Maria Hermida, BS ’87
Chief Ethics Officer, Citigroup
As a Cuban refugee, it was hard for Maria Hermida, Chief Ethics Officer of Citigroup, to envision exactly what shape her career would take, but she knew that her NYU Stern education would give her the foundation she needed to succeed in whatever endeavor she chose.
Maria’s parents had emigrated from Spain to Cuba as teenagers to escape the oppression of the Franco regime, only later to be swept up in the political upheaval of Fidel Castro’s rise to power in Cuba. After her birth, the family was allowed to travel back to Spain before subsequently moving to the US. Maria recalled her arrival in New York City at age four very vividly. “It was so cold and dark compared to Spain. I thought if I pretended that I couldn’t learn English, they would send me back,” she confessed. Unable to feign ignorance for very long, Maria made friends with her new classmates and acclimated to life on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. She grew up watching her mother earn her way to a master’s degree, and dreamed of one day becoming a doctor. Guided and supported by “wonderful mentors,” she secured a part-time job at Mount Sinai Hospital while still in high school, although her dreams of becoming a physician were quickly dashed when she realized she couldn’t stomach the sight of blood.
With medical school no longer an option, Maria gained inspiration from her best friend, who was a Stern freshman at the time. Maria explained, “I would visit my friend and see how much was going on at Stern and how much energy there was. It was so much more upbeat than the hospital!” Her mother was concerned that their financial circumstances put the School out of their reach, but Maria was awarded a scholarship that would change the path of her family’s future. Of her many positive experiences at Stern, she found the vast array of internships she undertook – everything from working at a start-up waste management company to a high-end art gallery – to be “incredible.” She attended law school after college and explained how her business education has benefited her as a lawyer: “It has enabled me to help clients understand how changes in laws, regulations, or policies can affect their businesses.”
Working her way from private practice to in-house counsel at an insurance company, Maria joined Citigroup in 2004 and held positions of increasing responsibility at the company until being promoted to Chief Ethics Officer. In this role, she oversees the company’s Global Ethics Office, developing its code of conduct and related training for staff in more than 100 countries, and coordinates the investigation of concerns raised through Citi’s ethics process. She returned to Stern recently to meet with students through the Dean’s Leadership Roundtable program, and was just as impressed with the current student body as she was as a prospective high school student. She remarked, “Stern students are not just intellectually curious – they are vocal about it. They are not afraid to engage in a dialogue with their professors and ask tough questions. It’s very exciting to be surrounded by people who are all so proactive about their futures. I remember having that feeling when I was a student at Stern and the future looked so bright.”
Maria’s parents had emigrated from Spain to Cuba as teenagers to escape the oppression of the Franco regime, only later to be swept up in the political upheaval of Fidel Castro’s rise to power in Cuba. After her birth, the family was allowed to travel back to Spain before subsequently moving to the US. Maria recalled her arrival in New York City at age four very vividly. “It was so cold and dark compared to Spain. I thought if I pretended that I couldn’t learn English, they would send me back,” she confessed. Unable to feign ignorance for very long, Maria made friends with her new classmates and acclimated to life on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. She grew up watching her mother earn her way to a master’s degree, and dreamed of one day becoming a doctor. Guided and supported by “wonderful mentors,” she secured a part-time job at Mount Sinai Hospital while still in high school, although her dreams of becoming a physician were quickly dashed when she realized she couldn’t stomach the sight of blood.
With medical school no longer an option, Maria gained inspiration from her best friend, who was a Stern freshman at the time. Maria explained, “I would visit my friend and see how much was going on at Stern and how much energy there was. It was so much more upbeat than the hospital!” Her mother was concerned that their financial circumstances put the School out of their reach, but Maria was awarded a scholarship that would change the path of her family’s future. Of her many positive experiences at Stern, she found the vast array of internships she undertook – everything from working at a start-up waste management company to a high-end art gallery – to be “incredible.” She attended law school after college and explained how her business education has benefited her as a lawyer: “It has enabled me to help clients understand how changes in laws, regulations, or policies can affect their businesses.”
Working her way from private practice to in-house counsel at an insurance company, Maria joined Citigroup in 2004 and held positions of increasing responsibility at the company until being promoted to Chief Ethics Officer. In this role, she oversees the company’s Global Ethics Office, developing its code of conduct and related training for staff in more than 100 countries, and coordinates the investigation of concerns raised through Citi’s ethics process. She returned to Stern recently to meet with students through the Dean’s Leadership Roundtable program, and was just as impressed with the current student body as she was as a prospective high school student. She remarked, “Stern students are not just intellectually curious – they are vocal about it. They are not afraid to engage in a dialogue with their professors and ask tough questions. It’s very exciting to be surrounded by people who are all so proactive about their futures. I remember having that feeling when I was a student at Stern and the future looked so bright.”