Carla Vicente transitions from head of legal to country managing director at Hitachi Energy Canada

A legal background can open the door to many different leadership roles, according to Carla Vicente, country managing director at Hitachi Energy Canada.

When she joined the company four years ago as head of legal and integrity, Vicente was also named vice president of the board of directors. Six months later she was given the opportunity to be a part of Hitachi’s global emerging talent program, and she now holds the title of country managing director.

“When I started my career 15 years ago, I didn’t set out to be a CEO or a country managing director, but it just happened naturally with the opportunities that presented themselves and the chances that I took,” says Vicente. “Being able to transition from a legal role to a top management business role is something I’m very proud of.

“People sometimes think that promotions can only be vertical, but there are moves you can make within a company that are lateral – especially in a company like ours where we have different business units,” she adds.

Taking a leap of faith paid off for Vicente as she chose to leave her legal role behind to take the challenge of leading the company.

At the helm of Hitachi Energy Canada, Vicente supports the global company’s business plans and vision for accelerating the energy transition to build a more sustainable future. She not only supervises and drives the sales portion of the business, but she also leads the various different functions within the business and ensures that they are running efficiently.

On the sustainability side, Vicente works closely with Hitachi Energy’s health and safety director in Canada. As a company, Hitachi is proud to have reduced its carbon footprint in terms of gas emissions, and the leadership team is now focused on adding further resources to help them achieve the ultimate goal – to be carbon neutral.

Vicente’s legal background continues to pay dividends in her role as country managing director. Cybersecurity is a hot topic within the energy industry so the legal department at Hitachi Energy Canada plays a leading role in working with the cybersecurity team and other experts to ensure secure programs are in place. Vicente was closely involved in those discussions during her time as the head of the legal department – which greatly benefits her now as she supports cybersecurity matters from a business management perspective.

“The fact that I have the legal background and the knowledge I accumulated from our cyber experts has been helpful for those conversations with our customers at the executive level,” says Vicente.

An advocate for diversity and inclusion, Vicente is also currently the executive sponsor for Hitachi’s Women in Energy Group in North America, which promotes female leadership in a traditionally male-dominated industry.

“It’s great to be able to influence and inspire young women starting their careers – whether it be lawyers or engineers,” she says. She is also now president of the board of directors so she manages fiduciary duties and obligations for the energy company.

Looking ahead to 2024, Vicente looks forward to continuing to collaborate with customers and government entities so that the company can develop further technologies to help achieve its sustainability targets.

Supporting the goals and needs of employees at Hitachi Energy is also a major goal for Vicente next year.

“I want to continue to develop our talent by giving people opportunities to grow and expand their capabilities,” she says. “We can all be business focused but if you can’t recognize that we’re all human beings at the end of the day, then you’re not a good leader. Without people you don’t achieve your business objectives.”