Kimberly Casiano (born December 21, 1957) is an American businesswoman of Puerto Rican descent. She is the former president and

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...

Casiano Communications Latin Media House, LLC acquired the assets of Casiano Communications Inc. (CCI) effective November 2, 2015 from Chapter 11 at the US Bankruptcy Court. The original company was founded in 1973, by Manuel A. Casiano, who died on May 19, 2017, at t ...

— the largest Hispanic publisher of periodicals and magazines in the United States. Casiano currently serves on the

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit orga ...

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

Mutual of America Mutual may refer to: *Mutual organization, where as customers derive a right to profits and votes *Mutual information, the intersection of multiple information sets *Mutual insurance, where policyholders have certain "ownership" rights in the orga ...

and Mead Johnson Nutrition Company.

Personal

Kimberly Casiano was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to Puerto Rican parents – Manuel Casiano, chairman of the board of

and Nora Casiano, the family firm's current business manager. At age 12, she moved with her family to Puerto Rico when her father joined

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Luis A. Ferré Don Luis Alberto Ferré Aguayo (February 17, 1904 October 20, 2003) was a Puerto Rican engineer, industrialist, politician, philanthropist, and a patron of the arts. He was the governor of Puerto Rico from 1969 to 1973. He was the founder of the ...

's cabinet as economic development administrator. Casiano is married to Peruvian-born Juan F. Woodroffe and they have two children.

Education

In 1979, Casiano graduated magna cum laude from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

with a degree in politics and Latin American studies. She later earned a

Master's degree in Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as account ...

from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA ...

in 1981, at which time she became the youngest woman to receive an MBA from Harvard at the time. ''Puerto Rico Herald'' 2005.

Business career

Casiano began her business career in 1981, when she founded Caribbean Marketing Overseas Corporation, a consulting firm specializing in financing, trade and investment promotion between the United States, the Caribbean and Central America. Caribbean Marketing Overseas Corporation worked closely with the Agency for International Development (A.I.D.) on Caribbean Basin Initiative projects. In 1988, she joined the family-owned publishing and marketing business — Casiano Communications. She held a number of management positions in the company until 1994, when she became president of the company. In December 2003, she was elected to the board of directors of Ford Motor Company, becoming the first Hispanic woman to serve on the board of any top five Fortune 100 corporate boards. At Ford, she serves on three Ford committees — Audit; Nominating and Corporate Governance; and Sustainibility and Innovation. In April 2006, she joined the board of directors of Mutual of America, which provides insurance coverage and retirement plans to non-profits as well as small- to medium-sized firms.In 2006, Mutual of America was ranked as the 10th largest insurance company in the U.S. In March 2010, Casiano joined the board of directors of Mead Johnson Nutrition Company, the leading manufacturer of infant formula in the world.

Service to the community

Casiano is currently on the board of directors of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF), a non-profit which awards almost $50 million annually in scholarships to Hispanic college students throughout the U.S. She is also a founding board member of the Latino Corporate Directors Association (LCDA). She is former Puerto Rico Chapter Chair of the Young Presidents' Organization, Puerto Rico chapter. She co-founded and is vice chair of Nuestra Casa de los Niños, a nonprofit group providing private school education for economically disadvantaged children in Puerto Rico. Casiano is a member of the board of advisors of Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, the third busiest cancer center in the country. Moffitt is ranked #6 among all cancer centers by U.S. News. For years, she has been committed to honoring the memory of José Berrocal, a former classmate of hers and William Ford at

who died after having served as the youngest president of the

Puerto Rico Government Development Bank The Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico (GDB) — es, Banco Gubernamental de Fomento para Puerto Rico (BGF)— is the government bond issuer, intragovernmental bank, fiscal agent, and financial advisor of the government of Puert ...

, as a role model for young Puerto Ricans. For a decade, she led the fundraising efforts of the

American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. Established in 1913, the society is organized into six geographical regions of both medical and lay volunteers operating in more than ...

in Puerto Rico, establishing the Red Gala annual event and the Jose M. Berrocal Scholarship program for college-bound students who are cancer survivors.

Notes

References

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External links

* *https://web.archive.org/web/20051204132829/http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=10484 {{DEFAULTSORT:Casiano, Kimberly Puerto Rican business executives Harvard Business School alumni Princeton University alumni Puerto Rican women in business 1957 births Living people American chief operating officers