MARIA MARTINEZ
IT IS ABOUT HEART, SOUL AND MIND In October, she will achieve her second anniversary as a member of the board of directors of McKesson, the nation's largest drug distributer and a major player in the healthcare industry. FOR MARTINEZ, Chief Operating Officer at hardware giant Cisco Systems, holding a governance position at company ranked number seven in the Fortune 500, is a major personal accomplishment that also singularly notable in that it comes at a time when women and Hispanics remain underrepresented on company boards. Martinez is one of three women on the nine-member McKesson board. With a 35-year career in leadership positions in various technology enterprises, she brings to the healthcare giant is an abundance of an attribute, experience, that she says Hispanics need to acquire before they can create more opportunities to be chosen company directors. "One of the problems of the past is that boards like experienced people," said Martinez who joined Cisco Systems, the number 63 company in the Fortune 500, as a high-level executive in April 2018 and has held executive positions at industry leaders such as Salesforce, Microsoft, Motorola, and AT&T. While the disparity in Hispanics and women obtaining board seats persists, Martinez is encouraged about the outlook for these groups. She said the timing is right now for more of these people to reach this pinnacle of business leadership. "Boards are a lot more interested and a lot more shareholders are demanding diversity on boards," she said. Martinez, who holds a bachelor's degree in in electrical engineering from the Universidad de Puerto Rico and a master's degree in computer engineering from Ohio State University, emphasizes that education is important for anyone looking to serve on a company board. She points institutions such as Stanford University who are now helping people for a governance opportunity. "Try to learn enough about it (board service} that you can convince some board to take you." she said, with the previse that this process does take time and boards know that it may have to spend a few months training you, and they will." Being board director, Martinez has found, is very different from being a company executive and was "the biggest transitions" of her career.
"It was a learning experience that I wanted to have," she said. "I did not know if I would like it, I am so hands on, but the board has really taught me how to be an advisor." What Martinez has learned is that a board position requires a different kind of skills from being an executive. This includes know what to say and when to be a hands-off director, she said, "but you have to be close enough to keep an eye on things" and responsibly in represent shareholders. "You have to ensure that that company is going in the right direction and your leadership team is doing the right thing," the McKesson board member explained, and this means knowing how to really influence the direction of the company and to give the leadership team enough space to do it their way. As an executive, Martinez said holding a board seat has been helpful because she sees how decisions get made, and the importance of the different aspects of a company's operation. "I have learned a lot about finance, audits and all compensation aspects at the executive level in much broader way," said Martinez who is on the McKesson finance and governance committees. She also has become more cognizant of what the board cares about, so she can now make that a priority. During her decades of executive work, Martinez has thought a lot about leadership style and breaks it down to three elements: heart, soul and mind. Heart, “is caring about people, empathy for people and trying to play to their strengths and to make them become part of your team." Soul is the compassion you contribute. "You must have a have strong vision for where you want to go and have everyone passionate about that." Mind consists of the knowledge, the skills and the technical aspect of the job, the Cisco executive said. "For years, I always thought that mind was more important," Martinez said, "but now, after being around for a long time and trying different ways, I now think it is heart."
COO OF CISCO & BOARD DIRECTOR FOR MCKESSON
LATINOS ON BOARDS 2021
Maria Martinez was presented in August 2021 with the Latino Leaders Maestro Award for entrepreneurship.
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