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Maribel Diz (DBA ’21, MSHRM ’07) loves to receive mail addressed to “Dr. Diz,” but she’s the first to tell flight attendants not to look her way should there be a medical emergency. After all, the longtime Visa senior executive, who last year earned her Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) at FIU Business, is an expert on managing people in the business arena.
During her 20-plus years in human resources, Diz has developed a knack for recognizing and understanding people’s needs and expectations, then drawing from that insight to impact employee career development, team dynamics and overall retention. As senior vice president for the people team at Visa Latin America and the Caribbean, Diz also draws on her DBA dissertation, a study on how leaders can keep Gen Z and millennials from leaving their companies, to keep employees engaged.
A first-generation American whose Cuban parents were bent on teaching her to survive in the business world, Diz finds herself mentoring both new and veteran employees. “I have a purpose that I live by: to change lives by bringing out the best in people and bringing awareness to what I’m learning as a scholar,” Diz said.
Diz landed at Visa 26 years ago as an assistant in the human resources department, taking the job because of its tuitionreimbursement benefit, as she had earlier paused her college education to help out in the family business. In 2000, she enrolled at Nova Southeastern University, earning her bachelor’s degree while continuing to grow her career at Visa. “ All the time I was going to school, additional responsibilities and promotions kept coming,” Diz said. “I worked my booty off! Life has twists and turns, and I always tell the people I mentor that it’s OK to have a nonconventional route.”
She cautions those starting out to be patient and learn at every step of their career. “There’s a rush to get to the top,” Diz said. “But you can’t just leapfrog. Each step has a purpose, and if you jump too fast, it can set you up for disappointment.”
In her role, Diz focuses on the workplace of the future, adapting to Generation Z, now called the Zoomers. “You can have the most complete business plans and strategies in place, but if you don’t have the right people to execute those plans, it’s not going anywhere,” she said.
Neither is she. “I get calls from headhunters all the time, but when you’re happy in your job, you love the people you work for, the purpose of the company is aligned to your own purpose – to uplift everyone, everywhere – and there’s more work to do, why make the change?” she said. “Visa is an extraordinary company that cares for its employees. There is no place I’d rather be.”
