Tag: Maritza Diaz

EY Announces Maritza Diaz of ITJ as an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2021 Pacific Southwest – San Diego Award Finalist

Posted on | by Paula Diaz | 1 Comment on EY Announces Maritza Diaz of ITJ as an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2021 Pacific Southwest – San Diego Award Finalist

Celebrating the 35th class of unstoppable entrepreneurs who transform the Pacific Southwest and beyond

San Diego, July 13 – Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) today announced that Chief Executive Officer Maritza Diaz of ITJ was named an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2021 Pacific Southwest – San Diego Award finalist. Now in its 35th year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program honors unstoppable business leaders whose ambition, ingenuity and courage in the face of adversity help catapult us from the now to next and beyond.

Maritza was selected by a panel of independent judges. Award winners will be announced during a special virtual celebration on August 5, 2021 and will become lifetime members of an esteemed community of Entrepreneur Of The Year alumni from around the world.

Entrepreneur Of The Year is one of the preeminent competitive award programs for entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies. The nominees are evaluated based on six criteria: entrepreneurial leadership; talent management; degree of difficulty; financial performance; societal impact and building a values-based company; and originality, innovation and future plans. Since its launch, the program has expanded to recognize business leaders in more than 145 cities in over 60 countries around the world. 

Founded in 2019, ITJ’s mission is to help its clients create “technology centers of excellence” in Tijuana. “I started ITJ with a simple mission,” said Diaz, founder and chief executive officer. “We want to enable companies to create their Software Centers of Excellence in Tijuana, leveraging Baja California’s wealth of world-class engineering talent.”

Regional award winners are eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Awards, to be announced in November at the Strategic Growth Forum®, one of the nation’s most prestigious gatherings of high-growth, market-leading companies. The Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner will then move on to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Award in June 2022. 

Sponsors

Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards are nationally sponsored by SAP America.

In the Pacific Southwest- San Diego Region sponsors also include Marsh & McLennan Agency, LLC (Premium Sponsor), Cooley (Supporting Sponsor) and PNC Bank, N.A (Supporting Sponsor).

About Entrepreneur Of The Year® 

Entrepreneur Of The Year® is the world’s most prestigious business awards program for unstoppable entrepreneurs. These visionary leaders deliver innovation, growth and prosperity that transform our world. The program engages entrepreneurs with insights and experiences that foster growth. It connects them with their peers to strengthen entrepreneurship around the world. Entrepreneur Of The Year is the first and only truly global awards program of its kind. It celebrates entrepreneurs through regional and national awards programs in more than 145 cities in over 60 countries. National Overall winners go on to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ title. ey.com/us/eoy

About EY Private 

As Advisors to the ambitious™, EY Private professionals possess the experience and passion to support private businesses and their owners in unlocking the full potential of their ambitions. EY Private teams offer distinct insights born from the long EY history of working with business owners and entrepreneurs. These teams support the full spectrum of private enterprises including private capital managers and investors and the portfolio businesses they fund, business owners, family businesses, family offices and entrepreneurs. Visit ey.com/us/private

About EY

EY exists to build a better working world, helping create long-term value for clients, people and society and build trust in the capital markets.

Enabled by data and technology, diverse EY teams in over 150 countries provide trust through assurance and help clients grow, transform and operate.

Working across assurance, consulting, law, strategy, tax and transactions, EY teams ask better questions to find new answers for the complex issues facing our world today.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via ey.com/privacy. EY member firms do not practice law where prohibited by local laws. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

Join us for the virtual award celebration

On Thursday, August 5 at 5:00 p.m. PT, EY will recognize the 2021 finalists and announce the Pacific Southwest – San Diego award winners. Register here: https://lnkd.in/gthEXQu

SDBJ CEO of the Year 2021

Maritza Diaz Named 2021 CEO of the Year Rising Star by the San Diego Business Journal

Posted on | by Paula Diaz | 5 Comments on Maritza Diaz Named 2021 CEO of the Year Rising Star by the San Diego Business Journal

San Diego, June 24, 2021 – ITJ, a tech services company based in San Diego that enables customers to create technology centers of excellence in Tijuana is pleased to announce that Maritza Diaz, Chief Executive Officer of ITJ, has been recognized as the San Diego Business Journal 2021 CEO of the Year awards winner in the category of Rising Star. This award recognizes local industry leaders’ great achievements within their companies and in the community. The winners and finalists are lauded for demonstrating determination and insight yielding huge successes for their organizations.

This year only, Maritza Diaz was also honored by the San Diego Business Journal as Women of Influence in Technology, setting an exciting year of success and growth for her company. This award represents a major stepping stone on her goal of leveraging the strength of the CaliBaja region to build a thriving innovation economy that leads the digital transformation for companies in California.

“My team represents the amazing digital talent that is available in our region. Engineers that are helping our customers solve very difficult problems of the future. Problems that are very impactful and rewarding at the same time. My team, this award is for you.”

About Maritza Diaz 

Maritza Diaz is a talented and seasoned technology executive with over 25 years of experience in IT and Software Engineering. She is a member of the Forbes Technology Council and is a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco where she represents San Diego. Prior to becoming the Chief Executive Officer of ITJ, Maritza served as Sr. Director at Thermo Fisher Scientific where she was responsible for growing the company’s digital capabilities in North America, India, and Mexico. In this role, she successfully managed the digital and agile transformation of an organization composed of 800 software professionals; today this organization is considered one of the finest software organizations in the industry.

About the Award

The San Diego Business Journal’s 2021 CEO of the Year Awards recognizes local industry leaders’ great achievements within their companies and in the community. The winners and finalists are lauded for demonstrating determination and insight yielding huge successes for their organizations. These executives have taken the lead in driving their businesses and the local economy.

San Diego WTC: Q1 Global Competitiveness Council Virtual Meeting

Posted on | by Paula Diaz | 1 Comment on San Diego WTC: Q1 Global Competitiveness Council Virtual Meeting

On April 1st, as the world collectively battles a pandemic and the global economy faces some of the most significant disruptions in a generation, the San Diego World Trade Center continued in its leadership role in helping the Cali-Baja regional economy at the WTC San Diego: Q1 Global Competitiveness Council Virtual Meeting.

Alongside San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and U.S. Congressman Scott Peters, the WTC presented key findings from their revised strategic plan to the Council and demonstrated that global trade and investment in the region remains healthy, is poised to increase, and has helped San Diego remain resilient in these uncertain times. The WTCSD proposes five key strategies for the San Diego region:

  1. Lead with the region’s most competitive industries and anticipate most growth and job creation will come from the region’s leading innovation–based industries.
  2. Leverage binational assets to attract foreign investment. Capture investment along the entire value chain in priority industries.
  3. Prioritize market access for small businesses. Small businesses create the most jobs but face higher barriers to internationalization.
  4. Invest in critical infrastructure that enables global commerce. Modernize, maintain and expand service through international ports of entry.
  5. Enhance San Diego’s global identity and reputation for innovation. 
  6. Deepen public-private partnerships focused on international activity.

With an outstanding speaker lineup including, Garry Ridge, Chairman of the Board & CEO, WD-40; Kathleen Lynch, Vice President, Global Government Affairs & Public Policy, Illumina; Maritza Diaz, CEO, ITJ; and Dr. Vivek Lall, Chief Executive, General Atomics Global, the Council meeting attendees were able to hear first-hand insights from executives of some of San Diego’s most prominent companies on how the COVID-19 “next-normal” has impacted their industries and what that means for global growth in the years ahead.

One important theme was how San Diego’s strategic location—just across the border of the fast-growing Mexican city Tijuana – presents a perfect opportunity to leverage binational assets to attract further foreign investment giving the  mega-region a tremendous boost as we begin to exit the pandemic crisis. In the words of Mayor Todd Gloria:

“San Diego is filled with world-class innovation and smart people solving global problems. Now is the time for our big, binational City to show up on the world stage to help us reach our goals faster” 

The Cali-Baja region can house the entire value chain for advanced industries—from corporate functions to R&D, to cost-effective production and distribution—all in just one time-zone, and within an hour’s drive. At a time of significant global supply chain disruption, the region can showcase its $2.5 billion cross-border supply chain, facilitate opportunities for binational expansion, and capture market-seeking investment along the entire value chain in priority industries.

On that note, Maritza Diaz, CEO of ITJ and a thought leader in the field of cross-border collaboration, highlighted the potential of the Cali-Baja region due to the growing digital transformation that the area is experimenting to overcome the challenges brought by COVID-19.

“[…] companies that were not digital-ready did not survive; that highlights the importance of software and digital talent. Within the Cali-Baja region, the pandemic accelerated the digital transformation. We see an opportunity for San Diego to leverage this talent now as the digital transformation is here and it’s now. I’m really excited about this unique opportunity and I know it will be leveraged for both sides of the border. We will be the Mega-region, we should be.”

The region’s competitive advantage is in professional, scientific, and technical services, like research and development, cybersecurity, and engineering and software. These industries also capture the highest concentration of foreign direct investment (FDI) via mergers and acquisitions and venture capital investment.

By the end of the Virtual Meeting, something was more than clear: San Diego’s economic evolution has demonstrated that global competitiveness and domestic resilience reinforce each other. There are good reasons for nations to turn inward and focus on domestic needs, and yet, if this year has taught us anything, it is that we are a global society that is inextricably connected. 

Read more about the WTC San Diego: Q1 Global Competitiveness Council Virtual Meeting