Suzette Recinos Wants You to Make Your Vision Known

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Suzette Recinos was general counsel for a small private company. A former colleague she had reconnected with from Pitney Bowes reached out asking Recinos if she knew anyone who might be interested in a senior director position at PepsiCo, where she was now working. Recinos did: herself.

The current senior vice president, Latin American general counsel, and new global legal services executive willingly took what might seem in title like a step down because she believed it might lead to even greater things. She was correct.

PepsiCo is quickly approaching $100 billion in annual revenues, and Recinos demonstrated her ability to step into a global procurement role, an area she had to grow into incredibly quickly. It’s led her to a series of quick promotions at the massive organization.

“We all have different experiences, and I think those need to be valued and celebrated.”

Suzette Recinos

Recinos, whose in-house career began at Pitney Bowes, has continued to rise throughout her career by what she calls “making it known.”

“The theme I see in my own career is repeatedly making it known to people around me that I’m happy to take on new opportunities, even those outside of my comfort zone,” the SVP says. “I think that’s an important action people often forget about. You have to be open; you have to be willing to move, but first, you have to advocate for yourself and make sure your leaders know that you want to try new things.”

That’s how Recinos wound up working from Mexico City. The attorney had already made it to PepsiCo headquarters in New York City, which most would consider an end in and of itself. But when she landed a vice president role in LatAm, it meant moving to Miami; that office closed shortly after she arrived.

Despite not knowing what the future would hold, Recinos made it known that if a promotion was available, she would move to Mexico. “It was a bit of luck and good timing that the SVP and general counsel of LatAm role opened up and it was offered to me,” she says.

Recinos says she met with every single person she could; she didn’t care about their title or role. When the Mexico GC retired, Recinos brought in the former Brazilian GC, a woman, to head the role. The Brazilian team had shown incredible adaptation to incorporating new technologies and methodologies into its practice, and Recinos wanted to bring that same mindset to the Mexican team. 

The name of the game, at present, is “harmonization and centralization.” Recinos says operations in regions, let alone countries, differ across her LatAm purview, and creating more standardized procedures across LatAm will create long-lasting efficiencies and easily accessible informational repositories.

Recinos has also created something of a cultural reset across her department. She bypasses formality in favor of creating more exposure for her team. Her reports know that if she’s not on the phone, they can walk over and have a conversation with her; they don’t need to find time with her assistant. Recinos has aimed to create an environment more focused on upward mobility than strict hierarchical adherence.

“I’ve tried to push my people outside of their comfort zones,” Recinos explains. “I’ve helped people prepare to present to senior leadership, and while that can be very nerve-wracking, I know it can give them some visibility in this multinational company. I try to bring people with me to present because I know what a valuable experience it can be. I want people to know their names and know what they do here.”

Recinos’s career is impressive on its own, but it’s only part of the story. Her second daughter was born two weeks before she started law school. Her son was born right before her bar exam. She was a young associate and a single mother with three small kids at home. Now, she and her husband are the parents of five in a blended family. It’s provided a much-needed perspective in the legal space.

“I had children, and I would be lying if I didn’t feel a great deal of attention on me that other people didn’t seem to be getting,” Recinos says. “It wasn’t like they were looking for me to fail, but whatever I did, there seemed to be much more attention paid than a male colleague who was married with kids leaving early for a soccer practice.

“It’s just made me focus on access and exposure for others throughout my career. Everyone deserves opportunities to succeed and to grow,” she continues. “We all have different experiences, and I think those need to be valued and celebrated.”

Recinos’s career is proof that the upward path to success may not always look like a forward-moving line. Everyone’s route is different. And getting to the top can’t happen unless your networks, bosses, colleagues, and friends know that you want it. Recinos wants you to be vocal about your intentions, willingness, and ability to try something new.

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