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Out of Panama, into business leadership

Marketing director’s can-do attitude takes her far

Jessie Gonzalez Wakefield jokingly describes her life path as “collateral damage from Operation Just Cause.”
     
Just Cause was the military operation staged by the United States to oust Panamanian President Manuel Noriega in 1988.
     
“I was dating the enemy, literally,” says the new corporate marketing director for Merchants Information Solutions in Phoenix.
     
“I met my husband Wayne when he served in the military that invaded Panama.”
     
Although born in a tough barrio of Panama City, she says her blue-collar parents prepared her for the business world by saving money and sending her to a private school. Her father was a taxi driver and her mother a schoolteacher. Sending the Gonzalez children to school was no easy task because there were seven of them, she says.
     
“We knew that was the only way out of the barrio,” she recalls.
     
She was 20 years old and majoring in journalism and advertising at the University of Panama when her life was changed by war and love.
     
After marrying, Gonzalez Wakefield traveled with her new hubby to Boston, Mass. She learned that just because she had arrived in a land known for its opportunity didn’t guarantee an easy road to success.  She started working as a hotel maid on the military base where her husband was stationed. Her talents and hard work were recognized when she was promoted first to front desk clerk, then to supervisor of hotel operations.
     
She moved to the Phoenix area in 1992, when her husband was transferred to Luke Air Force Base. She started working for the U.S. West call center, where she helped to create the corporation’s first Spanish-language call center. After that she became a sales coach and then moved onto the marketing staff.
     
She discovered that she enjoyed marketing more than other aspects of business, she says.
     
“I love it. You have an opportunity not only educate someone about your product, but to persuade them to buy it,” she says. “It’s definitely a science that is very interesting. A great marketing strategy can drive or kill the business. And I especially have a passion for Hispanic marketing.”

CHANGES OF LIFE

Gonzalez Wakefield says that since she moved to the states, she has had to adjust her lifestyle to fit in with the Southwest Latino way of life.
     
“About 90 percent of the Latinos here are Mexican,” she notes. “I find that our traditions are so similar. It’s all about family, the food, the music, and most of all, the sense of pride to get the job done and get it done well. Then instill that in our kids.”
     
It’s these very qualities that she teaches her two sons, Jacob, 7, and Joseph, 12, she says. 
     
After 12 enjoyable years with U.S. West, Gonzalez Wakefield saw the company changing. She decided to move on when the corporation downsized its workforce in Phoenix and asked her to relocate to Denver, Colo.
     
Merchants Information Solutions recruited her after she left U.S. West, and she decided that her future lay with a company that was reinventing itself, much as she had done in her personal and business lives.
     
Originally named Merchants and Manufacturer’s Association, MIS was incorporated on Feb. 15, one day after Arizona became a state. MIS was a trade and a trade and better business bureau in its early days, and began serving as a consumer reporting agency in the early ‘20s. In 1999, the company renamed itself to reflect a broader range of services.
     
Today Merchants offers credit information, identity theft prevention, pre-employment and resident screening, and financial collections.
     
The business marriage between Gonzalez Wakefield and Merchants has thrived because of a common interest in the Hispanic market.
     
Russell A. Johnson, Merchants president, says that Arizona’s burgeoning Latino population made MIS refine its marketing efforts.
     
“Not only do Latinos influence the local culture, but in large part they define it,” Johnson says. He adds Merchant employees look for ways to reach out to the Latino businesspeople and consumers.
     
One of the biggest concerns for consumers today is identity theft, Gonzalez Wakefield says. Arizona has the highest number of victims per capita. Latinos can become victims of this fraud just as easily as others, she warns.
     
“Our large base of senior citizens is one reason we have a high rate of identity theft,” she says. “Another is the drug trafficking and money laundering in this area. I wouldn’t say that Latinos are more or less vulnerable, but the safeguards are the same whether you are Hispanic or not.”
     
Once a person realizes his or her identity information has been stolen, a fast response time is necessary to cut losses. Merchants’ bilingual representatives can help with everything from filing police reports to contacting credit card companies and the Social Security Administration, she says.
     
Gonzalez Wakefield says that she has guided her life by the philosophy of “Si se puede,” or “Yes, you can.”
     
It was this principle that got her through eight years of working toward her educational goal of getting a degree, one class a semester. Today she has earned degrees in management and human resources.
     
“Don’t ever let anybody tell you otherwise,” she advises.

For more information, call Jessie Gonzalez Wakefield at (602) 744-3792, or visit www.merchantsinfo.com.