Daniel Margolis -  7/9/12

By limiting its CDOs to two- or three-year terms, PwC regularly infuses the position with new talent. Maria Moats brings her experience balancing family and career to the role.

Growing up in El Paso, Texas, Maria Moats dreamed of leaving “to see the bigger world.”

“When you think about people from El Paso, most of the people look like me,” Moats said. “We’re Mexican-American and many of us first generation.”

After graduating from the University of Texas at El Paso she made her way to New York, joining global professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in 1994.

Moats is a licensed CPA in Texas, New Jersey and New York. “We’ll see where I go next,” she said. “It’s when I started to move for work — the different assignments, etc. — that I started to see that the world is bigger than the town that I knew.”

Ten years after joining PwC, Moats made partner, and a year ago she was named its chief diversity officer. When Bob Moritz, PwC’s chairman and senior partner, first approached her about the role, she said her immediate reaction was “How can I not do this?”

In her role as CDO, Moats sees herself leading by example — a Mexican-American mother of two who also has a successful career. “If we can just replicate that experience over and over and over again — that’s what I tell my partners — think about what we’re creating here,” she said.

Jennifer Allyn, managing director in the office of diversity at PwC, echoed this idea. “She’s an example of when things go really right in terms of she’s a first-generation Mexican-American, was the first in her family to go to college, came to PwC, and people immediately recognized her talent and hard work,” Allyn said. “Her vision is to make that happen more consistently throughout the firm.”

CDOs at PwC have a relatively short span of time to achieve such goals — they take on the role for two or three years before rotating into another position. This means the diversity function at PwC receives regular infusions of fresh perspective. “Our chief diversity officers really are not human capital specialists per se,” Moats said. “We come out of the line.”