From a young age I knew that to fully realize yourself as a person, you have to achieve financial independence. The best way to do this is to get good training, set a professional goal and work hard to achieve it.
Member of the Board of Director of Siemens Gamesa
Gloria Hernández
In my case, that professional option was the Public Administration - the civil service exams for Technical Sales Engineer and State Economist - because, being a woman, it seemed the surest way to reach my goal. The public sector had a reputation, even then, for not discriminating; the best jobs are always for the best prepared, regardless of gender.
When I joined the private sector years later, I chose the financial world, which is a world that is mostly male. I have to admit, however, that I have never allowed this fact to influence my career decisions or reduce my chances. By dedicating time and effort, I have always managed to reach my goals.
Throughout my career I have had the opportunity to form part of and lead many teams, and I have found that the more diverse they are - in age, gender, experience and training – the better the results are and, therefore, they are a greater guarantee of success.
A Board with gender diversity is going to have better and more exhaustive discussions, and a greater scope that will favor its task of supervising and controlling the company's management.
Regarding my specific case, the proposal to join the Gamesa Board, now SGRE, was a great challenge. It entailed going from performing a role of a senior management executive of a banking entity to be a member of a Board of Directors of an industrial company mostly made up of men, all of whom had a long track record as directors.
Fortunately, my experience as a CFO had enabled me to have great exposure to the Board and that helped me better understand what was expected of me as a director. Furthermore, I've always thought that through study and dedication, one can achieve any goal that may be proposed, as difficult as it may seem. In the case of this Board, my goal was and still is to perform well as a company director and be able to provide added value, for which I spare no time or effort.
The merger with Siemens Wind Power, in addition to enabling a leading company in the wind sector to be created, substantially increased the presence of women on the Board, while improving its geographical diversity, experience and capabilities of its members. This has made it possible to generate a constructive dialog within this body, give the necessary support to management and supervise and control its performance.
Considering all this, I want to encourage all those women in executive positions who have ever thought of contributing their experience to a Board to do so, so that they can fight for their goal. If they are really well prepared, sooner or later they will reach it.
