LATINOS ON BOARDS 2021
“BE PREPARED” MELANIE HEALEY BOARD DIRECTOR FOR VERIZON, HILTON HOTELS, TARGET AND PPG.
Melanie Healey closed one chapter of her career when she left Procter and Gamble North America in 2015 after six years as group president, and opened another one she has found fascinating, being an independent director for four very different companies. Healey views her board membership as a way for her to contribute as well as hold a position of influence on a company and in an industry.
"I FELT THAT this is a place I could make a difference, could bring my experience to bear, but I also could make a difference in helping to develop board diversity, develop leadership talent pipelines across multiple companies, not just one," she said. What the Brazilian-born director brings to the table includes three decades of management experience which before P&G included marketing leadership roles for Johnson & Johnson and S.C. Johnson. One of the two primary reasons underlying her migration from management to governance in her post-P&G life is to satisfy a personal passion "to pursue stronger diversity across multiple boards and to importantly improve shareholder value because of that,” The other one, relates to a penchant for learning and to be intellectually challenged, explained Healey. "You get to see a lot of the dynamics across four different industries, focused obviously on the United States, but also an understanding about what is happening in the rest of the world," she said. "You go from retail focused on North America, to the hotel industry which is obviously global, to Verizon, a mostly a North America industry and to PPG which is global," she said. She also mentioned that being less familiar with some of these industries is a big plus "because it kind forces you to study." This was the case with Verizon where when she joined the board she admittedly did not know anything about wireless, cellular and broad band. "There was a lot that I had to learn," Healey said. On the other hand, Healey also can be instructive, including in sharing her perspective in what Latinos need to do to end their under representation on corporate boards. “The first thing is we have to continue to expose the reality," she said, and to underscore the facts, “…. Latinos, contribute $2 trillion to the gross national product. Also, 87 of the companies owned by Latinas, grew 87 percent, more than any other cohort out there, according to research; from 2007-2012”. However, she said, "then you go to board seats, and you say, there are only 1.1 percent Latinas on boards and four to five percent Latinos in general on boards, yet you have almost 20 percent of the U.S. population and 35 percent of households." What Latinos in general, can bring to boards, Healey said, is a perspective into the
156 LATINO LEADERS JULY / AUGUST 2021
156-157 Melany Healy.indd 156
23/09/21 11:51
