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Marisol González Ortega bucked the career trend established by her father and brother. When the two architects surveyed a room, they saw fixtures, textures, and colors. They were obsessed with every detail of a space. González Ortega just knew whether she thought it looked good.
Though she may have bypassed her immediate family’s line of business, there was no escaping the precedent set by her great-grandfather, Jesús González Ortega, a Mexican Supreme Court of Justice Chair with one of the more dramatic Wikipedia entries on record.
González Ortega, current general counsel, ethics correspondent, and data protection officer for Travel Retail Americas at L’Oréal, also chose the law, but she elected to leave the intrigue and drama in the past. She didn’t want to spend her life working in criminal law, and frankly, working at a law firm is an experience she’s grateful to never have to repeat.
“I sat my boys down and we had a very long conversation. I told them that we had two options: we could go back to Mexico to the life that we knew, or we could stay here and try to make a new life for ourselves.”
Marisol González Ortega
“What I love about the law is the opportunity to work with people from different backgrounds, not just geographically or culturally, but different jobs and occupations,” González Ortega explains. “I didn’t like only being around lawyers. It didn’t interest me all that much.”
But González Ortega found her sweet spot. The attorney has carved out an impressive corporate law career with names instantly recognizable to any consumer: L’Oréal, Ford Motor Company, Bayer, and Celanese.
Still, the general counsel’s promotion and relocation to Miami in 2022 has not been without challenges. In fact, González Ortega was unknowingly walking into the most challenging personal circumstances of her life when she, her husband, and her children made the move to the US just a few years ago.
Four months after arriving in the US, González Ortega’s husband unexpectedly died. González Ortega, suddenly a single parent of three boys, was heartbroken, shocked, and in a new place without friends or relatives to support her and her family.
“I sat my boys down and we had a very long conversation,” González Ortega recalls. “I told them that we had two options: we could go back to Mexico to the life that we knew, or we could stay here and try to make a new life for ourselves. I told them that while I knew it would be more difficult, I thought we should stay, but I wanted them to make their wishes known. We did decide to stay, and I’m so glad we did. I think the boys are too.”
González Ortega wasn’t just facing the loss of a beloved partner. She had uprooted her family from her home country, a place where González Ortega’s name and reputation carried considerable professional weight. In the US, she had no professional network to rely on, no significant connections other than those built at her employer. She was also trying to learn all the ways in which business in the US is different from Mexico.
“Every state here is like a small country,” the GC explains. “You have to make sure that whenever you’re implementing a project or initiative, you’re considering all applicable local and regional regulations. I continue to study the different geographies of the US and have been very supported by our outside counsel.”
That outside counsel has been incredibly important, because González Ortega is, in most respects, a one-woman show. The GC still handles contracts, corporate law, and more day-to-day legal operations while also working to enhance the legal department’s effect on driving business.
Coming to the US was an incredible step up for González Ortega, but it has meant she has less time to formally mentor other women, a role she relished since chairing Ford Motor Company’s women’s employee resource group in Mexico. González Ortega helped the company build out “mentoring circles,” providing senior mentors for young people across Ford’s business lines.
As González Ortega works to create more connections across Miami and in her new home, the GC says her family and work requirements inevitably push networking down several rungs on her list of priorities. Making connections and building a friend group have been slow going, as she continues to ensure her work is exemplary and her boys have her undivided attention at home.
The challenges González Ortega and her family have faced are, in many ways, a testament to the spirit that brought them to the US in the first place. González Ortega could have played it safe and relied on her reputation and her name in her home country. But that’s not the life she wanted for herself or for her children. She may not be a formal mentor at present, but there’s no doubt González Ortega is serving as an inspiration to anyone following her career.
