Shortly after her arrival at Office Depot, Inc., a year ago, Elisa D. Garcia C., executive vice president, general counsel & corporate secretary, learned that the $15.5 billion global supplier of office products was dealing with some pressing issues, including an SEC investigation. Ideally Garcia C. would have liked to spend time getting to know the company and ease her way into business, but that was not to be: “When you come into a business facing unusual challenges, you learn at an astronomical pace,” she says. “I learned the business running, and have been running ever since.”
What people do not realize about Office Depot, says Garcia C., is that its North American retail division comprises only a third of the company; E-commerce, large contracts, direct business, and international make up the remainder. “I’m general counsel to a complex global company,” says Garcia C. “Regulatory oversight is the most challenging aspect of my job. We focus on our risks, we develop processes, we train, and we audit, but there are always surprises.”
Before joining Office Depot, headquartered in Delray Beach, Fla., Garcia C. was general counsel for Domino’s Pizza Inc., in Ann Arbor, Mich. As the company’s first general counsel, Garcia C. built the law department and put in place processes that prepared Domino’s for going public (which it did in 2004). “Being a part of Domino’s leadership team really helped to make me ready for my current job,” says Garcia C. “Dave Brandon (Domino’s CEO) turned me from a lawyer to a business advisor.”
Armed with a master’s degree in policy analysis and planning, Garcia C. began professional life in the late 1970s as a developing country energy analyst working in Latin America and the Caribbean. She first considered a career in law only after being drafted by her local party to run for New York state assembly. “I thought I was too young and inexperienced for politics, so I decided to put the campaign on hold and first to go to law school,” says Garcia C. “After graduating from the St. John’s University School of Law, I went to Willkie Farr & Gallagher’s New York office as a corporate associate and never looked back.”
Not long after joining the firm, Garcia C. knew that she would eventually make the move to an in-house career. She liked working with recurring clients and getting to know a business and its CEO really well. With an in-house position, Garcia C. would have one client and no conflicts with regard to prioritizing her work.
“You hear about women being excluded from certain events. I had my share of that as a young lawyer,” says Garcia C. “But once I got to a more senior leadership level, I feel that my being a Hispanic woman has been respected and valued. Office Depot has a strong presence of women leaders, and a history of supporting women and women-owned business (both customers and vendors).”
Down the road, Garcia C. would like to get involved in public service in some way (“Undersecretary of State for Latin America would work,” she says gamely). But for now, Garcia C., who is still fairly new at Office Depot, says “I have some years worth of work to keep me busy here.” DB
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From the July/August 2008 issue of Diversity & The Bar®