March 12, 2025 • 58 mins
In this episode of Border Masters, Monique and Gustavo sit down with Maritza Diaz, CEO of ITJ, to discuss her remarkable journey in cross-border collaboration. Maritza has a strong focus on leveraging regional talent and navigating complex regulatory landscapes. Take a listen to hear how iTijuana is driving digital transformation for global companies like Quidel Ortho, Dexcom, and more. This episode explains how innovation is bridging borders and shaping the future!
Algunos episodios serán en español y otros en inglés, conectando perspectivas únicas de la frontera.)
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Key moments in this episode:
00:00:04 – Transforming Tijuana into a Tech Hub
00:05:42 – Maritza’s Unexpected Path into Tech
00:07:16 – The Decision That Changed Everything
00:08:36 – Finding Her ‘Why’
00:12:52 – Building ITJ from the Ground Up
00:16:30 – The Birth of ‘I Tijuana’
00:31:07 – Women in Tech: The Challenge and the Mission
00:34:41 – The Power of Sponsorship vs. Mentorship
00:35:59 – AI’s Role in Software Development
00:46:56 – Why Borders Shouldn’t Exist in Business
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:01):
Olas Media.
S2 (00:04):
The other way. It makes an impact in people's lives.
Is generating jobs in the region. That was always overlooked.
Nobody will look at Tijuana as a technology hub. And
I'm talking ten years ago. And so by providing these jobs,
we are not only giving them an opportunity today, it's
(00:27):
the jobs of the future that are impactful and people
feel proud of the job they do. So I think
that is very transformational as well.
S3 (00:38):
Olas media presents Border Masters, the podcast where the US-Mexico
border takes center stage.
S4 (00:45):
Gustavo is from Nogales. He has amazing credentials, so he's
super knowledgeable of everything border. But we come from very
different borders.
S5 (00:56):
Monique is very good on the emotional intelligence. It's the
personality that she has that allows people just to feel relaxed.
It's part of letting the world know why has it
been so successful to have that border and what has
inspired them about the border?
S3 (01:17):
Now, here are your hosts, Gustavo and Monique.
S4 (01:22):
Welcome to Border Masters, the podcast of border Leaders. I
am Monique Casillas, co-host of Border Masters, and I'm here
with my co-host Gustavo de la Fuente. Today I'm super
excited to have a guest I admire very much, because
I truly believe she's the perfect example of a border master.
(01:44):
Maritza Diaz, Chief Executive officer of Tijuana. Thank you so much, Marisa,
for joining us.
S2 (01:51):
Thank you for having me.
S4 (01:52):
Over the past seven years, Maritza has established herself as
a thought leader in cross-border collaboration in the software industry
between San Diego and Baja California. She is a member
of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank
of San Francisco, where she represents San Diego. A member
of the Forbes Technology Council, and an advocate of leveraging
(02:16):
the strength of this region to build a thriving innovation
economy that leads the digital transformation for companies in California.
Before becoming the Chief Executive Officer of Tijuana, Marissa served
as senior director at Thermo Fisher Scientific, where she was
responsible for growing the company's digital capabilities in North America,
(02:38):
India and Mexico. In this role, she successfully managed the
digital and agile transformation of an organization composed of 800
software professionals. Today, the software organization is considered one of
the finest in the industry. Marisa. I don't I can't
(02:59):
really recall the first time I met you, but I
have to say that every time I see you, I
admire your intelligence, your gravitas. Um. And also like how
down to earth you are. I think I have seen
you in a couple of, uh, friends social gatherings and
(03:21):
on tours on your beautiful offices in Tijuana, our hometown.
And you're always so poised, but with a with a
very welcoming smile. So I really appreciate that about you. And, um, Gustavo,
can you share how you met Marisa?
S5 (03:39):
I think I think I came in touch with Marisa. Marisa.
Virtually in May of 2021, when she presented at a
stakeholder working committee meeting for the Smart Border Coalition, which
is an organization that I was the executive director of.
And it was a video Conference because we were still
in Covid 19 mode for these meetings, and we had
over 80 people at that webinar, and many of them
(04:02):
expressed to me after that, that conversation after Maritza's presentation,
they were extremely impressed. And they were intrigued. More than impressed,
I'd say they were more intrigued about her business. And
I subsequently attended an event in Tijuana presented by one
of her clients, Insulet, to the Tijuana community in a
(04:22):
really beautiful building in the Sanatorio in your hometown, Monique.
So wonderful experience that way.
S4 (04:29):
Yeah. Maritza. Well, thank you so much for being here. And, um,
let us let's go to to square one. When you started,
I understand that you started a software company in Ecuador.
Is there where you're from? Tell us a little bit
about yourself.
S2 (04:47):
Okay, so I was born and raised in Ecuador, and
I am the first graduate from college in my my family.
Before going to college, my dad would always tell me,
I don't care what you do, but you have to
go to college. Because he truly believed that that education
was something, that the only thing that he could give
(05:08):
me that was meaningful for the future. Anyway, we never
had a computer at home, or never had an engineer
around a role model to guide me through career choices.
And so I only remember what my dad told me
you got to go to college. So I went stand
in line, sign up for college, and I get to
the to the to the place to pay. And the
(05:29):
lady there was like, what career? And I'm like, um,
I am not really sure. And so she told me, well,
we don't have a lot of people signing up for
the computer science. I'm like, oh, okay, I'll do that.
S5 (05:42):
I'll do that. Sign up. Yeah.
S2 (05:45):
And the reason what I'm telling you this is because
I am where I am today A by a little
bit of luck and a lot to do with decisions
that I made. And luck is not a good strategy.
And that's part of now a little bit of my
mantra for now is like, create people that have strategies
(06:09):
for career path in the future and not rely on luck.
S4 (06:12):
Okay.
S2 (06:13):
But fast forward, I graduated from college. I was actually
quite good, I think, in that career without even knowing
to a company in Ecuador called PricewaterhouseCoopers International Company was
recruiting and they were recruiting students from college, and I
was one of the two people they recruited that year.
(06:33):
And as I was working with them, I was very happy.
I love Ecuador, I love my family and everything that
is there. Until the day my my job offered me
to come to the US To work for in a
project for one year. It was a temporary assignment and
(06:54):
I said yes. And my parents said, no, you're not
leaving because cultural we we are from a very close culture.
And I was single and I was a woman. And
God forbid you live outside of your house before you
get married.
S4 (07:12):
Yeah.
S5 (07:12):
Mhm.
S4 (07:14):
How old were you there?
S2 (07:16):
I was 20.
S4 (07:17):
Oh my goodness. You were so.
S5 (07:19):
Young. Oh so very young.
S2 (07:21):
Um but I also I mentioned decisions. Yeah. That was
a key life changing decision. Mhm. That I was able
to tell my mom and dad. No I am going
to go. Wow. And I've been here in the US
for almost 30 years. That one project became two and
(07:43):
three and four and here I am.
S5 (07:47):
Wow. Incredible. And we'll get into things a little bit
more about your life story. But for all our listeners
out there, what is it, Juana, and how did you
come up with this idea of creating this company?
S2 (08:02):
I'm also the founder, and I always have to share
before I talk about the company, I need to tell
you my why. I have two girls, 12 and 14,
and they always been curious about mom. You always work.
What are you doing? What? What do you do? And
I never had a really good explanation that they could understand.
(08:25):
Being so young, I. Tijuana has given me that opportunity
to be able to tell my kids, look at them
in the eye and say, I Tijuana is touching people's lives.
S5 (08:36):
Mhm.
S2 (08:37):
And so the the next question is like how? And
so the how is it Tijuana wants to make an
impact in people's lives, and we do that in two ways.
The first one, we partner with companies in lives in
the life science industry, primarily to help them advance products
(09:00):
that are going to save lives, or they're going to
improve the quality of life of a patient. That industry
is just beautiful, and it's so much innovation happening now
after Covid, and it's impactful. The other way is Tijuana
makes an impact in people's lives, is generating jobs in
(09:23):
the region that was always overlooked. Nobody will look at
Tijuana as a technology hub. And I'm talking ten years
ago and I was included in that group. And so
by providing these jobs, we are not only giving them
(09:45):
an opportunity today, we're giving them a path for a
better future. And it's not just any job. It's the
jobs of the future that are impactful, that are well compensated,
and people feel proud of the job they do. So
I think that is very transformational as well.
S4 (10:05):
However, when you when you thought like how how was
that leap of I'm in the US? I was working
for a company and then now I'm going to do
my whole company. I'm going to be a founder because
I have a why and a how how, how do
(10:26):
you make that decision?
S2 (10:28):
So when I worked for Thermo Fisher Scientific, I was
a software engineer and the company was the leader in
serving science. And back in 2012, the company realized this
digital transformation is starting to pop up everywhere. Almost every
(10:49):
company started talking about digital transformation. And when you think
about digital. Digital is enabled with software. And that was
a software engineer. So talk about being at the right
time at the right place. So Thermo Fisher launched this
new mission of becoming the leaders in digital science. And
(11:11):
I was employee number two of this engineering organization, digital
engineering organization. And I worked for the CTO. And my
job was to build the digital engineering organization. And at
first I was like, okay, I can do that. Little
that I knew is like, oh, you got to hire
about 1000 software engineers. And I'm like, okay. It was
(11:33):
a hard job. Not only because the volume, but the
competition for that type of talent in the US. I
learned a lot about along the way. One was that
there aren't enough software engineers in the US to do
all the digital transformations that every industry and every company
wanted to work on. And so, like everybody else, I
(11:57):
went to India. That was the logical choice.
S5 (11:58):
Yes.
S2 (12:00):
And it's the safe choice.
S5 (12:01):
Mhm.
S2 (12:02):
But I had to do it because I needed hire
to hire. As I did that we realized we need
more and we were all happy with India. But it
wasn't something easy to do or sustainable because of the
time zone difference. And at that point we were looking
at Mexico as a potential because we are just here
(12:26):
in San Diego. Right. And so it just kind of
makes sense to be in the same time zone. But
when we're looking we were looking at Mexico. We were
looking at the logical and safe choices like Guadalajara, Monterrey,
Mexico City. See, the city of San Diego actually reached
out to us and said, oh, why not exploring Tijuana? Okay.
(12:48):
And the CIO, CTO said, no.
S5 (12:52):
No. Yes.
S2 (12:54):
But not why? Oh, because we need hundreds of software engineers.
Little long story short, we we came hesitant and they
drove us in this little shuttle that was new because
we were used to getting on a plane. Mhm. Um,
but we did it. We built a fantastic software center
(13:17):
of excellence is key excellence. And those software engineers were
working on very hard things. Right. This is not just
a website to advertise something. This was connecting instrumentation working
on secondary analysis for cancer research for very different difficult things.
And In. The quality that we saw was amazing through
(13:40):
this journey with Thermo Fisher. I became I moved from
software engineer to running this operation. I had to learn
everything from HR, talent acquisition, finance, legal, compliance and software.
That experience taught me how to do it. But more importantly,
(14:00):
I fell in love with the people and I just
had to do it. I had this need to I
had to do more of this. And Thermo Fisher achieved
their goal. But then there were many other companies in
San Diego that could benefit from this, and I could
generate more and more jobs. And that's where I said, okay,
(14:21):
I told my husband, I'm leaving. I'm leaving Thermo Fisher.
And he was like, you are crazy.
S6 (14:26):
Mhm. Mhm. Of course.
S4 (14:28):
Wow, that's so brave of you.
S6 (14:30):
It was it was very brave.
S4 (14:31):
And we're so.
S6 (14:32):
Grateful.
S4 (14:32):
Because you saw that talent, like you said, untapped talent.
And I'm also super grateful that you call your company
I Tijuana. You're placing the name of my hometown on
a global scale. How would you describe the talent that
exists in Tijuana and what it has to offer to
(14:56):
San Diego and beyond?
S2 (14:59):
So thank you for bringing up the name because I
think it's important part of the story. As I was
working with more people in Tijuana, I realized I was
wrong when I didn't want to come to Tijuana on
day one, when when the San Diego City invited.
S6 (15:18):
Me.
S2 (15:18):
And I was thinking, why is that? And it's the perception,
the perception of Tijuana. It's one thing, but the reality
is hugely different. And unfortunately, not a lot of people
see that. They only see it once they experience Tijuana.
(15:40):
And I was thinking about how hard is it to
change perception. And it's very hard.
S6 (15:48):
Yeah.
S2 (15:49):
It's very hard.
S6 (15:50):
Yes.
S2 (15:50):
Even the perception within Mexico of Tijuana. Yes. It's not
the best. And let's not kid ourselves. We can do
everything and anything. The perception will continue to be there.
So I said, well, what if we just change the
name of the city because Tijuana has a stigma? That's
(16:11):
not going to change. What if we create an IT city?
And so it's my way of rebranding Tijuana to create
a new perception of Tijuana. Been in IT city. And
so it was easy to just bring the eye in
front of the.
S6 (16:30):
T.
S2 (16:30):
And get it. right?
S6 (16:32):
Right.
S2 (16:33):
I believe the city should be called it Tijuana. Not
my company. The city.
S5 (16:37):
The city itself.
S6 (16:38):
The city itself? Yes.
S5 (16:41):
That's interesting.
S2 (16:42):
It's similar to what happened back in the day with
Bombay in India. Bombay? Nobody wanted to go to a
place where it's a bomb.
S6 (16:51):
Mhm.
S2 (16:51):
And now that city is called Mumbai.
S6 (16:53):
Yeah.
S2 (16:54):
Right. They could not change the perception of Bombay. They
rename it to Mumbai. Tijuana.
S4 (17:03):
Marisa Diaz for major. I'm calling it for me. For
major of Tijuana.
S5 (17:10):
No, it's, uh, very interesting way that you're looking at it,
and and. Yeah, we we struggle, I think, at the
border with the perception versus reality issue. It's all over,
and there's this stigma and there's these extremes in conceptions
about cities and and areas and regions of the world.
Tijuana being one of them. But I obviously realized that
(17:33):
education is quite important to you. You know, you're the
first generation to graduate from your family, graduate college. You
have an MBA, you have a number of different educational
attainments and degrees over the years. Tell us about the
university system on the Mexican side of the border, because
at the end of the day, you were looking for
people when you when you were at Thermo Fisher, which
(17:53):
you were just describing, you were looking for student talent.
I'm assuming that you started with that and you've continued
with Stem programs. And how is that talent among the
universities in Baja California, for instance?
S2 (18:06):
Great. Bottom line, I hire people from all over the world,
and I can tell you the level of education that
I found in Mexico is fantastic. Not only the quality,
but also the number of people that are going into
Stem careers is greater than the US. How? How is
(18:30):
that possible? Right? When you are in the US, you're like,
oh my God, we're the number one country in the world.
But yet we don't have enough Stem students graduating. Mexico
has more. And so for me it was volume and quality.
And Mexico brings those two. Um, when you look at
the trends, about five years from now, Mexico will be
(18:54):
the number one in Latin America in terms of number
of graduates right now is Brazil has that number one.
But the rate of new new graduates is fantastic and
the quality is great. And you you know, when I
started at Thermo Fisher, I knew nothing about the educational
system of Mexico. And so some people from Mexico were
(19:15):
helping me with who I wanted to hire only from
the best. Right? My mindset back in the day and
the best was the Tecnologico de Monterrey and so on
and so forth. So I went, okay, I'm going to
hire from the Tecnologico de Monterrey and I did. Those
were kind of my first hires and I relocated them
to Tijuana. And today we hire from every single university
(19:40):
that has a program in computer science. And the quality
is just as great, um, in software and, and in
in this new digital world, you need different types of technologists.
You need those that are going to write the code,
you need those that are more product oriented so that
(20:03):
they can write stories and testing. You also need that
business mindset to make sure that the product that we're
bringing to light is on time. It has all the specifications,
it meets the user requirements. So it's talent variety for
all sorts of roles.
S5 (20:20):
This is for your scrum teams as you would describe it. Right?
S2 (20:23):
Correct. So if I need a software developer's probably going
to technological or more polytechnic, but if I needed more
business focus, I'll go to Tecnologico de Monterrey or others
or CTS. So I like that it's a lot of
variety of different skills and different universities and being on
(20:45):
the border. It's also another benefit that you have universities
not only in Mexico. You have universities in San Diego.
So talk about engineering and science. UCSD is one of
the best, and we're partnering with them as well to
create this ecosystem where education doesn't have borders and everybody
(21:06):
has the opportunity to earn degrees and have access to
the same level of education, regardless of where they are.
S6 (21:13):
Mm.
S4 (21:14):
Super interesting reading, Marisa about it. Juana. It has been
named a unicorn company by many here in San Diego
and other parts of the globe. But let's talk about
some interesting and very impressive numbers. Your company. Your company
has accomplished a four times innovation rate at one third
(21:36):
of the cost. Half of the turnover, as well as 200%
growth in three years. It's all of this sustainable.
S2 (21:47):
Absolutely. It's just the beginning. The world, the future is digital.
And I'm not just saying because I'm a software engineer.
It's the reality. It's the reality. If any company today,
any industry should consider themselves a software company. I think
(22:08):
Covid really taught us that digitalization is not an optional.
It's not a nice to have. It's critical part of
the business. And so I'm excited about the future. It's
going to be more and more. And as we progress
through this journey of becoming more digital, we're going to
(22:29):
find that some roles are going to be more obsolete
than others, but then new roles will appear. And that's
what's exciting to me. And tying it back to education
and making sure that we have this pulse on on
the industry and work with universities to say, well, you
know what? Now, we no longer need this technology or
(22:49):
this type of professional. Now we need more people with
data science or data engineering or product engineering, or I mean,
all sorts of new careers that are being created because
of this digitalization. And at the same time, it's not
just build, build, build, but also threats, right? So cybersecurity
(23:09):
is so important nowadays because as more things become digital,
there are all these bad actors or ways or companies
need to protect themselves. So it's just the sky is
the limit.
S6 (23:22):
Mhm.
S5 (23:24):
Um, so we know San Diego is in the top
five cities for biotech and medtech in the United States.
I'm sure you've been able to source many of your business, uh,
opportunities or deals with companies from San Diego. But what
about businesses outside of San Diego? How has that sort
of behaved? And is that the future of Tijuana going
(23:47):
out beyond San Diego County and to the world, really?
I mean, I'm assuming that you have some companies that
are outside of the county already, but where do you
see all that kind of evolving?
S2 (23:59):
So two years ago, I achieved my five year plan
because we grew very fast.
S6 (24:06):
Yeah.
S2 (24:06):
And so I was like, okay, so what's next? And
me being very aggressive with, okay, now we're going to
have to grow 400 times more, right? And I figured
we're going to grow only if we expand outside of
San Diego and Tijuana. And so we do have other
clients in other parts of the region's Midwest, Northern California.
(24:32):
This last two years have been absolutely the most difficult,
because expanding outside of your core requires a very different mindset.
It also when you combine it with the economy and
other aspects external to us. Even our own clients have
(24:54):
been having a lot of hard times. So at the
end of this, this past year during the holidays, I
was back in home and saying, what is happening? What
is it Tijuana going to be focusing on in 2025
and beyond? And I don't know if it's popular or
not with my people, but I realized that for us
(25:17):
to grow and be happy at the same time, we
need to be back to our core and really remember
why I was created to begin with. Why I say
that is because when I go to Boston, Tijuana means nothing.
S6 (25:39):
Right.
S5 (25:41):
Or it might have that negative, that stigma that you
were talking about that's everywhere.
S6 (25:46):
Mhm.
S2 (25:46):
But here in San Diego, Tijuana. It's 20 minutes. Tijuana
is right there you see. You have that interaction. So
it means something beyond business. In Boston it doesn't mean
anything if at all. You know it could be Costa
Rica or it could be Ecuador. Right. It's just Latin America.
(26:07):
I think. What is Tijuana San Diego. So this year,
in the future years, we're going to go back to
our core. You mentioned San Diego is one of the
largest hubs, is the third in the world, and we
only have scratched the surface here in San Diego. There
are many fantastic companies creating amazing products that need help,
(26:28):
and I want to focus refocus my attention in building
this region. Now, on the other side of the border,
I do have a belief that we need to extend
it to the rest of the Americas. You know, when
you cross the border and says La Patria starts here.
S7 (26:49):
La porta Latinoamérica también es otro.
S2 (26:52):
I believe yeah, like America, Latin America starts here. Not
just Tijuana, not just Mexico. And we are hiring from
all sorts of different places in Latin America. I think
that will continue because the need for these new jobs
and new people, new new roles is so much greater
(27:15):
than Tijuana and San Diego. We have to expand and
bring these opportunities to the rest of Latin America. No
borders right? It should be one. Americas.
S6 (27:25):
Yes.
S2 (27:26):
Yes. No. South. Central one.
S3 (27:29):
Let's take a quick break from the conversation. You're listening
to Border Masters. We will be right back.
S8 (27:38):
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(28:02):
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(28:22):
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S9 (28:26):
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(28:49):
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S10 (28:51):
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Unless you have someone who's willing to push you and
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S3 (29:29):
Boardmasters is back! Let's get to Gustavo and Monique.
S4 (29:34):
I love what you said because I love a lot
of what you have been saying, but you also paused
and reflected and came back to your core, which I
think is not only a teaching for your company, but
for life. Right? That's something that we all need to
do for time to time. And I also love that
(29:55):
you realize that to grow, you can just stay here
and strengthen our region, which I love. So I know,
I already know you're going to be super successful, focusing
in the rest of Latin America and growing. Um, another
thing that inspires about about you, inspires me, about you,
(30:17):
is you inspire other female professionals in our region and beyond.
And I understand that it was not an easy path
for you. Um, and to be where you where Ecuador
and you talk about luck and decisions and where you
are right now. How do you see the field today?
(30:39):
Are there more women coming into it? Stem biotech, life sciences?
S2 (30:48):
Yes, which is exciting and I see it in different levels. Um,
in my clients, surprisingly, because this is a change in
the last, I don't know, five, ten years, a lot
of the CIOs that I'm interacting with are women.
S6 (31:06):
Mhm. Mhm.
S2 (31:07):
That wasn't the case when I was um in those positions.
So it's, it's actually very curious. I'm very curious to
see what that is. It's many, many female CEOs which
I love. Now in terms of CEOs that's another story
that still a long way to go. But CEOs are
(31:28):
taking their spot. They're females in terms of young students.
It's a struggle. But it's also I don't think the
problem is not a lot of women are trying to
go into this field. I think the drop is when
they don't get an opportunity to even start a the
(31:49):
first job. And I think that's where I can make
a difference in, at least in my in my small circle,
we do have a trainee program which is hiring students
who have not graduated yet from different careers in engineering.
And that's where I partnered with my clients to convince
(32:10):
them to give the women a chance. Because sometimes women,
or sometimes a lot of times we're too perfectionists. We
didn't even apply for the job if we don't meet
every single requirement on the job description. And that's the
work we are doing with our university relations. And we're
trying to bring these young students. We're like, you don't
(32:31):
have to be perfect. In fact, we don't even need
you to know the hard skills. We only look at
your scores in in school and your interview, how you
present yourself, that's all. Because you're going to learn. And
so hiring women early enough will give a better chance
to have a larger presence in the future. The other
(32:54):
thing we do at itJ is management. And that's where
I have direct influence. Today, the ratio of management at
itJ is 50 over 50. I trust that these women
that are in positions of decision making and hiring will
do their part to bring more women to to those roles.
(33:17):
It's a journey.
S4 (33:19):
I see that and and I see something super important,
which is mentorship. I don't know about you and your career,
but I believe, again, being like you from Latin America,
this idea of mentorship. I almost think is nonexistent. But
then when we came to the US, it's like this
(33:40):
whole new story about how important are your mentors for you?
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey
on that and how many, like you said, paying it
forward with your management team? Is it this mentorship component
important as well.
S2 (34:02):
Having mentors is very important for regardless of who you
are or where you come from, or what your career
aspirations are. Personally, when I was a young professional, I
did have a couple of mentors. They were all they
were all male, right? Because of because of where they
the demographics. But it doesn't matter who your mentor is,
(34:25):
female or not. I think it's important to have someone that,
you know, have a skill or behavior that you want
to acquire. It's very, very important. But equally important are sponsors.
S6 (34:40):
Mhm.
S2 (34:41):
I also had a couple of sponsors in my career
that helped me take on new challenges and new roles
and be my voice, my representation when I wasn't in
the room. You need to have that. That's back to
the management at TJ. PJ those managers. I am not
their their their mentor. I am their sponsor. I am
(35:05):
putting them in those positions without even they asking. They're not.
S6 (35:09):
Even asking.
S2 (35:10):
I put them there so that they can do their thing.
So sponsoring is equally important as mentors.
S4 (35:18):
So important.
S5 (35:19):
So your company is very young. You're only in your
sixth year. So you started this in September of 2019. Um,
you're also in a very fluid environment where AI and
machine learning are, in some aspects, replacing, uh, programming. Right.
That has happened over the years. Um, how will I,
(35:40):
Taiwan adapt to this? Is there still room to grow
with software programming?
S2 (35:45):
You know, this is so exciting to me because the
first time I played with ChatGPT was, I think the
second day that came out and it was all this excitement,
and I asked them to write some code. And it did.
And I was.
S6 (35:59):
Shocked. Stunned.
S2 (36:01):
I was like, oh.
S11 (36:02):
My God.
S2 (36:02):
I was.
S6 (36:03):
Running so.
S2 (36:04):
Excited. My husband was like, what's happening?
S6 (36:06):
Like, oh my God.
S2 (36:07):
This thing can write code better than than a programmer.
But then a few days later, I'm like, Holy cow,
this is going to eliminate the software engineering need. And
the answer is yes, it will eliminate some. Microsoft recently
showcased one of their their customers that are fully implementing
(36:31):
AI in software, and they're seeing 30% productivity gain already
one client. So when I think about it, I said,
how can we bring that speed and acceleration to our
clients because their products are the important aspect in this
whole equation. There are patients that are needing a product.
(36:53):
We haven't cured Your cancer. And what if we all
together can do that by accelerating writing code? Faster.
S6 (37:02):
Better, cheaper.
S2 (37:04):
So is this going to be a threat for itJ? Yes.
So how do we get in front of it? By
we we created a practice internally called itJ labs, which
is our AI practice. And when you think about the
jobs of the future are shifting, you will need software engineers. Yes,
(37:29):
but you will also need data engineers, AI engineers, data scientists,
data engineers, um, prompt engineers. And new roles are showing
up every month. The prompt engineer is something new that I.
I have yet to understand what that is. Um, but
we do have this practice, and the intention of itj
(37:50):
labs is to generate talent with those skills. And so
they are out there practicing hands on projects from our clients.
Learning and teaching and bringing more people into the learning
of all of these functions. At the same time, we
(38:11):
work with clients to help them define projects, because a
lot of companies are talking about AI, but they don't
really know what it means or what they can do
with their data. And so we're helping them do proof
of concepts and pilot programs where they can just test
a concept and see if it's viable or not. So
it's very exciting that practice has a lot of attention
(38:34):
right now. In fact, we have a tech tour tomorrow,
and I think 80% of the attendees want to hear
about the AI practice, right? So I'm excited because it's
a new new area, new potential business line. And at
the same time we're generating new talent that is going
to be needed. So it's a win win, win win.
(38:55):
Everybody wins.
S4 (38:56):
And even with the biotechs, uh, I you know that
I work at Scripps Research and uh, and everybody is
doing is an AI biotech. So even I before that
I didn't hear that. And now even the Nobel Prize
is an AI biotech. So I think it's like a
(39:17):
shift in just a couple of years that that shift happened. Correct.
S2 (39:21):
Yes. I think life science in general, as an industry
has the most potential for disruption through AI. Um, traditionally
the industry has been lacking innovation, but also very siloed.
So the data is very private and it's only mine
and it's only in this little silo. Opening it up
(39:43):
will help us eradicate disease for sure. So that's very exciting.
That is very exciting.
S5 (39:50):
And it goes back to the core to what? What
pushed you in the very beginning to set up the company?
S6 (39:55):
Yes. Why I.
S4 (39:56):
Love it. So your vision, would you say, is it
still to create the largest and most important bio medtech
hub here in the US-Mexico border? Tell us about that plan.
S2 (40:10):
That plan. So being a technologist, we always look at
the Silicon Valley as the holy grail, right. Oh my God.
The Silicon Valley is the best thing ever. And I
used to say the Silicon Valley should be here in
in San Diego, in Tijuana, because we have all the ingredients, right?
We have the innovation, we have the people, we have the.
(40:30):
But now that I've been working in this region for
so many years, I found and I realized that, God, no,
the Silicon Valley will never move. It is what it is.
And so be it. However, we have something way better
than silicon. We have Live Science. And so that's what
(40:52):
the BioMed Tech Valley idea came about. And why don't we,
instead of focusing on Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley, let's create
the BioMed Valley here. Because the life sciences combination of biotech,
medical device and pharma. But now going and I still
believe we should do that, we have every ingredient possible
(41:14):
to make it. But I back to my core 2025
and renewed and.
S6 (41:20):
Say, you know.
S2 (41:21):
What, let's just do good.
S6 (41:24):
Okay?
S2 (41:25):
Something simple, something that people, everybody can get behind. And
that's my new mantra. Whether we create this this most important,
the biggest, the greatest. I just want to go back
to be simple and say, let's do good. And by
doing good, working on these industries that are so impactful.
(41:46):
But the good being good neighbors and creating jobs that
are going to help us and benefit us both in
the world. Right. Um, so yeah, that's that's my new,
renewed focus. But I believe San Diego and Tijuana can
be the the place where we will hopefully cure cancer
and other disease.
S6 (42:07):
Mhm. Mhm.
S4 (42:08):
10% happier.
S6 (42:10):
10% happier. Yes, yes.
S5 (42:12):
And with that kind of vision in mind that you're
setting forth here, I understand you wanted to reach a
milestone of having 50% women working at your company. How
close are you to that milestone and what is it
going to take to get there?
S2 (42:27):
I am not close enough. Last I saw the numbers
were 30%.
S6 (42:35):
Mhm.
S2 (42:37):
What is it going to take? Well number one is
people making the decisions. So I did that. So the
management level is 50 over 50. I'm halfway there. I
trust that they will do their thing to increase, but
then it's also going back to the early stages and
(42:58):
giving women an opportunity. And that is not just it
internally when we are interviewing, but also my clients need
to give that opportunity and women themselves need to give
themselves that opportunity. Yes. And you know, when we're young
and we say, well, not a lot of women graduate
from Stem. Yeah, but at 20 years, your brain is
(43:24):
so ripe for learning that I can take any women
that went to college and teaching them to be a
project engineer, data engineers, data science, they can learn for sure.
So it's just giving that opportunity to people and people
also giving themselves that opportunity. It's a journey. Um, I'm
(43:47):
doing what I can, but it's a it's a combination
of things.
S6 (43:52):
Of course, of course not.
S5 (43:53):
Easy. Not an easy task.
S4 (43:55):
And it's a mindset, I think, as again, as a woman,
as a student looking back on your life, it's it's
almost even cultural, right? It's a mindset that I believe
we need to we need to have and change.
S2 (44:09):
Yes. I have a a student at itJ graduated from
communications and she's taking Python lessons.
S6 (44:18):
Mhm.
S4 (44:19):
Yeah it's a mindset. I truly believe this. And going
to that. I actually hate to ask this but Marissa
how do you do it all. Any tips for all
of us mortals who are trying to be wives, mothers,
successful professionals? I love that you came in and you're like,
(44:41):
I just dropped my daughters. There's so much traffic. And
I'm like, yay!
S6 (44:45):
I can't relate.
S4 (44:47):
But then when I see you as a CEO, it's like,
oh my goodness, I guess.
S6 (44:52):
How does she do it?
S4 (44:53):
Yeah, I guess we have this vision of, like, you're
in your computer all day, like having your coffee, like
devil worship.
S6 (45:01):
Meetings and but but.
S4 (45:03):
How do you. Any tips for, like, what we're struggling with?
But then we see you and you inspire us. Like,
how do you do it all?
S2 (45:12):
Don't.
S4 (45:15):
Don't do it all. Okay, let's start there.
S2 (45:18):
In a lot of people say, oh, everything is possible.
You can have everything in life.
S5 (45:21):
No you can't. Right.
S2 (45:22):
You can't. So let's be realistic. Life is real. And
you have your your all your responsibilities on the table. Prioritize.
But also make sure that along the way you find
good partners. My husband is a true partner. I can
be here because I know he made breakfast for my
(45:44):
kids in the morning while I was getting ready to
be here, and then I dropped them off in school.
We are partners.
S4 (45:51):
Yes.
S2 (45:51):
And that without him, I couldn't do it.
S6 (45:54):
Yes.
S2 (45:55):
But then, even when you have that partner, make sure
you're not so hard on yourself. You can't have it all.
Bottom line, you cannot have it all. Get what you
feel is important and be happy with that.
S6 (46:07):
Yeah.
S2 (46:08):
We're all in the same on the same boat together.
We're all models. And yes, I do drink coffee, but
I also have to do clean, clean the house and
walk the dogs. And it's just.
S6 (46:21):
Life. Yes.
S4 (46:22):
And decisions. When you went to the partner part. Decisions?
S6 (46:28):
Yes.
S4 (46:29):
Enough said.
S5 (46:31):
Well, I've got to tell you, we are in awe
of what you've been doing, what you've accomplished, And when
we started this conversation, Monique started this conversation about who
Boardmasters was. Right? What are we doing? Why are we
doing this podcast? We're talking to border leaders, right? But
when you hear the the term or the expression border masters,
(46:53):
what do you think? What comes to mind to you?
S2 (46:56):
That's an interesting question. I think of some sort of
a ninja super expert at borders. Um, my view on
borders is that they should not exist. There should be
masters on just driving collaboration in the Americas. The future
(47:19):
is borderless and digital. There are no borders. So hopefully
we'll have more masters on how do we interact and
collaborate and bring benefits on all parts of the world,
regardless of where you are. And I think the beauty
is that digital will help us with that.
S5 (47:38):
Yes, certainly. It makes it a lot easier.
S4 (47:40):
I love it. Masters of collaboration. We have a new name. However, Marissa,
when I, when I wanted to interview. Like I see
you as like the border master. Do you believe you're
a border master? Or who in your point of view
(48:01):
is that like, ideal border master?
S2 (48:05):
I certainly don't see myself as border master. I, I
you know, you heard my story. I'm from Ecuador. I'm
not from the US. I moved here when I was 20.
I happened to be in this region by decisions made
along the way. I use the border to come and
go from my business to home. But for me, the
(48:27):
border has been very seamless. For me, the border doesn't
exist because the software we write has no borders. I
can write software, people can write software in Tijuana, San
Diego and is the same thing. This thing called the
cloud is enables us to like really store this information,
(48:47):
these bytes and bits and every anywhere, anywhere. So for me,
it's never been a border. I'm a somewhat citizen who
lives in a in a border town.
S6 (48:57):
But yeah.
S5 (48:58):
You're not ruled by jurisdictions.
S6 (48:59):
No.
S5 (49:01):
Because you live in the digital world.
S2 (49:03):
I live in the digital world where there are no borders,
and that's beautiful. So I, I don't I don't consider
myself a master of the border. I just know no border.
S6 (49:13):
And and but.
S4 (49:14):
You saw the opportunity. And also something that I take
from you is you say you talk the same language.
And I think the beauty also is like being digital.
Your language. Right. And I think the beauty we have
here in this studio, three people who speak Spanish as
(49:34):
their mother tongue. And we're all having an interview in English, right?
So I think that's like that beauty of just like
being able to to adapt and speak the same language
and being flexible wherever you are.
S2 (49:50):
Yes.
S5 (49:51):
Uh, Maritza, before we end our episode, is there anything
that you'd like to share with our audience and also
tell our audience how they can come in touch with Tijuana?
S2 (50:03):
Well, in Tijuana, hopefully the audience here will learn a
little bit more about who we are, what we do. Um,
we are reachable at itv.com. We're constantly, always engaging in
the community with tech tours, bringing people to see the reality.
In fact, tomorrow we have a tech tour from San
(50:24):
Diego to Tijuana. We're bringing leaders across the region to
come and see and hopefully help change that perception. The
last thing I would say here is being in this
region and the perception and reality, there is a huge
gap between the perception and reality of Tijuana and that
(50:45):
huge gap, I like to call it opportunity. And in fact,
Tijuana is the biggest opportunity that San Diego could have.
And I encourage every leader in San Diego to take
advantage of that unique, unique competitive advantage.
S5 (51:05):
So, Monique, this was a fascinating episode. I was amazed
at how Marisa has been able to pull it off,
all of it. Uh, you know, obviously she has a family.
She has two daughters. She's got all this this huge
company that she's created in a span of only 5
or 6 years. I got to say that there's two,
(51:27):
two things that she said That really impressed me and
really making me think and do a lot of reflection.
One is when we ask this question about, are you
a border master? And she says, no, not really. And
then she says, I think that we should be masters
(51:49):
of driving collaboration in the Americas. So so she believes
more in that sense of, you know, not thinking about
the border and having there be no border in the
first place because of the digital world she's in. But
this whole thing about driving collaboration in the Americas was
being a master of that was just so impressive. And
(52:11):
the second thing that I that kind of caught my
eye was when she said, perception versus reality, right? The name,
the name Tijuana has a certain stigma, but she still
kept it. And she said, you know, there's this gap
between perception and reality, and I don't see the gap
as a gap. I see it as an opportunity. So
(52:32):
two things that was that were just huge for me.
S4 (52:36):
And I think that's how she is a leader, right?
Like leaders, um, they do not see borders. They do
not see, uh, a wall in front of them. They
do not see ceilings like, they, they they just they
they the world is there, right? The opportunity is right there.
So I think that's how we can see that she
(52:58):
is a true leader and also the, the making an
impact and changing. So she really I love that she
is not all of course it is. But it's not
all for profit. It's also she wanted to make a change.
So how can I change this and make it better.
(53:20):
Just added an I before the word yes.
S5 (53:23):
No that that was amazing. And she doesn't. As you
were saying, she doesn't believe in borders. Because in this
digital world she lives in. You export or import data
all the time, right?
S6 (53:33):
Mhm.
S5 (53:34):
It just doesn't go through the usual physical.
S6 (53:36):
Channels.
S5 (53:36):
Through the jurisdictions. And she's in a, in a prime
field at the right time. So, so a lot of
success to her. And kudos to her for what she's
been able to accomplish and the team she's been able
to create over there.
S4 (53:50):
Yeah. And I think also something super important, if any
entrepreneurs are hearing us or people who are thinking about
doing a career change or making a leap is to ask,
what's your why? I think even even not right, even
if you're in an established career. But what is your why? We.
(54:10):
I often meet a lot of my friends that have
their businesses or even myself. I think last year where
I was like a little lost. And so going back
to your core, she keeps mentioning going back to your core,
going back to your roots, asking your why. And once
you have your why, why do you do this? Why
(54:32):
do you want to do this? Um, how how are
you going to make your why a reality? Which I
think are those very, um, very important questions to ask ourselves.
S5 (54:46):
Know for sure? For sure.
S4 (54:48):
Everybody who's out there for their masters to tune into
more episodes, go to Olas, Media.com or wherever you're listening
to your favorite podcast. When you're in your car, choose
it and remember if you have any comments, questions, guests,
or topic suggestions, you can contact us at info at boardmastersPodcast.com.
Thank you so much Maritza for your time. Um, sharing
your story. My name is Monica Seles and together with
(55:09):
Gustavo de la Fuente, we're grateful for sharing your time
with us.
S2 (55:11):
Thank you for having me.
S12 (55:12):
Thank you.
S3 (55:15):
This episode of Border Masters was creado por un Dream Team. J.C. Polk,
nuestro production consultant that supports us con su experiencia y
creatividad Lina Alvarez, nuestra executive producer siempre Armando Ulises Breton,
nuestro creative director, bringing the vision to life. Alan Gonzalez,
el audio engineer. Qué nos hace sonar increible y un
(55:36):
agradecimiento especial a chat piece. Founder and president por ser
la inspiracion detras de todo esto producido entre la Sony
San Diego, California y la vibrante Tijuana, Baja California o
la mirada is part of the IVC media Group. Quieres mas?
Check out Olas media.com para mas episodios y el blog
del show. Gracias por escuchamos de parte de Gustavo y Monique.
(55:57):
Nos vemos la proxima vez.
S1 (56:06):
Olas Media.
S13 (56:09):
Yes.
S2 (56:09):
So I've hired 1100 people already in this last five years.
S6 (56:15):
Mhm.
S2 (56:16):
500 of those were students at some point. And now,
fast forward five years. They are becoming the seniors, right?
S6 (56:25):
The senior leaders.
S2 (56:25):
Yes. In fact, one of the kids that I hired
for Thermofisher from the Tecnologico de Monterrey. Right.
S6 (56:32):
Mhm.
S2 (56:32):
We stay in touch and all because that's the beauty, right?
We're creating community.
S6 (56:36):
Yes.
S2 (56:37):
And so he's now working for, for me. And he's
a senior manager now.
S6 (56:43):
Mhm.
S2 (56:43):
So think about that. We're creating this path of career
opportunity for kids that graduate from school. No nothing. This
kiddo worked with me for thermo for two years. And
he's so brilliant that he was recruited by Microsoft in Seattle.
S6 (57:02):
Oh, wow.
S2 (57:02):
They took him to Microsoft because I couldn't retain him.
Like good luck, right?
S5 (57:06):
I compete against that at the time.
S2 (57:08):
Yeah. But then, Chava, because that's his his nickname. A
few years later, during Covid, he came back and he said,
you know what? Everybody has that dream in Mexico to
go work in the US, but it's not all that great, right?
He was very lonely during Covid and all of that.
So he came back to San Diego and and he
(57:28):
was at this point in his life, I need to
make this decision and I'm not happy.
S6 (57:32):
Where.
S5 (57:33):
I.
S6 (57:33):
Was.
S2 (57:34):
And so and so I told them, hey, do you
want to help me cure cancer? Because I just had
a client whose mission is to eradicate cancer. And he
looked at me and he said, yes.
S6 (57:47):
Right.
S2 (57:48):
But decisions. Right.
S6 (57:50):
An epiphany.
S2 (57:50):
I couldn't I couldn't compete with Microsoft.
S4 (57:54):
Yeah.
S2 (57:54):
He took a pay cut to come to Tijuana and
help eradicate cancer.
S4 (58:01):
10% happier.
S6 (58:02):
He's happier.
S2 (58:04):
So there are few stories like that. It's not just
about the money or it's just beautiful. Those. Those stories
and those people are the ones you you want to
invest in because they're going to be the leaders of
the future. Hopefully he'll become a CEO somewhere in the region.
Olas Media.
S2 (00:04):
The other way. It makes an impact in people's lives.
Is generating jobs in the region. That was always overlooked.
Nobody will look at Tijuana as a technology hub. And
I'm talking ten years ago. And so by providing these jobs,
we are not only giving them an opportunity today, it's
(00:27):
the jobs of the future that are impactful and people
feel proud of the job they do. So I think
that is very transformational as well.
S3 (00:38):
Olas media presents Border Masters, the podcast where the US-Mexico
border takes center stage.
S4 (00:45):
Gustavo is from Nogales. He has amazing credentials, so he's
super knowledgeable of everything border. But we come from very
different borders.
S5 (00:56):
Monique is very good on the emotional intelligence. It's the
personality that she has that allows people just to feel relaxed.
It's part of letting the world know why has it
been so successful to have that border and what has
inspired them about the border?
S3 (01:17):
Now, here are your hosts, Gustavo and Monique.
S4 (01:22):
Welcome to Border Masters, the podcast of border Leaders. I
am Monique Casillas, co-host of Border Masters, and I'm here
with my co-host Gustavo de la Fuente. Today I'm super
excited to have a guest I admire very much, because
I truly believe she's the perfect example of a border master.
(01:44):
Maritza Diaz, Chief Executive officer of Tijuana. Thank you so much, Marisa,
for joining us.
S2 (01:51):
Thank you for having me.
S4 (01:52):
Over the past seven years, Maritza has established herself as
a thought leader in cross-border collaboration in the software industry
between San Diego and Baja California. She is a member
of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank
of San Francisco, where she represents San Diego. A member
of the Forbes Technology Council, and an advocate of leveraging
(02:16):
the strength of this region to build a thriving innovation
economy that leads the digital transformation for companies in California.
Before becoming the Chief Executive Officer of Tijuana, Marissa served
as senior director at Thermo Fisher Scientific, where she was
responsible for growing the company's digital capabilities in North America,
(02:38):
India and Mexico. In this role, she successfully managed the
digital and agile transformation of an organization composed of 800
software professionals. Today, the software organization is considered one of
the finest in the industry. Marisa. I don't I can't
(02:59):
really recall the first time I met you, but I
have to say that every time I see you, I
admire your intelligence, your gravitas. Um. And also like how
down to earth you are. I think I have seen
you in a couple of, uh, friends social gatherings and
(03:21):
on tours on your beautiful offices in Tijuana, our hometown.
And you're always so poised, but with a with a
very welcoming smile. So I really appreciate that about you. And, um, Gustavo,
can you share how you met Marisa?
S5 (03:39):
I think I think I came in touch with Marisa. Marisa.
Virtually in May of 2021, when she presented at a
stakeholder working committee meeting for the Smart Border Coalition, which
is an organization that I was the executive director of.
And it was a video Conference because we were still
in Covid 19 mode for these meetings, and we had
over 80 people at that webinar, and many of them
(04:02):
expressed to me after that, that conversation after Maritza's presentation,
they were extremely impressed. And they were intrigued. More than impressed,
I'd say they were more intrigued about her business. And
I subsequently attended an event in Tijuana presented by one
of her clients, Insulet, to the Tijuana community in a
(04:22):
really beautiful building in the Sanatorio in your hometown, Monique.
So wonderful experience that way.
S4 (04:29):
Yeah. Maritza. Well, thank you so much for being here. And, um,
let us let's go to to square one. When you started,
I understand that you started a software company in Ecuador.
Is there where you're from? Tell us a little bit
about yourself.
S2 (04:47):
Okay, so I was born and raised in Ecuador, and
I am the first graduate from college in my my family.
Before going to college, my dad would always tell me,
I don't care what you do, but you have to
go to college. Because he truly believed that that education
was something, that the only thing that he could give
(05:08):
me that was meaningful for the future. Anyway, we never
had a computer at home, or never had an engineer
around a role model to guide me through career choices.
And so I only remember what my dad told me
you got to go to college. So I went stand
in line, sign up for college, and I get to
the to the to the place to pay. And the
(05:29):
lady there was like, what career? And I'm like, um,
I am not really sure. And so she told me, well,
we don't have a lot of people signing up for
the computer science. I'm like, oh, okay, I'll do that.
S5 (05:42):
I'll do that. Sign up. Yeah.
S2 (05:45):
And the reason what I'm telling you this is because
I am where I am today A by a little
bit of luck and a lot to do with decisions
that I made. And luck is not a good strategy.
And that's part of now a little bit of my
mantra for now is like, create people that have strategies
(06:09):
for career path in the future and not rely on luck.
S4 (06:12):
Okay.
S2 (06:13):
But fast forward, I graduated from college. I was actually
quite good, I think, in that career without even knowing
to a company in Ecuador called PricewaterhouseCoopers International Company was
recruiting and they were recruiting students from college, and I
was one of the two people they recruited that year.
(06:33):
And as I was working with them, I was very happy.
I love Ecuador, I love my family and everything that
is there. Until the day my my job offered me
to come to the US To work for in a
project for one year. It was a temporary assignment and
(06:54):
I said yes. And my parents said, no, you're not
leaving because cultural we we are from a very close culture.
And I was single and I was a woman. And
God forbid you live outside of your house before you
get married.
S4 (07:12):
Yeah.
S5 (07:12):
Mhm.
S4 (07:14):
How old were you there?
S2 (07:16):
I was 20.
S4 (07:17):
Oh my goodness. You were so.
S5 (07:19):
Young. Oh so very young.
S2 (07:21):
Um but I also I mentioned decisions. Yeah. That was
a key life changing decision. Mhm. That I was able
to tell my mom and dad. No I am going
to go. Wow. And I've been here in the US
for almost 30 years. That one project became two and
(07:43):
three and four and here I am.
S5 (07:47):
Wow. Incredible. And we'll get into things a little bit
more about your life story. But for all our listeners
out there, what is it, Juana, and how did you
come up with this idea of creating this company?
S2 (08:02):
I'm also the founder, and I always have to share
before I talk about the company, I need to tell
you my why. I have two girls, 12 and 14,
and they always been curious about mom. You always work.
What are you doing? What? What do you do? And
I never had a really good explanation that they could understand.
(08:25):
Being so young, I. Tijuana has given me that opportunity
to be able to tell my kids, look at them
in the eye and say, I Tijuana is touching people's lives.
S5 (08:36):
Mhm.
S2 (08:37):
And so the the next question is like how? And
so the how is it Tijuana wants to make an
impact in people's lives, and we do that in two ways.
The first one, we partner with companies in lives in
the life science industry, primarily to help them advance products
(09:00):
that are going to save lives, or they're going to
improve the quality of life of a patient. That industry
is just beautiful, and it's so much innovation happening now
after Covid, and it's impactful. The other way is Tijuana
makes an impact in people's lives, is generating jobs in
(09:23):
the region that was always overlooked. Nobody will look at
Tijuana as a technology hub. And I'm talking ten years
ago and I was included in that group. And so
by providing these jobs, we are not only giving them
(09:45):
an opportunity today, we're giving them a path for a
better future. And it's not just any job. It's the
jobs of the future that are impactful, that are well compensated,
and people feel proud of the job they do. So
I think that is very transformational as well.
S4 (10:05):
However, when you when you thought like how how was
that leap of I'm in the US? I was working
for a company and then now I'm going to do
my whole company. I'm going to be a founder because
I have a why and a how how, how do
(10:26):
you make that decision?
S2 (10:28):
So when I worked for Thermo Fisher Scientific, I was
a software engineer and the company was the leader in
serving science. And back in 2012, the company realized this
digital transformation is starting to pop up everywhere. Almost every
(10:49):
company started talking about digital transformation. And when you think
about digital. Digital is enabled with software. And that was
a software engineer. So talk about being at the right
time at the right place. So Thermo Fisher launched this
new mission of becoming the leaders in digital science. And
(11:11):
I was employee number two of this engineering organization, digital
engineering organization. And I worked for the CTO. And my
job was to build the digital engineering organization. And at
first I was like, okay, I can do that. Little
that I knew is like, oh, you got to hire
about 1000 software engineers. And I'm like, okay. It was
(11:33):
a hard job. Not only because the volume, but the
competition for that type of talent in the US. I
learned a lot about along the way. One was that
there aren't enough software engineers in the US to do
all the digital transformations that every industry and every company
wanted to work on. And so, like everybody else, I
(11:57):
went to India. That was the logical choice.
S5 (11:58):
Yes.
S2 (12:00):
And it's the safe choice.
S5 (12:01):
Mhm.
S2 (12:02):
But I had to do it because I needed hire
to hire. As I did that we realized we need
more and we were all happy with India. But it
wasn't something easy to do or sustainable because of the
time zone difference. And at that point we were looking
at Mexico as a potential because we are just here
(12:26):
in San Diego. Right. And so it just kind of
makes sense to be in the same time zone. But
when we're looking we were looking at Mexico. We were
looking at the logical and safe choices like Guadalajara, Monterrey,
Mexico City. See, the city of San Diego actually reached
out to us and said, oh, why not exploring Tijuana? Okay.
(12:48):
And the CIO, CTO said, no.
S5 (12:52):
No. Yes.
S2 (12:54):
But not why? Oh, because we need hundreds of software engineers.
Little long story short, we we came hesitant and they
drove us in this little shuttle that was new because
we were used to getting on a plane. Mhm. Um,
but we did it. We built a fantastic software center
(13:17):
of excellence is key excellence. And those software engineers were
working on very hard things. Right. This is not just
a website to advertise something. This was connecting instrumentation working
on secondary analysis for cancer research for very different difficult things.
And In. The quality that we saw was amazing through
(13:40):
this journey with Thermo Fisher. I became I moved from
software engineer to running this operation. I had to learn
everything from HR, talent acquisition, finance, legal, compliance and software.
That experience taught me how to do it. But more importantly,
(14:00):
I fell in love with the people and I just
had to do it. I had this need to I
had to do more of this. And Thermo Fisher achieved
their goal. But then there were many other companies in
San Diego that could benefit from this, and I could
generate more and more jobs. And that's where I said, okay,
(14:21):
I told my husband, I'm leaving. I'm leaving Thermo Fisher.
And he was like, you are crazy.
S6 (14:26):
Mhm. Mhm. Of course.
S4 (14:28):
Wow, that's so brave of you.
S6 (14:30):
It was it was very brave.
S4 (14:31):
And we're so.
S6 (14:32):
Grateful.
S4 (14:32):
Because you saw that talent, like you said, untapped talent.
And I'm also super grateful that you call your company
I Tijuana. You're placing the name of my hometown on
a global scale. How would you describe the talent that
exists in Tijuana and what it has to offer to
(14:56):
San Diego and beyond?
S2 (14:59):
So thank you for bringing up the name because I
think it's important part of the story. As I was
working with more people in Tijuana, I realized I was
wrong when I didn't want to come to Tijuana on
day one, when when the San Diego City invited.
S6 (15:18):
Me.
S2 (15:18):
And I was thinking, why is that? And it's the perception,
the perception of Tijuana. It's one thing, but the reality
is hugely different. And unfortunately, not a lot of people
see that. They only see it once they experience Tijuana.
(15:40):
And I was thinking about how hard is it to
change perception. And it's very hard.
S6 (15:48):
Yeah.
S2 (15:49):
It's very hard.
S6 (15:50):
Yes.
S2 (15:50):
Even the perception within Mexico of Tijuana. Yes. It's not
the best. And let's not kid ourselves. We can do
everything and anything. The perception will continue to be there.
So I said, well, what if we just change the
name of the city because Tijuana has a stigma? That's
(16:11):
not going to change. What if we create an IT city?
And so it's my way of rebranding Tijuana to create
a new perception of Tijuana. Been in IT city. And
so it was easy to just bring the eye in
front of the.
S6 (16:30):
T.
S2 (16:30):
And get it. right?
S6 (16:32):
Right.
S2 (16:33):
I believe the city should be called it Tijuana. Not
my company. The city.
S5 (16:37):
The city itself.
S6 (16:38):
The city itself? Yes.
S5 (16:41):
That's interesting.
S2 (16:42):
It's similar to what happened back in the day with
Bombay in India. Bombay? Nobody wanted to go to a
place where it's a bomb.
S6 (16:51):
Mhm.
S2 (16:51):
And now that city is called Mumbai.
S6 (16:53):
Yeah.
S2 (16:54):
Right. They could not change the perception of Bombay. They
rename it to Mumbai. Tijuana.
S4 (17:03):
Marisa Diaz for major. I'm calling it for me. For
major of Tijuana.
S5 (17:10):
No, it's, uh, very interesting way that you're looking at it,
and and. Yeah, we we struggle, I think, at the
border with the perception versus reality issue. It's all over,
and there's this stigma and there's these extremes in conceptions
about cities and and areas and regions of the world.
Tijuana being one of them. But I obviously realized that
(17:33):
education is quite important to you. You know, you're the
first generation to graduate from your family, graduate college. You
have an MBA, you have a number of different educational
attainments and degrees over the years. Tell us about the
university system on the Mexican side of the border, because
at the end of the day, you were looking for
people when you when you were at Thermo Fisher, which
(17:53):
you were just describing, you were looking for student talent.
I'm assuming that you started with that and you've continued
with Stem programs. And how is that talent among the
universities in Baja California, for instance?
S2 (18:06):
Great. Bottom line, I hire people from all over the world,
and I can tell you the level of education that
I found in Mexico is fantastic. Not only the quality,
but also the number of people that are going into
Stem careers is greater than the US. How? How is
(18:30):
that possible? Right? When you are in the US, you're like,
oh my God, we're the number one country in the world.
But yet we don't have enough Stem students graduating. Mexico
has more. And so for me it was volume and quality.
And Mexico brings those two. Um, when you look at
the trends, about five years from now, Mexico will be
(18:54):
the number one in Latin America in terms of number
of graduates right now is Brazil has that number one.
But the rate of new new graduates is fantastic and
the quality is great. And you you know, when I
started at Thermo Fisher, I knew nothing about the educational
system of Mexico. And so some people from Mexico were
(19:15):
helping me with who I wanted to hire only from
the best. Right? My mindset back in the day and
the best was the Tecnologico de Monterrey and so on
and so forth. So I went, okay, I'm going to
hire from the Tecnologico de Monterrey and I did. Those
were kind of my first hires and I relocated them
to Tijuana. And today we hire from every single university
(19:40):
that has a program in computer science. And the quality
is just as great, um, in software and, and in
in this new digital world, you need different types of technologists.
You need those that are going to write the code,
you need those that are more product oriented so that
(20:03):
they can write stories and testing. You also need that
business mindset to make sure that the product that we're
bringing to light is on time. It has all the specifications,
it meets the user requirements. So it's talent variety for
all sorts of roles.
S5 (20:20):
This is for your scrum teams as you would describe it. Right?
S2 (20:23):
Correct. So if I need a software developer's probably going
to technological or more polytechnic, but if I needed more
business focus, I'll go to Tecnologico de Monterrey or others
or CTS. So I like that it's a lot of
variety of different skills and different universities and being on
(20:45):
the border. It's also another benefit that you have universities
not only in Mexico. You have universities in San Diego.
So talk about engineering and science. UCSD is one of
the best, and we're partnering with them as well to
create this ecosystem where education doesn't have borders and everybody
(21:06):
has the opportunity to earn degrees and have access to
the same level of education, regardless of where they are.
S6 (21:13):
Mm.
S4 (21:14):
Super interesting reading, Marisa about it. Juana. It has been
named a unicorn company by many here in San Diego
and other parts of the globe. But let's talk about
some interesting and very impressive numbers. Your company. Your company
has accomplished a four times innovation rate at one third
(21:36):
of the cost. Half of the turnover, as well as 200%
growth in three years. It's all of this sustainable.
S2 (21:47):
Absolutely. It's just the beginning. The world, the future is digital.
And I'm not just saying because I'm a software engineer.
It's the reality. It's the reality. If any company today,
any industry should consider themselves a software company. I think
(22:08):
Covid really taught us that digitalization is not an optional.
It's not a nice to have. It's critical part of
the business. And so I'm excited about the future. It's
going to be more and more. And as we progress
through this journey of becoming more digital, we're going to
(22:29):
find that some roles are going to be more obsolete
than others, but then new roles will appear. And that's
what's exciting to me. And tying it back to education
and making sure that we have this pulse on on
the industry and work with universities to say, well, you
know what? Now, we no longer need this technology or
(22:49):
this type of professional. Now we need more people with
data science or data engineering or product engineering, or I mean,
all sorts of new careers that are being created because
of this digitalization. And at the same time, it's not
just build, build, build, but also threats, right? So cybersecurity
(23:09):
is so important nowadays because as more things become digital,
there are all these bad actors or ways or companies
need to protect themselves. So it's just the sky is
the limit.
S6 (23:22):
Mhm.
S5 (23:24):
Um, so we know San Diego is in the top
five cities for biotech and medtech in the United States.
I'm sure you've been able to source many of your business, uh,
opportunities or deals with companies from San Diego. But what
about businesses outside of San Diego? How has that sort
of behaved? And is that the future of Tijuana going
(23:47):
out beyond San Diego County and to the world, really?
I mean, I'm assuming that you have some companies that
are outside of the county already, but where do you
see all that kind of evolving?
S2 (23:59):
So two years ago, I achieved my five year plan
because we grew very fast.
S6 (24:06):
Yeah.
S2 (24:06):
And so I was like, okay, so what's next? And
me being very aggressive with, okay, now we're going to
have to grow 400 times more, right? And I figured
we're going to grow only if we expand outside of
San Diego and Tijuana. And so we do have other
clients in other parts of the region's Midwest, Northern California.
(24:32):
This last two years have been absolutely the most difficult,
because expanding outside of your core requires a very different mindset.
It also when you combine it with the economy and
other aspects external to us. Even our own clients have
(24:54):
been having a lot of hard times. So at the
end of this, this past year during the holidays, I
was back in home and saying, what is happening? What
is it Tijuana going to be focusing on in 2025
and beyond? And I don't know if it's popular or
not with my people, but I realized that for us
(25:17):
to grow and be happy at the same time, we
need to be back to our core and really remember
why I was created to begin with. Why I say
that is because when I go to Boston, Tijuana means nothing.
S6 (25:39):
Right.
S5 (25:41):
Or it might have that negative, that stigma that you
were talking about that's everywhere.
S6 (25:46):
Mhm.
S2 (25:46):
But here in San Diego, Tijuana. It's 20 minutes. Tijuana
is right there you see. You have that interaction. So
it means something beyond business. In Boston it doesn't mean
anything if at all. You know it could be Costa
Rica or it could be Ecuador. Right. It's just Latin America.
(26:07):
I think. What is Tijuana San Diego. So this year,
in the future years, we're going to go back to
our core. You mentioned San Diego is one of the
largest hubs, is the third in the world, and we
only have scratched the surface here in San Diego. There
are many fantastic companies creating amazing products that need help,
(26:28):
and I want to focus refocus my attention in building
this region. Now, on the other side of the border,
I do have a belief that we need to extend
it to the rest of the Americas. You know, when
you cross the border and says La Patria starts here.
S7 (26:49):
La porta Latinoamérica también es otro.
S2 (26:52):
I believe yeah, like America, Latin America starts here. Not
just Tijuana, not just Mexico. And we are hiring from
all sorts of different places in Latin America. I think
that will continue because the need for these new jobs
and new people, new new roles is so much greater
(27:15):
than Tijuana and San Diego. We have to expand and
bring these opportunities to the rest of Latin America. No
borders right? It should be one. Americas.
S6 (27:25):
Yes.
S2 (27:26):
Yes. No. South. Central one.
S3 (27:29):
Let's take a quick break from the conversation. You're listening
to Border Masters. We will be right back.
S8 (27:38):
Hey, it's Daniel from Beyond the Doors. We're super excited
to be a part of the Olas Media Network recording
right here in San Diego, alongside some amazing podcasts. There's
a host of wonderful shows from all types of genres
for the true San Diegan, who wants to know more
about local officials and their journey to success. There is
dear San Diego with my good friend Tony Monologos. And
(28:02):
of course, there's a true crime podcast with one of
the most notable prosecutors in California history, Anne Marie Schubert,
basically like real estate. He's a little something for all
walks of life. You won't want to miss it. So
head over to Olas Media.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
(28:22):
Don't forget to follow or subscribe while you're there.
S9 (28:26):
Makes Grounds Coffee, founded in 2020, is where Culture Brews Community.
Located in San Diego's Logan Heights District, this Vietnamese owned
micro roastery brings you the world's finest beans roasting small batches.
Mixed grounds is proud to present. I just wanted to
post record on the Olas Media Network celebrating arts, community
(28:49):
and culture.
S10 (28:51):
Here's a cautionary tale. She who climbs the 20 foot
high diving board should be prepared mentally for what it
looks like at first glance down, we all should have
some idea of what it takes to plunge from new heights.
Unless you have someone who's willing to push you and
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(29:11):
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with charity Jenn. Follow and subscribe at Apple Media.com or
wherever you get your podcasts.
S3 (29:29):
Boardmasters is back! Let's get to Gustavo and Monique.
S4 (29:34):
I love what you said because I love a lot
of what you have been saying, but you also paused
and reflected and came back to your core, which I
think is not only a teaching for your company, but
for life. Right? That's something that we all need to
do for time to time. And I also love that
(29:55):
you realize that to grow, you can just stay here
and strengthen our region, which I love. So I know,
I already know you're going to be super successful, focusing
in the rest of Latin America and growing. Um, another
thing that inspires about about you, inspires me, about you,
(30:17):
is you inspire other female professionals in our region and beyond.
And I understand that it was not an easy path
for you. Um, and to be where you where Ecuador
and you talk about luck and decisions and where you
are right now. How do you see the field today?
(30:39):
Are there more women coming into it? Stem biotech, life sciences?
S2 (30:48):
Yes, which is exciting and I see it in different levels. Um,
in my clients, surprisingly, because this is a change in
the last, I don't know, five, ten years, a lot
of the CIOs that I'm interacting with are women.
S6 (31:06):
Mhm. Mhm.
S2 (31:07):
That wasn't the case when I was um in those positions.
So it's, it's actually very curious. I'm very curious to
see what that is. It's many, many female CEOs which
I love. Now in terms of CEOs that's another story
that still a long way to go. But CEOs are
(31:28):
taking their spot. They're females in terms of young students.
It's a struggle. But it's also I don't think the
problem is not a lot of women are trying to
go into this field. I think the drop is when
they don't get an opportunity to even start a the
(31:49):
first job. And I think that's where I can make
a difference in, at least in my in my small circle,
we do have a trainee program which is hiring students
who have not graduated yet from different careers in engineering.
And that's where I partnered with my clients to convince
(32:10):
them to give the women a chance. Because sometimes women,
or sometimes a lot of times we're too perfectionists. We
didn't even apply for the job if we don't meet
every single requirement on the job description. And that's the
work we are doing with our university relations. And we're
trying to bring these young students. We're like, you don't
(32:31):
have to be perfect. In fact, we don't even need
you to know the hard skills. We only look at
your scores in in school and your interview, how you
present yourself, that's all. Because you're going to learn. And
so hiring women early enough will give a better chance
to have a larger presence in the future. The other
(32:54):
thing we do at itJ is management. And that's where
I have direct influence. Today, the ratio of management at
itJ is 50 over 50. I trust that these women
that are in positions of decision making and hiring will
do their part to bring more women to to those roles.
(33:17):
It's a journey.
S4 (33:19):
I see that and and I see something super important,
which is mentorship. I don't know about you and your career,
but I believe, again, being like you from Latin America,
this idea of mentorship. I almost think is nonexistent. But
then when we came to the US, it's like this
(33:40):
whole new story about how important are your mentors for you?
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey
on that and how many, like you said, paying it
forward with your management team? Is it this mentorship component
important as well.
S2 (34:02):
Having mentors is very important for regardless of who you
are or where you come from, or what your career
aspirations are. Personally, when I was a young professional, I
did have a couple of mentors. They were all they
were all male, right? Because of because of where they
the demographics. But it doesn't matter who your mentor is,
(34:25):
female or not. I think it's important to have someone that,
you know, have a skill or behavior that you want
to acquire. It's very, very important. But equally important are sponsors.
S6 (34:40):
Mhm.
S2 (34:41):
I also had a couple of sponsors in my career
that helped me take on new challenges and new roles
and be my voice, my representation when I wasn't in
the room. You need to have that. That's back to
the management at TJ. PJ those managers. I am not
their their their mentor. I am their sponsor. I am
(35:05):
putting them in those positions without even they asking. They're not.
S6 (35:09):
Even asking.
S2 (35:10):
I put them there so that they can do their thing.
So sponsoring is equally important as mentors.
S4 (35:18):
So important.
S5 (35:19):
So your company is very young. You're only in your
sixth year. So you started this in September of 2019. Um,
you're also in a very fluid environment where AI and
machine learning are, in some aspects, replacing, uh, programming. Right.
That has happened over the years. Um, how will I,
(35:40):
Taiwan adapt to this? Is there still room to grow
with software programming?
S2 (35:45):
You know, this is so exciting to me because the
first time I played with ChatGPT was, I think the
second day that came out and it was all this excitement,
and I asked them to write some code. And it did.
And I was.
S6 (35:59):
Shocked. Stunned.
S2 (36:01):
I was like, oh.
S11 (36:02):
My God.
S2 (36:02):
I was.
S6 (36:03):
Running so.
S2 (36:04):
Excited. My husband was like, what's happening?
S6 (36:06):
Like, oh my God.
S2 (36:07):
This thing can write code better than than a programmer.
But then a few days later, I'm like, Holy cow,
this is going to eliminate the software engineering need. And
the answer is yes, it will eliminate some. Microsoft recently
showcased one of their their customers that are fully implementing
(36:31):
AI in software, and they're seeing 30% productivity gain already
one client. So when I think about it, I said,
how can we bring that speed and acceleration to our
clients because their products are the important aspect in this
whole equation. There are patients that are needing a product.
(36:53):
We haven't cured Your cancer. And what if we all
together can do that by accelerating writing code? Faster.
S6 (37:02):
Better, cheaper.
S2 (37:04):
So is this going to be a threat for itJ? Yes.
So how do we get in front of it? By
we we created a practice internally called itJ labs, which
is our AI practice. And when you think about the
jobs of the future are shifting, you will need software engineers. Yes,
(37:29):
but you will also need data engineers, AI engineers, data scientists,
data engineers, um, prompt engineers. And new roles are showing
up every month. The prompt engineer is something new that I.
I have yet to understand what that is. Um, but
we do have this practice, and the intention of itj
(37:50):
labs is to generate talent with those skills. And so
they are out there practicing hands on projects from our clients.
Learning and teaching and bringing more people into the learning
of all of these functions. At the same time, we
(38:11):
work with clients to help them define projects, because a
lot of companies are talking about AI, but they don't
really know what it means or what they can do
with their data. And so we're helping them do proof
of concepts and pilot programs where they can just test
a concept and see if it's viable or not. So
it's very exciting that practice has a lot of attention
(38:34):
right now. In fact, we have a tech tour tomorrow,
and I think 80% of the attendees want to hear
about the AI practice, right? So I'm excited because it's
a new new area, new potential business line. And at
the same time we're generating new talent that is going
to be needed. So it's a win win, win win.
(38:55):
Everybody wins.
S4 (38:56):
And even with the biotechs, uh, I you know that
I work at Scripps Research and uh, and everybody is
doing is an AI biotech. So even I before that
I didn't hear that. And now even the Nobel Prize
is an AI biotech. So I think it's like a
(39:17):
shift in just a couple of years that that shift happened. Correct.
S2 (39:21):
Yes. I think life science in general, as an industry
has the most potential for disruption through AI. Um, traditionally
the industry has been lacking innovation, but also very siloed.
So the data is very private and it's only mine
and it's only in this little silo. Opening it up
(39:43):
will help us eradicate disease for sure. So that's very exciting.
That is very exciting.
S5 (39:50):
And it goes back to the core to what? What
pushed you in the very beginning to set up the company?
S6 (39:55):
Yes. Why I.
S4 (39:56):
Love it. So your vision, would you say, is it
still to create the largest and most important bio medtech
hub here in the US-Mexico border? Tell us about that plan.
S2 (40:10):
That plan. So being a technologist, we always look at
the Silicon Valley as the holy grail, right. Oh my God.
The Silicon Valley is the best thing ever. And I
used to say the Silicon Valley should be here in
in San Diego, in Tijuana, because we have all the ingredients, right?
We have the innovation, we have the people, we have the.
(40:30):
But now that I've been working in this region for
so many years, I found and I realized that, God, no,
the Silicon Valley will never move. It is what it is.
And so be it. However, we have something way better
than silicon. We have Live Science. And so that's what
(40:52):
the BioMed Tech Valley idea came about. And why don't we,
instead of focusing on Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley, let's create
the BioMed Valley here. Because the life sciences combination of biotech,
medical device and pharma. But now going and I still
believe we should do that, we have every ingredient possible
(41:14):
to make it. But I back to my core 2025
and renewed and.
S6 (41:20):
Say, you know.
S2 (41:21):
What, let's just do good.
S6 (41:24):
Okay?
S2 (41:25):
Something simple, something that people, everybody can get behind. And
that's my new mantra. Whether we create this this most important,
the biggest, the greatest. I just want to go back
to be simple and say, let's do good. And by
doing good, working on these industries that are so impactful.
(41:46):
But the good being good neighbors and creating jobs that
are going to help us and benefit us both in
the world. Right. Um, so yeah, that's that's my new,
renewed focus. But I believe San Diego and Tijuana can
be the the place where we will hopefully cure cancer
and other disease.
S6 (42:07):
Mhm. Mhm.
S4 (42:08):
10% happier.
S6 (42:10):
10% happier. Yes, yes.
S5 (42:12):
And with that kind of vision in mind that you're
setting forth here, I understand you wanted to reach a
milestone of having 50% women working at your company. How
close are you to that milestone and what is it
going to take to get there?
S2 (42:27):
I am not close enough. Last I saw the numbers
were 30%.
S6 (42:35):
Mhm.
S2 (42:37):
What is it going to take? Well number one is
people making the decisions. So I did that. So the
management level is 50 over 50. I'm halfway there. I
trust that they will do their thing to increase, but
then it's also going back to the early stages and
(42:58):
giving women an opportunity. And that is not just it
internally when we are interviewing, but also my clients need
to give that opportunity and women themselves need to give
themselves that opportunity. Yes. And you know, when we're young
and we say, well, not a lot of women graduate
from Stem. Yeah, but at 20 years, your brain is
(43:24):
so ripe for learning that I can take any women
that went to college and teaching them to be a
project engineer, data engineers, data science, they can learn for sure.
So it's just giving that opportunity to people and people
also giving themselves that opportunity. It's a journey. Um, I'm
(43:47):
doing what I can, but it's a it's a combination
of things.
S6 (43:52):
Of course, of course not.
S5 (43:53):
Easy. Not an easy task.
S4 (43:55):
And it's a mindset, I think, as again, as a woman,
as a student looking back on your life, it's it's
almost even cultural, right? It's a mindset that I believe
we need to we need to have and change.
S2 (44:09):
Yes. I have a a student at itJ graduated from
communications and she's taking Python lessons.
S6 (44:18):
Mhm.
S4 (44:19):
Yeah it's a mindset. I truly believe this. And going
to that. I actually hate to ask this but Marissa
how do you do it all. Any tips for all
of us mortals who are trying to be wives, mothers,
successful professionals? I love that you came in and you're like,
(44:41):
I just dropped my daughters. There's so much traffic. And
I'm like, yay!
S6 (44:45):
I can't relate.
S4 (44:47):
But then when I see you as a CEO, it's like,
oh my goodness, I guess.
S6 (44:52):
How does she do it?
S4 (44:53):
Yeah, I guess we have this vision of, like, you're
in your computer all day, like having your coffee, like
devil worship.
S6 (45:01):
Meetings and but but.
S4 (45:03):
How do you. Any tips for, like, what we're struggling with?
But then we see you and you inspire us. Like,
how do you do it all?
S2 (45:12):
Don't.
S4 (45:15):
Don't do it all. Okay, let's start there.
S2 (45:18):
In a lot of people say, oh, everything is possible.
You can have everything in life.
S5 (45:21):
No you can't. Right.
S2 (45:22):
You can't. So let's be realistic. Life is real. And
you have your your all your responsibilities on the table. Prioritize.
But also make sure that along the way you find
good partners. My husband is a true partner. I can
be here because I know he made breakfast for my
(45:44):
kids in the morning while I was getting ready to
be here, and then I dropped them off in school.
We are partners.
S4 (45:51):
Yes.
S2 (45:51):
And that without him, I couldn't do it.
S6 (45:54):
Yes.
S2 (45:55):
But then, even when you have that partner, make sure
you're not so hard on yourself. You can't have it all.
Bottom line, you cannot have it all. Get what you
feel is important and be happy with that.
S6 (46:07):
Yeah.
S2 (46:08):
We're all in the same on the same boat together.
We're all models. And yes, I do drink coffee, but
I also have to do clean, clean the house and
walk the dogs. And it's just.
S6 (46:21):
Life. Yes.
S4 (46:22):
And decisions. When you went to the partner part. Decisions?
S6 (46:28):
Yes.
S4 (46:29):
Enough said.
S5 (46:31):
Well, I've got to tell you, we are in awe
of what you've been doing, what you've accomplished, And when
we started this conversation, Monique started this conversation about who
Boardmasters was. Right? What are we doing? Why are we
doing this podcast? We're talking to border leaders, right? But
when you hear the the term or the expression border masters,
(46:53):
what do you think? What comes to mind to you?
S2 (46:56):
That's an interesting question. I think of some sort of
a ninja super expert at borders. Um, my view on
borders is that they should not exist. There should be
masters on just driving collaboration in the Americas. The future
(47:19):
is borderless and digital. There are no borders. So hopefully
we'll have more masters on how do we interact and
collaborate and bring benefits on all parts of the world,
regardless of where you are. And I think the beauty
is that digital will help us with that.
S5 (47:38):
Yes, certainly. It makes it a lot easier.
S4 (47:40):
I love it. Masters of collaboration. We have a new name. However, Marissa,
when I, when I wanted to interview. Like I see
you as like the border master. Do you believe you're
a border master? Or who in your point of view
(48:01):
is that like, ideal border master?
S2 (48:05):
I certainly don't see myself as border master. I, I
you know, you heard my story. I'm from Ecuador. I'm
not from the US. I moved here when I was 20.
I happened to be in this region by decisions made
along the way. I use the border to come and
go from my business to home. But for me, the
(48:27):
border has been very seamless. For me, the border doesn't
exist because the software we write has no borders. I
can write software, people can write software in Tijuana, San
Diego and is the same thing. This thing called the
cloud is enables us to like really store this information,
(48:47):
these bytes and bits and every anywhere, anywhere. So for me,
it's never been a border. I'm a somewhat citizen who
lives in a in a border town.
S6 (48:57):
But yeah.
S5 (48:58):
You're not ruled by jurisdictions.
S6 (48:59):
No.
S5 (49:01):
Because you live in the digital world.
S2 (49:03):
I live in the digital world where there are no borders,
and that's beautiful. So I, I don't I don't consider
myself a master of the border. I just know no border.
S6 (49:13):
And and but.
S4 (49:14):
You saw the opportunity. And also something that I take
from you is you say you talk the same language.
And I think the beauty also is like being digital.
Your language. Right. And I think the beauty we have
here in this studio, three people who speak Spanish as
(49:34):
their mother tongue. And we're all having an interview in English, right?
So I think that's like that beauty of just like
being able to to adapt and speak the same language
and being flexible wherever you are.
S2 (49:50):
Yes.
S5 (49:51):
Uh, Maritza, before we end our episode, is there anything
that you'd like to share with our audience and also
tell our audience how they can come in touch with Tijuana?
S2 (50:03):
Well, in Tijuana, hopefully the audience here will learn a
little bit more about who we are, what we do. Um,
we are reachable at itv.com. We're constantly, always engaging in
the community with tech tours, bringing people to see the reality.
In fact, tomorrow we have a tech tour from San
(50:24):
Diego to Tijuana. We're bringing leaders across the region to
come and see and hopefully help change that perception. The
last thing I would say here is being in this
region and the perception and reality, there is a huge
gap between the perception and reality of Tijuana and that
(50:45):
huge gap, I like to call it opportunity. And in fact,
Tijuana is the biggest opportunity that San Diego could have.
And I encourage every leader in San Diego to take
advantage of that unique, unique competitive advantage.
S5 (51:05):
So, Monique, this was a fascinating episode. I was amazed
at how Marisa has been able to pull it off,
all of it. Uh, you know, obviously she has a family.
She has two daughters. She's got all this this huge
company that she's created in a span of only 5
or 6 years. I got to say that there's two,
(51:27):
two things that she said That really impressed me and
really making me think and do a lot of reflection.
One is when we ask this question about, are you
a border master? And she says, no, not really. And
then she says, I think that we should be masters
(51:49):
of driving collaboration in the Americas. So so she believes
more in that sense of, you know, not thinking about
the border and having there be no border in the
first place because of the digital world she's in. But
this whole thing about driving collaboration in the Americas was
being a master of that was just so impressive. And
(52:11):
the second thing that I that kind of caught my
eye was when she said, perception versus reality, right? The name,
the name Tijuana has a certain stigma, but she still
kept it. And she said, you know, there's this gap
between perception and reality, and I don't see the gap
as a gap. I see it as an opportunity. So
(52:32):
two things that was that were just huge for me.
S4 (52:36):
And I think that's how she is a leader, right?
Like leaders, um, they do not see borders. They do
not see, uh, a wall in front of them. They
do not see ceilings like, they, they they just they
they the world is there, right? The opportunity is right there.
So I think that's how we can see that she
(52:58):
is a true leader and also the, the making an
impact and changing. So she really I love that she
is not all of course it is. But it's not
all for profit. It's also she wanted to make a change.
So how can I change this and make it better.
(53:20):
Just added an I before the word yes.
S5 (53:23):
No that that was amazing. And she doesn't. As you
were saying, she doesn't believe in borders. Because in this
digital world she lives in. You export or import data
all the time, right?
S6 (53:33):
Mhm.
S5 (53:34):
It just doesn't go through the usual physical.
S6 (53:36):
Channels.
S5 (53:36):
Through the jurisdictions. And she's in a, in a prime
field at the right time. So, so a lot of
success to her. And kudos to her for what she's
been able to accomplish and the team she's been able
to create over there.
S4 (53:50):
Yeah. And I think also something super important, if any
entrepreneurs are hearing us or people who are thinking about
doing a career change or making a leap is to ask,
what's your why? I think even even not right, even
if you're in an established career. But what is your why? We.
(54:10):
I often meet a lot of my friends that have
their businesses or even myself. I think last year where
I was like a little lost. And so going back
to your core, she keeps mentioning going back to your core,
going back to your roots, asking your why. And once
you have your why, why do you do this? Why
(54:32):
do you want to do this? Um, how how are
you going to make your why a reality? Which I
think are those very, um, very important questions to ask ourselves.
S5 (54:46):
Know for sure? For sure.
S4 (54:48):
Everybody who's out there for their masters to tune into
more episodes, go to Olas, Media.com or wherever you're listening
to your favorite podcast. When you're in your car, choose
it and remember if you have any comments, questions, guests,
or topic suggestions, you can contact us at info at boardmastersPodcast.com.
Thank you so much Maritza for your time. Um, sharing
your story. My name is Monica Seles and together with
(55:09):
Gustavo de la Fuente, we're grateful for sharing your time
with us.
S2 (55:11):
Thank you for having me.
S12 (55:12):
Thank you.
S3 (55:15):
This episode of Border Masters was creado por un Dream Team. J.C. Polk,
nuestro production consultant that supports us con su experiencia y
creatividad Lina Alvarez, nuestra executive producer siempre Armando Ulises Breton,
nuestro creative director, bringing the vision to life. Alan Gonzalez,
el audio engineer. Qué nos hace sonar increible y un
(55:36):
agradecimiento especial a chat piece. Founder and president por ser
la inspiracion detras de todo esto producido entre la Sony
San Diego, California y la vibrante Tijuana, Baja California o
la mirada is part of the IVC media Group. Quieres mas?
Check out Olas media.com para mas episodios y el blog
del show. Gracias por escuchamos de parte de Gustavo y Monique.
(55:57):
Nos vemos la proxima vez.
S1 (56:06):
Olas Media.
S13 (56:09):
Yes.
S2 (56:09):
So I've hired 1100 people already in this last five years.
S6 (56:15):
Mhm.
S2 (56:16):
500 of those were students at some point. And now,
fast forward five years. They are becoming the seniors, right?
S6 (56:25):
The senior leaders.
S2 (56:25):
Yes. In fact, one of the kids that I hired
for Thermofisher from the Tecnologico de Monterrey. Right.
S6 (56:32):
Mhm.
S2 (56:32):
We stay in touch and all because that's the beauty, right?
We're creating community.
S6 (56:36):
Yes.
S2 (56:37):
And so he's now working for, for me. And he's
a senior manager now.
S6 (56:43):
Mhm.
S2 (56:43):
So think about that. We're creating this path of career
opportunity for kids that graduate from school. No nothing. This
kiddo worked with me for thermo for two years. And
he's so brilliant that he was recruited by Microsoft in Seattle.
S6 (57:02):
Oh, wow.
S2 (57:02):
They took him to Microsoft because I couldn't retain him.
Like good luck, right?
S5 (57:06):
I compete against that at the time.
S2 (57:08):
Yeah. But then, Chava, because that's his his nickname. A
few years later, during Covid, he came back and he said,
you know what? Everybody has that dream in Mexico to
go work in the US, but it's not all that great, right?
He was very lonely during Covid and all of that.
So he came back to San Diego and and he
(57:28):
was at this point in his life, I need to
make this decision and I'm not happy.
S6 (57:32):
Where.
S5 (57:33):
I.
S6 (57:33):
Was.
S2 (57:34):
And so and so I told them, hey, do you
want to help me cure cancer? Because I just had
a client whose mission is to eradicate cancer. And he
looked at me and he said, yes.
S6 (57:47):
Right.
S2 (57:48):
But decisions. Right.
S6 (57:50):
An epiphany.
S2 (57:50):
I couldn't I couldn't compete with Microsoft.
S4 (57:54):
Yeah.
S2 (57:54):
He took a pay cut to come to Tijuana and
help eradicate cancer.
S4 (58:01):
10% happier.
S6 (58:02):
He's happier.
S2 (58:04):
So there are few stories like that. It's not just
about the money or it's just beautiful. Those. Those stories
and those people are the ones you you want to
invest in because they're going to be the leaders of
the future. Hopefully he'll become a CEO somewhere in the region.
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