Ana Laginha

Ana Laginha sees her work in human resources at Brazil’s largest bank as a way to diversify and strengthen the organization’s workforce and her entire country.

“Working in HR at a large company like Itaú Unibanco, with around 100,000 employees, comes with a lot of responsibility. How we approach diversity and lead the way in fostering meaningful employee experiences really matters,” says Laginha, who has worked in various people management roles at the bank since 2017. During this time, she has focused partly on bringing individuals from minority and diverse groups into the organization.

“People think of HR as intuitive, but there’s a lot of science behind it,” says the Arbuckle Fellow, who also served as chief of staff for Brazil at the Silicon Valley Conference and is co-president of the Latin American Student Association. “Take diversity, for example. There are plenty of studies showing that having a diverse panel of interviewers can really impact how well minority candidates perform during the recruitment process. When candidates see diversity on the panel, they feel more comfortable, and that comfort creates a domino effect.”

Tell us a bit about the primary forces that shaped you.

I was born and raised in São Paulo, and my mom and dad were the most important forces in shaping my life. My mom is a psychoanalyst and therapist. She’s a poetic, humane, sensible woman. My dad is an engineer. Very practical, and analytical. Working in HR in an impactful corporation feels like a way of honoring these two sides: the emotional intelligence I learned from my mom, and the problem-solving mindset I got from my dad.

You came to Stanford Graduate School of Business intending to return to Brazil to design cutting-edge HR practices and foster diversity. Have your goals evolved?

That’s what I want to keep doing. When I decided to pursue an MBA, I knew I wanted to return, mainly because I saw so many opportunities to bring the cutting-edge practices and trends we’re learning in Silicon Valley back to Brazil. I still see HR and people management as a powerful way to make that happen.

You pioneered the bank’s first diversity recruitment initiative. How do you feel a more diverse workforce improves productivity?

That year, we focused on building intentional practices to bring in talent from diverse backgrounds. It was very special to see the results — 50% of our new analyst class were Black people, 63% were women, many first-gen students. All of them are extremely talented. It was such a big shift from how most hiring programs in the market looked at the time. We put a lot of thought into designing an inclusive and fair recruitment process, and the diversity groups inside the company played a huge role in helping us achieve that.

Having a team that reflected our customers meant we could understand their needs better. For example, when working on initiatives to connect with unbanked populations, many of the people we hired, who came from similar experiences, gave valuable insights that helped craft better solutions and deliver real impact.

So HR is about more than just getting new employees in the door?

Absolutely! There’s much more to it. We can think about HR like any other business domain — there’s a lot of technology we can bring to it, a lot of processes and analytics. But I would say our role in HR goes beyond hiring and training within the organization. We have the power to create programs that can be a force for the development of our country. One example was when we designed training programs for people with disabilities — this type of effort can have a huge impact on the country’s workforce.

You cite as one of your accomplishments at Itaú Unibanco integrating AI into the recruitment processes. What specific role did a chatbot named Paula play?

This project started back in early 2018 when we were just starting to explore AI. We had some recruitment processes where we needed to hire more than 5,000 people for the same role, which made screening CVs incredibly costly and overwhelming — for both us and the candidates. That’s when we created Paula, a chatbot that allowed candidates to go through the recruitment process without having to speak directly to a recruiter. Paula collected key information from candidates, and on the back end, machine learning helped us make smarter, more informed decisions. It really streamlined the process and made it a lot smoother for everyone involved.

A big shift for me at that point was starting to think about HR solutions as products, using technology, design, and data. I truly believe in this approach — bringing a PM mindset into HR to create smarter, more impactful solutions.

Your master’s thesis at the University of São Paulo involved the influence of organizational culture and HR practices on fostering “intrapreneurship.” What’s the most common mistake big companies make that discourages intrapreneurship?

One of the biggest challenges is overlooking how important culture is for intrapreneurship. A lot of companies try to bring intrapreneurship into their culture but have a hard time building it into their day-to-day practices. Innovation can start with leadership, but it only sticks when there are thoughtful practices in place that empower employees — like how teams are structured, how decisions are made, and how people are rewarded.

You seemed to connect with nature while interning at Amazon in Seattle in a way you’d never done before. Explain why the natural world is important to you.

Seattle was amazing! The internship experience was great, but the city itself really stood out to me. And I think connecting with nature was a way to connect with myself. After all these months at the GSB, I sometimes feel like an explorer, discovering so many things that are completely different from life in Brazil. Wandering and hiking around Seattle made me realize I can feel at home in new and unexpected places.

As a volunteer, you directed a career center at Sempre FEA, which is the endowment of the University of São Paulo. What advice would you give today’s ambitious high school students?

First, don’t underestimate the value of getting to know yourself. That’s one of the wonderful things I’ve learned at the GSB — the importance of cultivating time for introspection. It’s like finding that compass that guides your decisions. The second thing is about developing inner confidence and strength. A lot of the students I mentored weren’t sure of their potential, and helping them recognize their abilities and believe in themselves was a real game changer.

Have you benefited from a specific mentor during your career?

I’d say my mom. She’s always been the one to help me see my inner strength. She loves to say, “You can be both kind and strong.” And that’s stuck with me. It showed me I can be powerful while still being compassionate with people.

Which experience at the GSB will have the most significant impact on your career as you move forward?

Being an Arbuckle Fellow helped me nurture a more intuitive side. I’ve learned how to listen for feelings, observe group dynamics, and trust that I can repair relationships when needed. Another lightbulb moment for me was during my one-week Global Study Trip to Japan, learning about product design. One day, we were in a kimono factory, discussing how they applied product design to their small family business. Another day, we visited a Toyota factory and learned about designing cars. Being in such different environments was incredibly intellectually stimulating and reminded me how much I love learning and exploring. I feel these serendipitous experiences are shaping me in ways I might not fully see yet, but I’m confident they’ll come in handy down the road.

Photos by Elena Zhukova