The WFE's Women Leaders 2022 - Ana Buchaim, Managing Director of People, Marketing, Communication and Sustainability, B3

Member: B3

Nominee’s name: Ana Buchaim

Nominee’s job title: Managing Director of People, Marketing, Communication and Sustainability at B3 

1. Brief description of nominee’s role/job:

Ana Buchaim is Managing Director of People, Marketing, Communication and Sustainability at B3 and heads up the team responsible for the company’s cultural/brand transformation since its inception in 2017 when BM&FBovespa and Cetip merged to become B3. She is also responsible for setting strategic plans and policies, collaborating with B3’s Senior Leadership Team to craft the organization’s vision and mission as well as developing HR, Comms, Marketing and Sustainability procedures and best practices and advancing the ESG agenda and best practices.

2. Short bio (career highlights, education, interests/hobbies):

Ana Buchaim has a degree in business administration from the School of Economics, Business and Accounting of the University of São Paulo (FEA-USP), with a change management specialization from the Chicago Booth School of Business and a Psychoanalysis qualification from the Centro de Estudos Psicanalíticos (center for psychoanalytic studies). She has a solid career history in financial institutions such as Banco Santander, ABN Amro and Citibank, and at Cetip where she was responsible for developing the Human Resources area. Ana is passionate about sports especially running.

She strongly believes sports can help with discipline, enhancing emotional and mental health and allowing you to take time for yourself. Moreover, Ana loves to sing and listen to music, an interest she shares with her family to the point that they decided to have a private studio at home. She and her family are also into cooking and love trying new recipes. Reading is also a passion and especially if it goes beyond her direct areas of expertise. Novels and texts by authors who represent a different way of thinking are part and parcel of her library as she sees it as a chance to expand her knowledge further.

3. What were your professional highlights and challenges of 2021 (ie why should you be on this list):

Nothing has been like 2020 and 2021. If in 2020 we focused on things like transitioning to home office and making sure we took care of people inside the company and contributed to efforts outside of our walls, 2021 still hit Brazil quite hard and we had to double down on how to support our people. This has been our focus throughout the pandemic. Looking from an institutional point of view, Ana took the chance brought by the growing importance of the ESG agenda to companies in general to advance B3´s internal initiatives and nudge listed companies in a much faster pace.

Last year, we were the first stock exchange in the world to issue a Sustainability Linked Bond (SLB), when we committed to creating a diversity index for the Brazilian market and increasing the number of women in leadership positions within the Exchange. I believe this was one of the most important things we did: it speaks not only to our corporate responsibility but also leverages B3´s position as a market voice and listed company that truly walks the talk and innovates when it comes do the ESG agenda. The SLB was a market tool that made us clearly commit and I strongly believe in leading by example.

We also made important changes to the B3 ISE methodology, our main ESG index. The new methodology includes three key elements as follows:

• CDP Climate Change Scores;
• Optimized questionnaires – one for each industry we analyze – which cover five topics ie Human Capital, Social Capital, Environment, Governance and Business Model/Innovation;
• ESG risk metrics calculated by RepRisk.

It is worth mentioning that the ISE B3 performed better than the most important Brazilian index, IbovespaB3, over the last 16 years since it was launched in 2005. The 16-year return of the ISE B3 is 267.06% whilst the return of the IbovespaB3 over the 16 years is 228.42% on 30th Dec 2021).

We also launched our first social-related market index, which includes companies in the GPTW Best Workplaces 2021.

We have started to support the Pact for the Promotion of Racial Equity, which encourages Brazilian companies to take affirmative actions and make social investments that promote inclusion and racial equity both within companies and communities. We launched a training program for black talents with a focus on financial market, financial education, and employability. In addition to that, we run bootcamps for listed companies to help them improve their ESG practices with a particular focus on diversity.

B3 has also joined the GPTW Best Workplaces list for the first time this year thanks to the adoption of a culture where everyone is free to be who they are and to dress as they feel most comfortable, fostering collaboration and innovation. This was possible through the creation of systems to prevent any form of discrimination. These systems and procedures include reporting channels and the creation of diversity centers to debate and adopt best practices related to gender, race and ethnicity, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ and generations.

We also advanced in diversity and inclusion practices with bespoke training courses and programs that enabled us to improve our KPIs, eg women in leadership positions, black individuals and people with disabilities in the company.

At B3, 28% of the leaders are women. Just in 2021, through October, about 25% of the people we hired were black. Three years ago, black individuals were about 10% of B3 staff. Today, they represent almost 20%.

In 2022, we will continue to work to make B3 and the Brazilian market even more inclusive, diverse and sustainable. This is part of our corporate responsibility and also lies within the KPIs that define bonuses in all levels of the company.

4. What and who inspires/has inspired you to achieve your professional success:

What inspires me to be better is the challenge of always building upon what I found. I believe it is my job to improve things, to make them better than they were when I arrived. This is what truly fulfills me.

It is my belief that we can change anything we want, and I try to make that true for for my children, for the company I am in, for the teams I lead, for everything I do.

I had many managers who inspired me and could not pick just one. But mostly they were the most generous with people; Managers who helped me during periods such as maternity leave, who managed to see me beyond the professional I am. A lot of people encouraged me to believe in myself more than I did. They had a huge impact in my career and deeply inspired me.

If I had to choose a role model, I would name Luiza Helena Trajano, a true entrepreneur and a woman who worries about people and lives by that code. She built Magazine Luiza, a Brazilian retail company which started out small and local and is now one of the most important listed companies in the country. But above all, she built a company based on values that champion the cause of equality, such as in gender when she created an app for women to report domestic violence because one of her shopkeepers was beaten and that came to her attention as a much bigger problem than an individual one. Her leadership fighting racial discrimination is also amazing, as Magazine Luiza has championed affirmative action such as trainee programs to black people. People who act, not stand by, are inspiring.

5. - What advice do you have for other women who aspire to be in leadership positions:

First of all, I would say we need to empower ourselves, truly decide which chairs we want to take and understand that there will always be difficulties, sacrifices to be made. And that is true for any professional, but especially for women and I see many of us giving up because we don´t believe we have the right to be there. It is common to see, we women giving ourselves less credit than we should, according to our capacity and effort. This insecurity may appear especially if we are designated to do jobs outside our sphere of activity. However, in situations like that, it is important to remember that we have a huge chance to bring and share different experiences, knowledge, and perspectives.

Another thing I would say is: if you were invited to be in a certain meeting, project or conversation, give your true opinion, speak up and argue things, don´t shy away from who you are. This makes us engage, understand the business, and move forward. There is an excerpt from Sheryl Sandberg that says “Don't leave until you leave,” that is, don't give up too early, stay until the end, take advantage of opportunities and the chance to execute everything you planned. It is