Willow Glen Resident

Business

Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Balance in Life: Katie Zazueta of Willow Glen will be one of 49 executive women honored at the 2007 Tribute to Women (TWIN) award this spring for their work in mentoring women.

Zazueta one of 49 women honored with TWIN award

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

One Willow Glen resident is working to change the rigidity of the workplace, one woman at a time.

YWCA Silicon Valley took notice of Katie Zazueta's efforts. On May 10, Zazueta and 48 other executive women will be honored with the 2007 Tribute to Women (TWIN) award. For Zazueta, it is for mentoring women in the workplace as well as her outstanding achievements at Coakley Heagerty.

"It's a great honor," Zazueta says. "More awards that honor the capabilities of women and their value in this valley should be given out. We should recognize them for the things they do every day."

Zazueta, along with female executives from companies such as Adobe Systems, Cisco, Lockheed Martin and Sun Microsystems, will be honored at the 23rd annual awards event

Zazueta has worked for Coakley Heagerty for 12 years, most recently as the vice president of client services. The marketing communications agency has been part of the San Jose landscape for 46 years. Her father, John Heagerty, is co-owner of Coakley Heagerty.

As Zazueta helped more women come on board, something became clear to her: the inflexibility of the work schedule.

The company was always a family-oriented workplace, she says, but its traditional 9 to 5 workday made it difficult to juggle work and family. She didn't learn the extent of this until she herself became a mother.

"My father and uncle used me as the example to test out a new model," she says.

Zazueta had her first child five years ago and was allowed to have a flexible schedule. She worked three days a week in the office and the other two was available via phone and email.

"I found a great niche to do both--be a mother and a professional," she says.

It took almost three years to get everyone at the company on board, and now, even working spouses can have time with their children while they continue to work, Zazueta says.

"It gives an opportunity to women whose first priority is their family," she says. "Women need this flexibility because they want to be included in the workplace."

Coakley Heagerty now consists of 65 percent female employees, with 68 percent in management positions.

The staff at Coakley Heagerty nominated Zazueta because she was one of these talented women.

"She's a very dynamic personality, a take-charge person," says Coakley Heagerty regional account executive Brenda Ortiz. "She grooms some of the younger staff, takes them under her wing, gives them help in the marketing area."

Ortiz says it's important to show high school and college women that it's not a predominantly male world anymore.

This empowerment and encouragement is especially important because of the cost of living in the area, Zazueta says.

"We live in Silicon Valley, where dual incomes are almost standard," Zazueta says. "There's this stigma that once a woman has children, their careers are over, but women still want to be in a working environment."

Zazueta discovered early that if women didn't speak up about their needs, nothing would ever change.

Attending Notre Dame High School, an all-girls Catholic high school in downtown San Jose, Zazueta discovered it to be an empowering experience.

She went on to earn her degree in art history and worked in San Francisco in finance.

For now, Zazueta and Coakley Heagerty plan to continue developing their workplace into a balanced environment.

"We've changed the agency by bringing the mother role to it," Ortiz says. "You can work and succeed as a professional woman and balance motherhood as well."