When Ana Dutra came on board as guest editor of this issue, we couldn’t wait to see what we could create together. Dutra, president and CEO of the approximately two thousand-member Executives’ Club of Chicago, embodies Hispanic Executive’s mission to unite powerful leaders. Dutra joined the Executives’ Club after moving to Chicago in 1989 to attend Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and the group helped her feel welcome in a new city and country. Now, she wants to expand its reach and make it a catalyst for conversations about diversity and inclusivity.
In her twenty-plus years in the corporate world, Dutra has been a leader, an observer, and a professor. Prior to coming to Chicago, she built a career working for IBM in South America and Mexico. She has degrees in economics, law, and business and speaks four languages fluently. She served as the CEO of Mandala Global Advisors and was head of leadership and talent consulting at Korn/Ferry International, an executive search firm. In addition to her work with the Executives’ Club, she teaches at her alma mater.
When she was still new to the windy city, Dutra attended a few events hosted by the Executives’ Club, though she knew only a handful of its members. She says her assimilation into the group was quick; the members made her feel welcome and offered networking and mentorship opportunities that appealed to her, and her involvement helped shape her Chicago lifestyle.
When Dutra walks through the offices of the Executives’ Club now, she is stopped half a dozen times for advice on small things—an upcoming event or meeting space, maybe—as well as for her far-reaching ideas on what the club can accomplish. She’s friendly and approachable, and she can recommend an excellent book or travel destination in one sentence, discussing industry-wide issues the club needs to address in the next. It’s easy to see why the Executives’ Club chose her to be the face and driver of the organization, and we’re thrilled to add her voice to ours.
Read her guest editor’s note HERE.
