Passion for Advancing Women in Top Executive Positions

Nicole Reich, President of the Board BNP Paribas Cardif

By Luana Ferreira

When Nicole Reich, former CEO at BNP Paribas Cardif Mexico, started her banking career more than thirty years ago, she was often the only woman in the room. During the last decades, Nicole climbed the corporate ladder, became a top executive, and served as a board member for several institutions, including today her former company, Gentera bank, Diesco Group, and the Junior Achievement Board.

Yet, Nicole is aware she is still an exception and wants to open space for other women. Although statistics have recently improved, only 11% of executives and board members at financial institutions in Latin America are women, according to aresearch published by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The executive became known in the business as a game-changer who is not afraid of challenges.

Nicole started her career in banking at Citigroup Mexico, where she worked in different areas and was offered an opportunity in Peru. "They gave it to me because it was a lost cause, and I was known for turning businesses over. My boss gave me two options, 'so are you fixing it or are we closing it?' And I said, 'Give me six months.' We succeeded," she remembers.

After that, Nicole accepted new challenges in the Dominican Republic and Chile, where she ran the whole group and consumer bank operation, respectively. She was also the leader of Citigroup's diversity program in Latin America for nearly three years. Eventually, she moved to Indonesia to look after 6,000 employers and a $600-million operation.

After that, Nicole was ready for a change, so she accepted an offer from Scotiabank. Her new challenge was to fix their operations in the Dominican Republic, aiming to become the bank's President in Mexico afterward. "It was unthinkable then that a woman could run a big bank in Mexico. So I took the chance. I went to the D.R., and we turned around the whole business in two years."

When she took over the position at Scotiabank Mexico in 2007, she became the first female President of a bank in Mexico. She ran Scotiabank in Mexico for five years. During that period, Nicole and her team worked hard to give the bank visibility and grow all the portfolios. After that period and all milestones accomplished, Reich decided it was time to take a sabbatical, but headhunters kept calling her. It wasn't until the appropriate company profile came that she decided to return. She had a stellar comeback as the CEO of BNP Paribas Cardif, a position she held until early 2022.

Nicole believes that her success relies on a combination of qualities. The first is being savvy on all financial subjects, but she is also people-oriented. Nicole also does her homework. "I never arrive at a board without reading the materials, preparing myself with questions."

The executive says she never felt discriminated as a woman, and she turned the fact of being the only woman in the room in her favor. "Everybody remembers you. You may not remember the 30 guys in the meeting, but they will remember you," she says. "So, I have tended to use being a woman as a benefit and not as something negative. As a Latino leader, though, I think it's more difficult."

Undeniably, things have evolved for Latino women in the past three decades, but Nicole wants to help them achieve more. "When I'm sitting on a board, I make sure men are conscious of what we have on management lines and consider all the women that might be ready to advance."

Nicole takes the support of the gender seriously and plans to continue spearheading the advancement of new generations. "I want to open up space for women. Nobody believed that a woman could be President of a bank in Mexico, and nobody believed we could be on boards. I proved differently," she adds.