Big risks, big rewards IBM Executive becomes rold model for women in Spain

Amparo Moraleda was working for INSA, a small engineering subsidiary of IBM's modest operation in Spain, when she got a message from one of her bosses in May 2000. Louis Gerstner Jr., the legendary chairman of IBM, was considering her for a job as his top assistant for international operations. "I was shocked," said Moraleda. Although she had been with the company for a dozen years, she was still, by her own admission, relatively unproved. Within days, however, Moraleda was at the headquarters of International Business Machines in Armonk, New York, for an interview, and was offered the job. She started work a week later. "This was a type of make-it-or-break-it moment," she said in an interview. "It was big risk, big reward. I could never say no to this type of challenge." By all accounts, Moraleda made it. Since taking the job with Gerstner, she has grown into a company jewel, earning major promotions in quick succession. The latest came on July 1, when she went from chief for the Iberian peninsula to president for Spain, Portugal, Israel, Greece and Turkey, a newly created position. The move solidifies Moraleda's position as one of the most influential business figures in Spain, and one of a handful of women who hold real executive power here. In many ways, Moraleda's is an uncommon success story in Spain, a country still struggling to move beyond the institutionalized discrimination against women that existed during the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, who died in 1975. While Spain has made significant progress in opening up the corridors of political power to women, obstacles remain in the business world. Women make up fewer than 5 percent of the members of the boards of major Spanish companies, the lowest figure in the industrialized world after Japan, according to Corporate Women Directors International, a network for female business leaders. The U.S. figure is 12 percent. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who made a point of filling half of his cabinet with women, has recently turned his attention to encouraging gender equality in the corporate world. "He considers her a role model and an example of the benefits that can come from giving opportunities to women," said Javier Valenzuela, Zapatero's spokesman. Moraleda, who is married and the mother of two girls, 10 and 8, credits some of her success to IBM's commitment to accommodating working mothers. Many women in Spain, she said, are deterred from executive careers be- cause they fear that motherhood will be incompatible with Spain's typical corporate culture, where meetings are often called as late as 9 p.m., week- ends are considered working hours and time spent at the office is viewed as a measure of company loyalty. She recalled a meeting a few years ago that, despite the late hour, was proceeding at a leisurely pace. "All of the women in the room were looking at our watches, we were moving in our chairs, thinking that if this goes on I won't see my children," she said. "And all the men were just relaxed." Throughout her career, Moraleda has developed a reputation as an efficient and inspiring leader who moves quickly to take advantage of opportunities. She does everything from lobbying for new contracts to maintaining good customer relations to identifying promising employees and monitoring pricing and marketing programs. "She follows the strategies established by IBM very efficiently, but she also has been very skillful in adapting them to Spain," said Maria Nuria Chinchilla, a professor at the IESE business school in Barcelona. Under her leadership, IBM's Spanish revenue grew 7 percent in 2004, compared with 3 percent in France and declines of 2 percent in Britain, 3 percent in Germany and 8 percent in Italy. "You can see much more dynamism in IBM Spain, more hunger and eagerness to go forward, and that starts with Moraleda," said Mathieu Poujol, an analyst for Pierre Audoin Consultants, a firm based in Paris that specializes in information technology. In recent years, the company has won many of the industry's major contracts in Spain, Poujol said, like a 150 million, or $182 million, deal in 2003 to manage the technology for Endesa, the electricity giant.

Moraleda, 41, was born in Madrid, the only girl in a family of five children. Both of her parents worked, her mother as a nurse and her father for a pharmaceutical company. Her father, who did not learn to read and write until he was 14, insisted on thoroughly educating his children. Moraleda, who speaks fluent French and English, has degrees in industrial engineering from Pontificia Comillas University and in management from IESE's Madrid school. And while she may be a trailblazer, she expects more and more women to follow her climb up the corporate ladder in Spain. "There is a very strong pipeline of women," she said, "very well prepared, with strong professional backgrounds, with lots of skills, that are willing to take the risk."

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