Beatriz Escudero: Capgemini Lawyer with Spanish Roots

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Courage is not an attribute Beatriz Escudero has ever needed to cultivate or nurture. Born and raised in Spain, Escudero pushed her parents to spend the summer—and even do a little schooling—in the UK and Ireland. When she was fifteen, she begged her parents to let her study for a year in Canada to continue honing her English and broaden her worldview. But when she told her father that she wanted to attend university there, he sat her down for a heart-to-heart.

“My father said, ‘Remember that you are Spanish first,’” says Escudero, associate general counsel (GC) at Capgemini, a business and technology transformation company. “He knew I wanted to be a lawyer, and he told me to get my degree in Spain first to understand my roots and local knowledge. That was important to him for me. With all the places I’ve gone since and all the cultures I’ve integrated into, I have great pride in where I am from and in who I am.”

Escudero didn’t need confidence, but the cultural grounding her father instilled in her has helped her hold onto her identity wherever she put down roots. And there have been so many stops along the way.

“What I have found at Capgemini over the last year-and-a-half is that only you set the limits on your dreams. If you fight for what you want and pursue it with passion, you can make it happen. That’s an incredible feeling.”

Beatriz Escudero

International All at Once

Escudero hit the ground running straight out of law school. After finishing her Master of Laws degree at Boston University School of Law, she was doing complex international negotiations by her mid-twenties in Botswana, China, France, India, Kazakhstan, Latin America, Russia, and the UK, among others.

“I can’t believe I was doing those things at such an early age,” she says, laughing. “But there was absolutely no fear. I was sitting down with senior leadership and powerful clients, negotiating these huge technological contracts. It gave me the kind of confidence, trust, and international exposure I was looking for.”

Escudero’s curiosity first led her to work with Spanish-based companies expanding internationally and then companies that may operate in Spain but are headquartered abroad. She eagerly sought out any role she could get that would offer her international career development. Ten years ago, Escudero’s curiosity also brought her to New York City, the greatest melting pot of them all, for a job opportunity. It was a chance that almost didn’t happen, though.

“I was working for one big international company, and I was offered the chance to move to Dubai to join their Asia Pacific (APAC) legal team,” the lawyer says. “It was an adventure I was very excited about, but then I was approached by another company for an amazing position, which included coming to New York.”

Given its reputation as one of the cultural apexes of the world, it might seem strange that Escudero considers succeeding in the United States as such a critical accomplishment for her. Shouldn’t it be the place where her international exposure is leveraged to its most extreme? Not entirely.

The Toughest Ten Years

“It’s one thing to be negotiating with different people across the globe,” Escudero says. “The US is a very different beast. I would find myself negotiating with a local customer who was not used to an international accent. I thought it was going to be easy here, but it has honestly been the most challenging part of my career.”

Escudero is incredibly proud of her career in the US. In coming to Capgemini in 2022, the associate GC says with no uncertainty that she works for one of the fastest growing tech companies in the world, attracting and hiring the very best talent in the marketplace.

“What I have found at Capgemini over the last year-and-a-half is that only you set the limits on your dreams,” Escudero says. “If you fight for what you want and pursue it with passion, you can make it happen. That’s an incredible feeling.”

In her current role, Escudero oversees fifteen lawyers whose backgrounds and cultures include Argentina, Guatemala, India, Mexico, the US, and more. The attorney says it’s a dream role where she is able to lead a diverse team with skillsets and exposures that make them experts in delivering business outcomes with an equitable balance of risk and rewards.

“We have superpowers that we don’t even see. We compromise ourselves because we get distracted comparing ourselves to other people. But believe in yourself and your full potential. Trust in the empathy we possess. And be confident in who you are.”

Beatriz Escudero

At the time of speaking, Escudero had just returned from the United Arab Emirates and India for brainstorming and strategy sessions across a variety of topics, especially those concerning artificial intelligence.

“We’re going to experience more change in the next two to three years than in the past twenty years,” she says. “We are preparing ourselves to be very conscious on the kind of skills we’re going to need to adapt to the world that is coming.”

Where the Road Leads, and Where It Began

The lawyer has seen firsthand the kind of innovation that is ramping up exponentially across the world and within her global organization. Capgemini specialty? Helping organizations that may not have been as eager to embrace the future pivot—and pivot quickly.

The lawyer says that while courage may have come easy, she still wishes she could tell a younger version of herself to trust in who she is, her Hispanic roots, and her ability to connect with people.

“I see it in my Spanish roots and something I identify in my colleagues who come from Latino cultures,” Escudero says. “We have superpowers that we don’t even see. We compromise ourselves because we get distracted comparing ourselves to other people. But believe in yourself and your full potential. Trust in the empathy we possess. And be confident in who you are.”

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