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Gabriela Ramirez is one of the most prominent recruiters and connectors of people in financial services. She both captivates and inspires. It’s her job, but for her, it’s about far more than that.
Her path to becoming a recruiter, in many ways, is her way of establishing something she always longed for. Through recruiting, she has been able to cultivate relationships and develop the type of connections she was frequently forced to give up.
Ramirez understands the needs of people beyond the job. Her experiences have helped her connect with people from a place of authenticity. She knows that by understanding people and what matters most to them, she can help them and the business make smart decisions.
Throughout her hourlong conversation with Hispanic Executive, Ramirez recalls a childhood that allowed her extensive international travel with her family but made it difficult to put down roots and cultivate long-lasting friendships.
Her background instilled a desire to feel connected with others and find a “home,” and she emphasizes how UBS feels like that for her. Even more, as part of her job, she has made a career out of connecting people and helping others find their homes. She expresses gratitude to important people and their impact on her life—a life that, despite all of her success and all of its blessings, can still feel like the “man’s world” that her father cautioned her about when she graduated from college.
Away from the office, she speaks of her yoga practice, how it’s taught her resilience, courage, and self-awareness. “How you show up on your mat is how you show up in your life.” She expresses her love for her husband of eighteen years and her very special cats.
“The constant uprooting and the need to feel safe and accepted were inherently connected—those experiences taught me how to find commonality with others, no matter how different our circumstances or experiences might be.”
Gabriela Ramirez
The Connector
Ramirez learned how to relate to people quickly because she had to. She was born in Mexico and lived in the United States, Costa Rica, Brazil, and Argentina before she was even making memories. She remembers being heartbroken when her father, a successful pharmaceutical executive, told her that they had to move back to Brazil.
“Because of my father’s career, I was able to go to great schools, travel and learn multiple languages,” says Ramirez, who is quadrilingual. “As the new person, I had to learn to connect with people by adjusting and establishing trust quickly. I grew up in places that weren’t always safe, including four years of a military dictatorship and four more years in a city where I worried about being kidnapped. The constant uprooting and the need to feel safe and accepted were inherently connected—those experiences taught me how to find commonality with others, no matter how different our circumstances or experiences might be.
“I also have a very different interpretation of how friendships and home are defined,” she continues. “For me, the lines between friends and people I meet through my work are blurred. I see every relationship as an opportunity to create something new and be better for it, just like I did early in my life. I think I’ve spent years looking for some version of home and belonging in my work.”
It’s no wonder the future executive’s first big recruit was in high school, where she developed a meaningful connection with her math teacher, Joao Rocha. Rocha was a biology major eager to advance professionally but had no contacts outside of academia. Ramirez introduced him to her father, and the rest was history. Her math teacher eventually became the head of a pharmaceutical company in Europe.
This, and every opportunity she has to connect people and make a difference, is how she defines her purpose, just like in one of her favorite movies, It’s a Wonderful Life. “You can have an impact on people where you create these ripples that can last a lifetime,” she says. “Recruiting is my craft because my heart is so deeply invested in it.”
Always Getting Back Up
As a woman coming from a nontraditional background, Ramirez brings her authentic self to her role where she makes connections, builds teams, and hires executives and financial advisors into the firm.
“I hope to be seen as a Latina who wants to leverage her network to make the wealth management business accessible for Hispanics,” Ramirez says. “You need to know finance and banking, but the real differentiator is your ability to build relationships. Wealth management is a relationship business.”
Her portfolio of recruiting reflects an executive well-positioned to identify talent and influence decision-makers in multiple areas, across multiple geographies. From an early age, Ramirez has demonstrated the capacity to have an effect and exert influence wherever she goes.
“You need to know finance and banking, but the real differentiator is your ability to build relationships. Wealth management is a relationship business.”
Gabriela Ramirez
The Right People at the Right Time
The executive director is effusive in her praise of those who have helped her find her way, from UBS Division Director Jennifer Povlitz to UBS Managing Director and Vice Chairman John Decker, whom she tried to lure away from the company at one point. “He wasn’t going anywhere, but he was so impressed that he got me to switch sides and come meet his boss, [Head of Global Wealth Management Americas] Jason Chandler,” she shares, adding that Chandler hired her on the spot after a brief cold call roleplay. “These leaders created a role for me within the business where I could help grow the bottom line while maximizing my skills.”
She also credits her executive coach Ilhiana Rojas Saldana, for helping her identify and understand some of the cultural nuances Hispanics face in the workplace.
At the end of the hour-long conversation about changing lives and forging deep bonds, Ramirez is confident she hasn’t done her greatest work yet. She longs to put her extensive language skills to more use. She wants to create a world where the path forward for women and Latinos is smoother than it was for her.
Ramirez wants to build connections for more Latinos, so they don’t have to feel as alone as she did for much of her career. Success wasn’t the driver; it was her desire to have an impact. Titles weren’t the goal; they were the byproduct of a passion for connecting people and creating something bigger than herself.
She has been knocked down many times throughout her career, but Ramirez always manages to rise stronger than before.
Recruiting is her craft, but connecting is her art.
