Donna Alvarado on Board Service

“I grew up in a big family. My father was career military and my mother enjoyed a full-time nursing career. We experienced our Mexican heritage first hand in visits with cousins in Mexico City. My mother was a role model at a time when it was unusual for women to be moms and have a career too. And my father taught us that in this country, the great privilege was that we could achieve any dream with a good education and willingness to work hard.”

WHEN I GRADUATED high school, my parents told me I could attend college anywhere, as long as it was in- state tuition in Ohio. Dad had established residency there when he was stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB, so that higher education would be affordable for all 7 of his kids. I am a proud alumna of The Ohio State University, and also a Sooner, having attended graduate school at the University of Oklahoma. I have been blessed with a career in government, non-profit and corporate sectors.

When I was serving as CEO of an educational publishing organization, I was invited to join the board of directors of Park National Bank, a wonderful community bank in Ohio. I greatly admired the character of the Chairman, as well as the other directors, and the bank’s long history of serving communities across Ohio. I was greatly honored and am proud to continue to serve on Park’s board to this day.

What I most enjoy about serving on the boards of Park, CSX, and CoreCivic is the opportunity to learn from and serve alongside America’s great business leaders, both on the boards and the management teams, and to contribute to the stewardship of these companies.

I am perpetually curious about discovering the underlying patterns in complex problems. Invariably there are unprecedented challenges where no one person has the answer. The key is found with open dialogue and asking the right strategic questions. I relish being part of a team of thought leaders seeking to work together to discover new knowledge and add value to the organization.

The best-run companies are those that make it possible for every person to contribute their unique talents and insights. The mission flourishes when a company values diversity and authenticity, and the tone of at the top is unequivocally inclusive.

I think corporate America still has a long way to go to advance diversity in the boardroom in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, but also diversity of experience, thought and cultural perspective. I’ve seen tremendous progress, especially for women, over the last decades. I am optimistic that this diversity will continue to grow, as long as there is commensurate diversity in C-suites and the next level of leadership.

In order to best serve their companies, directors should gain unfiltered exposure to the industry, to employees and to emerging trends. We must be proactive in asking management and our fellow directors how we, as individuals as well as collectively, can best support management and all stakeholders.

The real contribution of diversity is making the circle of talent larger, and opening up the creative space so that new ways of thinking are fostered and made visible. The problems of the future cannot be solved by solely relying on the mindset and solutions that worked well in the past.

Women have a unique challenge in balancing work, family and personal development. Good leaders will ask all members of the team what leadership can do to positively affect their ability to do their job and advance. The best leaders are accountable to each team member for leadership’s impact on an individual’s ability to deliver more value to the company. Just as we, as Latinos, feel a responsibility to reach back and lend a hand to advance the next generation of Latino leadership, so do we, as women, also have this responsibility to mentor and to coach those who will step into our roles in the future.

Early in my board experience, I learned that courage, competency, and integrity are paramount qualities for corporate directors. Now, I would add a fourth: connection. Directorship is not about parachuting into the board room for quarterly meetings. While respecting the different roles of management and directors, a far deeper connection is required for optimal governance and stewardship. This means getting out and meeting employees at the heart of the mission, attending investor conferences, and understanding how the company is viewed by customers, communities, and regulators.