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Uprooting a life to begin again in a new country is never just a move, it is a transformation. The immigrant story is told so often in this country that it risks underplaying just how challenging it truly is to leave behind one’s home, family, and sense of belonging to start over. It means rebuilding everything that once felt certain, often from the ground up with courage and reinvention.

When Luz Najera accepted a global role with Ingredion, after serving as senior director of corporate affairs and sustainability for the company’s Mexican division, she and her family made the life-changing decision to move to Chicago. Leaving behind the team she had mentored and grown close to over eight and a half years was no easy choice, but the attorney also knew her departure would give the opportunity to her team to step up and move forward in their own careers.

The current VP of global government affairs at Ingredion stepped in to the leadership role through the uncertainty of the still ongoing pandemic and without a fully established leadership team to guide her transition.

“By the time we moved here, the business unit was managing changes that gave me the challenge to arrive to my new position without a manager for a few months, as well as the necessity to provide continuity of the current agenda, but [also] designing a new agenda for the global function,” Najera explains. “As I reflect on it, I think it’s important for people to know transitions require hard work, resilience, and patience. It’s OK if you struggle. I am proof of that.”

Najera learned early in her career that building strong relations across an organization and outside was the true key to growing one’s skill set. Since then, that has always been her strategy to build great alliances, and this wasn’t going to be any different. She connected with people who had her best interests at heart to help her adapt to her new surroundings. As a result, she has made incredible partnerships within the organization and with other business units’ colleagues that even have become her mentors.

 “From my position, I try to advocate, protect, and bring opportunities within the agricultural space.”

Luz Najera

Expanding relationships not only helped Najera to fit in and personalize growth, but the most impactful result is to provide visibility to the business. This might help to find common points of focus to drive change, or make synergy on ongoing projects that could need more than legal advice. Grounding in this new global adventure and driving new unions helped Najera become a real business partner with the needed confidence to assemble the Global Government Affairs Unit.

In her current role, the VP says she has the opportunity to shape spaces, policies, and initiatives that support agricultural growth on a global scale. That broader perspective has come naturally, she explains, thanks to the diverse cultures she engaged with throughout her career at Ingredion. Rarely did she report only to the legal function; during her years in Mexico, she also reported to business leaders from all nationalities. Some were from Brazil, the United States, or Canada. Without realizing it, she was prepping for a global role all along without even knowing it.

One thing, however, has remained constant since her first day at a company she knew little about at the time: Najera’s passion for agriculture.

“Since the day I started at Ingredion, I realized how essential farming is to all of us on this planet,” Najera explains. “When I learned that corn is found in thousands of products, a world opened up to me. From my position, I try to advocate, protect, and bring opportunities within the agricultural space. We need water. We need food. And we need people willing to work.”

Those opportunities, she adds, are especially important for women. Najera notes that her home country of Mexico still holds tightly to a machismo culture that can make career advancement especially challenging for women. While it’s not a struggle she has faced personally, she knows many women have to confront it every day.

Through organizations like the Women’s Business Council in Mexico, Najera networked and mentored many professional women working to advance their careers. She says she’s been mentoring for as long as she can remember, and this is an area she’s fiercely passionate about.

“I’ve had the opportunity to be mentored by amazing women and great leaders,” the VP says. “I formally mentor one or two people each year at Ingredion through our programand others through the WBC, but I try to connect with as many people as I can, whether they’re lawyers or not. I just want to be able to help the next generation find their own path.”

The VP’s scope of influence continues to grow. She was recently invited to join the North American Agricultural Advisory Network, offering her another platform to advocate for agricultural workers, women, and minorities in the field.

Najera says she feels supported in this work by her employer, an organization focused on innovation, opportunity, and growing its global reach sustainably and ethically.

That support has meant everything to the mother of two, who says her husband of twenty-three years has always stood by her, helping her become the kind of wife, mother, and professional that she aspired to be. Through it all, Najera has embodied what it means to follow one’s passion, take bold risks, and uplift others without expecting anything in return. Her journey is one of purpose, grounded in resilience, and guided by belief that success is most meaningful when it’s shared.

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