Marcela Lopez Prioritizes Wellness to Thrive at PayPal

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Marcela Lopez’s mornings start in the dark, long before the emails and meetings begin, with twenty-one quiet minutes of meditation and reflection that determine the rest of her day. As vice president of international tax advisory and transfer pricing at PayPal, she helps steer the tax implications of business initiatives across the world.

The executive treats her inner life with the same rigor and intentionality she applies to global transactions. For Lopez, wellness is infrastructure, the invisible architecture that makes a life of difficult balances possible.

Wellness as a Requirement

The VP has spent fourteen years at PayPal, long enough to see the company spin out from eBay in 2015 and grow into a leader in digital payments and commerce. In her current role, she oversees global intercompany transactions and advises all business units on initiatives with income tax implications across nearly two hundred foreign jurisdictions, providing her with a full-scale view of how the company operates globally.

Lopez credits her effectiveness, which runs the gamut from business planning to conflict resolution, to an upbringing in Colombia during some of its most turbulent years. Growing up around violence and uncertainty has made her calm and measured in job stress. “High-pressure” simply means something different now.

That evolution, however, took time. Lopez learned the importance of wellness the hard way, in her first job at a large tech company, when a serious health issue forced her to confront the cost of trying to do everything at once.

At the time, she was chasing ambitious professional goals while also trying to recreate at home the standards set by her mother, a stay-at-home parent who kept an immaculate house, cooked elaborate meals, and hosted frequent gatherings. It’s a tribute to an incredible mother, in many ways, but it was also taking its toll.

Lopez wanted all of it: career, spotless home, perfect parties, and flawless presentation. She admits now that she failed to understand how unsustainable those standards were.

That wake-up call prompted a complete reset of her expectations and habits. Today, wellness is blocked on her calendar with the same seriousness as a business presentation. Her days begin with a twenty-one-minute meditation practice she learned two decades ago, a routine she credits with aligning her body, mind, emotions, and energy so she can function at a high level.

“As a Hispanic woman in leadership, my dual identity is not a challenge to overcome. It is my greatest source of strength.”

Marcela Lopez

She supplements that with quick breathwork and mantra techniques, especially before difficult meetings. On weekends, she prioritizes physical activity like tennis, Pilates, and spending time outdoors in Colorado.

Making the Decision

For years, Lopez wrestled with the guilt familiar to many high-achieving mothers. She remembers the sting of declining a school field trip her daughter begged her to attend, and the ache of watching her son’s tennis tournaments through videos sent by other parents instead of from the stands.

“I always wanted to be in two places at once, and it was heartbreaking at times to not be able to see those events in person,” the VP says.

Lopez and her husband, a corporate executive in his own right, responded by treating their home the way they treated their careers, with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and support systems. Their busy schedules meant nannies and au pairs having a significant role in their household, a decision she now views positively because of the results she sees in her children, who are thriving, healthy, and confidently pursuing their own paths as young adults.

Her daughter, newly embarked on her career, has witnessed her mother’s juggling act up close and, Lopez believes, absorbed a powerful message.

“It can be done, without fear,” the executive says.

This counsel to women in similar life stages, she knows, is easier said than done. But confronting the question is half the battle.

“You must decide what will be compromised,” she says, “Because something will be, and then make peace with that choice rather than living in perpetual self-judgment.” Wellness, boundaries, and realistic expectations are not selfish. They are the conditions that allow a loving family and a fulfilling career to coexist.

Lopez speaks of her identity as a Colombian American woman as a source of strength rather than a complication. Growing up amid conflict endowed her, and many Hispanics she knows, with resilience that translates directly into leadership, especially in problem-solving and conflict resolution.

Navigating two cultures has also taught her to see around corners, anticipate misunderstandings, and lead with empathy—traits that are especially invaluable when guiding a global function embedded in nearly every corner of the business.

For Hispanic women in particular, she believes this dual identity can be profoundly empowering. It offers a vantage point that naturally prioritizes inclusivity, fairness, and understanding, and it positions them as role models for future generations of leaders who are learning to manage competing demands without erasing parts of themselves.

“As a Hispanic woman in leadership, my dual identity is not a challenge to overcome,” Lopez says. “It is my greatest source of strength.”

---