestern Bell Messaging Services, Inc. She also previously served as Vice President - Diversity Marketing for the former SBC Operations, Inc., responsible for diversity marketing, and the corporate call centers. Following Diversity Marketing, Lozano was appointed to serve as President-Diversified Businesses, responsible for five distinct business units; Operator Services, Public Communications (Coin), Paging, Messaging, and Video Services. Her organization expanded across the former SBC Communications’ 13-state territory.

Lozano is currently a member of the University of Texas College of Natural Sciences Advisory Council, a board member of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Free Trade Alliance and the Harlandale Education Foundation, as well as a member of the Hispanic Association of Communications Employees.

Over the past few years, Lozano’s business achievements and community involvement have earned her a number of prestigious awards and distinctive honors. She received the “Hall of Fame Award” from the University of Texas College of Natural Sciences. She was recognized by the National Hispanic Employee Association with the “Breaking Barriers Award.” She received the VIDA Award from Hispanic Magazine and NBC, the Texas Women to Watch Award and the “Hall of Fame Award” from Hispanic Women in Leadership,. She was recognized by VISTA Magazine with their Corporate Achievement Award and also received the Latina Excellence Award from Hispanic Magazine for her tremendous achievements in the corporate arena. She also received the distinguished Eagle Award from the National Eagle Leadership Institute as well as recognition as the “Corporate Elite” for Hispanic Business magazine.

A native of San Benito, TX, Lozano earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1979. Lozano and her husband, Rafael, reside in San Antonio, TX.

Nellie Borrero
Global Inclusion & Diversity Director
Accenture

Nellie Borrero is known in many industries and on many college campuses as a woman with a passion for inclusion & diversity. A sought-after speaker with more than 15 years experience in diversity programs, Borrero helps Accenture’s employees understand the importance of embracing diversity. She communicates the message to potential recruits, clients and other organizations, holds an increasingly crucial role and is one of the driving forces behind the company’s diversity initiatives.

Borrero oversees Accenture’s Inclusion program from the Metro New York office. The program's mission is to optimize Accenture's ability to fulfill its vision and core values by creating an environment rich in diversity. Accenture acknowledges each individual's uniqueness; values skills and contributions; and promotes respect, personal achievement and stewardship of the company. Borrero also created the first full-time role focused on diversity at the company, and she is an advocate for change.

Few people are better poised to speak about the subject of diversity as Borrero. She has shared her wisdom and perspectives in publications such as Forbes, Black Enterprise, Chicago Tribune, Diversity/Careers in IT & Engineering, Hispanic Engineering and Management Consulting Magazine, and has been a guest on National Public Radio (NPR). Her interview topics range from the importance of tying diversity to the overall business and recognizing the importance of establishing programs focused on inclusion, and she has shared her own experience as a Latina in a male-dominated corporate world.

Borrero has received numerous awards, most recently: Stevie Women in Business Award - Best Latin American Executive; ASPIRA Circle of Achievers Award; National Management Consulting Diversity Achievement Award; and National Society of Hispanic MBA's Individual Corporate Executive Award.

She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Management, specializing in Human Resources, after attending New York University and Lehman College. She joined Accenture in 1986 and quickly became active both personally and professionally in assisting minorities and women in the workplace.
 

Mariana Brugger
Vice President of Human Resources
Northeast Division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Mariana Brugger is the Vice President of Human Resources for the Northeast Division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. In this role, Mariana works with a team of 65 HR professionals to make Wal-Mart the best place to work and shop!

Mariana has been with the company since 1992 when she joined Sam’s Club Mexico as an associate in Human Resources. Her different duties and challenges throughout the years included HR Staff Manager, Recruitment Manager, Training Manager and Director of HR Operations. She also played an important role during the transition period of merging Cifra corporate culture with that of Wal-Mart.

Between 1998 and 2001 Mariana headed the HR area for Carrefour Mexico as member of the Executive Committee.

Mariana holds an "Industrial Relations" college degree by UIA and a Masters in Business Administration by IPADE.

She has been living in the United States for almost 2 years now and enjoys extreme experiences like "sky diving", flying an ultra-light plane and driving in Mexico City.
 

Patt Cronin, General Manager, IBM Deliver Excellence

Patt is currently the General Manager of Global Technology Delivery and Delivery Excellence. In this role she has the responsibility of transforming the way IBM delivers services globally and manages the Global Delivery Centers in India,China, Brazil and Argentina, a team of almost 16,000. Prior to that, Patt was the General Manager of the IBM Global account. In this role, she has the responsibility to manage a budget of 3.4 billion dollars for applications, leading edge technologies, infrastructure and processes that enable world-class, resilient services to IBM. Prior to being promoted to that position, Patt was the Vice President of Global Business Transformation providing solutions to IBM’s Global Services employees worldwide. In that role she managed an IT spend of 1.8 billion. Patt and her team fueled 40-billion dollars of IBM Global Services business with IT innovations to grow revenues to upwards of 60 billion dollars. Before that Patt was the vice president of the global practice for practice for IBM Global Services’ e-business Services and Integration Group. In that role she lead a global team of over 12,000 consultants who helped clients plan, design and implement e-business solutions for customers.

Patt has held many technical and management positions in her 20 years at IBM. She joined the company in the former Office Products Division in San Francisco, California, in 1981 as a software engineer. In 1983, she joined the IBM Silicon Valley Laboratory as a programmer assigned to IBM Database products DB2 and IMS. In 1994, Patt was promoted to Director of Worldwide Marketing for Database Products, and two years later was named the Director of Marketing Strategy and Business Development for independent software vendors for IBM hardware and software technologies. The next year, Patt was promoted to General Manager of Global Insurance Solutions.

In 1999, Patt was appointed as Vice President of Olympic Technology Integration, one of the most challenging and exciting positions of her career. Patt was responsible for developing software for the massive task of keeping track of Olympic entrants, measuring their performance and posting and communicating results. Although many countries were involved, the critical software was developed and tested in Spain, and then deployed for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Patt was responsible for the supervision the development of 13 million lines of computer code to insure that the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games went smoothly. Speaking Spanish was one of many necessary skills that Patt brought to this job. The Olympic management system had to keep track of many critical areas including: immigration and application forms for every athlete from every country; game schedules, scoring and statistics for 37 sports; and communications with the world news press agencies and sports commentators.

Patt holds a Bachelor of Science in combined Natural Sciences from the University of Santa Clara and an MBA from Golden Gate University. Patt resides in California with husband Kevin and three daughters.

Patt is an active member of the Pan American Roundtable that is focused on increasing the number of Latinos that attend Universities. In addition, Patt is on the Board and is an active member of the National Charity League (NCL). NCL is a non-profit national organization of mothers and daughters that join together in community involvement. The organization’s goal is to foster a sense of community responsibility and strengthen the mother-daughter relationship. Patt is also on the Board of Junior Achievement (JA). JA is non-profit economic education organization. Its programs are taught by classroom volunteers from the business community in both the U.S. and over 100 countries worldwide with the focus of educating and inspiring young people to value free enterprise and entrepreneurship, to understand business and economics, and to be workforce ready. Patt is also on the board for HENAAC. HENAAC is the gateway for Hispanics in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). It is a non-profit organization that focuses on STEM educational awareness programs for students from kindergarten to career. HENAAC provides resources for recognition and recruitment of Hispanics in STEM on a national level, connecting multi-areas of engineering and science arenas to the general population.
 

Jeanne De Amicis Stitt
Vice President, Multicultural Markets
UnitedHealthcare

Jeanne D. Stitt is Vice President of Multicultural Markets at UnitedHealthcare, a division of UnitedHealth Group.

Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Stitt leads UnitedHealthcare’s efforts to transform the company to serve the increasingly diverse U.S. population. Her mission is to grow the business by reducing health disparities and offer health care coverage solutions that meet the needs of a diverse marketplace. Her multicultural responsibilities encompass three centers of excellence: Latino Health Solutionssm, Generations of Wellnesssm (focused on the African American population), and Asian American Markets.

Under Stitt’s leadership, UnitedHealthcare has received repeated national recognition by the National Commission in Quality Assurance (NCQA) for its innovative work in reducing health disparities in Multicultural populations.

While at UnitedHealthcare Stitt has led Market Intelligence and Analytics, as well as the Small Business marketing function. She has held executive positions at Jostens, Inc., and General Mills, where she held both marketing and general management positions, and was responsible for repositioning and turning-around several major businesses.

Stitt spent her childhood in Mexico City and her teen years in Boston. She has a BA from Duke University, an MBA from The University of Michigan, and has completed an advanced program at The Wharton School and the Leonard Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.