Breathe
By Liliana Reyes, General Director of the Mexican Private Equity Association.
I know my résumé backwards and forwards. I had to recite it many times when I worked in the public sector, every time I was in front of any official to whom I had to present the business support programs I was leading. It was almost a requirement to start the conversation. As soon as the person knew what I had studied, where I had worked and had asked a battery of questions about my professional career, then yes, we could talk business.
One more curiosity is that in group meetings, when I had to sit at work tables with several people, the personifiers used never had my professional title. They would say: "Liliana Reyes", just like that. Unlike my all-male colleagues, there were no abbreviations. No "Lic." or "Mtra.".
I confess that I never needed it, but I was intrigued to know who designed the impersonators, and why it simply didn't occur to them to use the same resources for everyone. I think maybe that person assumed I didn't have a degree, even though by then I had two master's degrees completed.
During my professional career I witnessed many such details, time and time again; and while none of these circumstances made me give up on my professional goals, neither did they inspire me to work harder. We were all pulling together towards the same goal and that was it.
Suddenly I came across the first female role models role models in the industry, which until that moment I had not been close to; that opened my eyes to a different way of working. I collaborated in a team led by Adriana Tortajada, with whom I had worked 10 years before, and who was now joining her team at the National Entrepreneur Institute (INADEM). I met a super leader Adriana who inspired me and made me think many times about how I could do what she was doing.
To this day, she is a role model, my advisor and we know that together, we grow to be an example for many other women to create a community and further their professional careers.
At that moment I understood that this was the spark I was missing and I know that I learned everything I could from Adriana to later lead my own teams and projects under the idea that talent has no gender, but that women need to win professional spaces and be seen for the value they generate.
I am convinced that one of the keys to modernize, empower, drive, grow and strengthen any industry is to make visible the inspiring women who are already demonstrating what they are capable of. Those women who will push new generations - or even their own generation - to take risks, to learn, to undertake, to be decisive and to participate in ultra-specialized sectors.
In 2018 I became the general director of the Mexican Private Equity Association (AMEXCAP), an industry in which there were also few female role models despite the fact that in funds and in companies women were indeed making a difference. In fact, the Association's previous director, Maria Ariza, had already become an inspiration to me and many other women. So it was key to continue her legacy.
At AMEXCAP we conducted the first study of inclusion and gender diversity in the private equity industry and found that 80% of women entering the industry do not reach a senior management position, reflecting the limited opportunities for women due to the lack of inclusion policies and the scarcity of role models. Imagine a recent college graduate finding her first job and seeing women in decision-making positions, she will surely have an aspiration to climb the ladder and her confidence will grow with a solid foundation to compete in a male-dominated industry.
With this in mind, from AMEXCAP I set out to make a difference; I realized that it is super necessary that the stories of the women who make up private equity in Mexico were public, visible. So we partnered with Women Index, a directory of women experts in different industries that serves as a community where anyone can find new allies, talent and visibility.
Thus, together with Women Index, AMEXCAP was able to map interesting data that give us an idea of women's participation in the industry. We started with 50 cases and, from them, we were able to recognize that 74.5% fulfill two or more functions in the investment fund to which they belong -some of them up to five-. We also know that the area where they are most present is in Investor Relations.
And although there are women in private equity who work every day to strengthen the industry, only 17.6% of them are partners in the investment funds where they work.
I am intrigued to know why, since all the women who participated have a varied, rich and successful background. Perhaps it is because their stories are not so public so far, and that is precisely why we joined the Women Index, so that the careers of these women are visible, recognized and empowered.
Today we already know the story of 50 women, but we still need to meet all the others who are part of the industry and who, with their work and vision, contribute that diversity of ideas that drives and will drive the work we are doing as a guild to keep up to date, break new frontiers and grow.
As the leader of the Association that represents the industry, I want to shine the spotlight so that there are more role models, more inspiration for other women and recognition of the value that each one adds to a work team, and we can only do this by knowing their stories and joining efforts such as the Women Index of Private Equity.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of Opinion 51.
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