One on One with Catherine
Catherine Hernandez-Blades is senior vice president, chief environmental, social and governance (ESG) and communications officer at Aflac. She is responsible for corporate communications, organizational communications, philanthropy and ESG activities for the company, including the company’s Global SABRE award-winning corporate social responsibility (CSR) program.
Share with us your background, your roots.
I grew up in a very small town in south Louisiana – in bayou country – the nearest big city being New Orleans. Like most Cajuns, I am of mixed heritage. On my father’s side, I am of French and Spanish descent, and on my mother’s my heritage is Irish and Native American. With the exception of the latter, Catholicism is robustly practiced. I went to Catholic schools my entire life and chose to attend a small university in Lafayette, Louisiana. Having been educated by Catholic nuns, in my case the St. Vincent de Paul Daughters of Charity, instilled a sense of responsibility of care for others, taught me discipline in every meaning of the word and embedded a “don’t stop until the job is done” attitude. These are lessons you never lose and that help you in your career. They certainly have helped me in mine.
When did you realize you wanted to follow this path of a career?
I didn’t choose this career; it chose me. Growing up, I always thought I wanted to work in broadcast journalism. During my junior year of college, I was taking 21 hours a semester and waking up at 3 a.m. to work on a morning television program called “Good Morning Acadiana” as an unpaid intern. Yes, you read that correctly.
I didn’t find it fulfilling and went to work as a social worker for two years after graduation, thinking I would find my purpose. I quickly learned from both experiences that if you really want to help others, corporate philanthropy could have a real and much more meaningful impact.
From there, curating a career carefully became very important. I made sure that I worked a reasonable amount of time in all of the disciplines within the function. I also rounded out my public affairs experience by working in government. In my case, that meant becoming the youngest gubernatorial appointee since Reconstruction to run a state agency – The Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. From there, I spent 10 years in aerospace and defense at two different companies, where I was able to travel to and be responsible for efforts in 40 countries.
Then came more curation. This time, I spent three years in Silicon Valley as the chief marketing and communications officer for a Fortune 500 technology company. After that, I came to Aflac, another Fortune 500 company, first as the chief communications officer, then as head of Brand and Communications, and now as chief ESG and communications officer. ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance, and as a publically traded company in the financial sector, it’s a critical function.
Serving the hardworking men and women in the restaurant and seafood industries in my home and other coastal states, in military uniform in our country and those of our allies, and our policyholders to whom we sell a promise on a piece of paper with the responsibility to be there when they need us most has provided a personal fulfillment that is difficult to put into words. What is as fulfilling is building and nurturing a team of wonderful people who like and respect each other, as well as create great, award-winning work. Serving those people is why I continue to get up in the morning.
What have been some of the top challenges you’ve faced during your career?
I’ve always been a problem solver – the more complex the better! That has led me to “volunteer” for very difficult assignments. I put the word volunteer in quotes because sometimes, it’s more about someone “voluntelling” me to do something.
These are the projects I love – the diving catches, the crises, the transformations, the turnarounds, the heavy lifts – and each always presents a number of challenges.
The most difficult things for me have been my youth and working in mostly male industries. There were days I could walk around a building and not see anyone else who was female. Also, I have been fortunate to move through the ranks quickly. Both have caused me to be underestimated. However, over time, you learn how to fuel that to your advantage.
I’ve been on the receiving end of some very inappropriate remarks. We all have. My advice is that you should never change the essence of who you are by becoming bitter. Anger serves no purpose. Let the work speak for itself, and when it does, no one listens to the inappropriate remarks anymore. Trust me.
What role do you see Latinxs playing in the future of your industry?
There is a huge opportunity for the Latinx community in the work that I do. We reflect a growing demographic and are not well represented in the industry. Candidly, our whole function struggles with diversity of all types, and we need to fix that. There are some tangible things we can do right now around education, recruiting, hiring, retention and providing diverse candidate slates for promotion.
Can you tell us about a pivotal moment in your career?
I worked for the most incredible boss. He was a rocket scientist who really understood and cared about people – a brilliant man by the name of Jon Jones. He not only made you a better leader; he made you a better person. He treated everyone with great respect and care. His leadership inspired all of us to take the hill time after time. I learned so many lessons about being a good leader from him. For many years, I drove my teams hard, and they got results, but I can’t imagine that anyone had any fun working with me. I was too driven and expected everyone around me to be that way, too. He died unexpectedly, and in my grief, I began making great efforts to mirror his example and become a leader that my teams would take the hill for time after time, not because they had to, but because they wanted to.
What are you working on right now and what are some dreams you’re still looking forward to achieving?
Right now, my favorite work project continues to be My Special Aflac Duck®, a social robot that supports children during their cancer treatment by helping them engage in medical play and communicate their feelings through emoji cards that allow the duck to serve as a kind of translator. It is the most rewarding project of my career.
Aflac is providing them for free to any child above the age of 3 who is diagnosed with cancer when requested by their medical facility in the U.S. or Japan, two countries where we have operations. Any medical facilities who treat pediatric cancer patients can request My Special Aflac Ducks online. There is no cap on the program. The medical facilities can order as many as they wish and aren’t even charged for shipping. They only have to promise that the ducks will go to pediatric cancer patients. How wonderful is that?
As for the future ... well, I’ve had a book swirling around in my head for years now, and someday, I will finally put it on paper! It’s going to be a page turner – stay tuned!