From Sabangan to Texas

Here's the story of one of our kailians, Marlene Paredes from Sabangan, Mountain Province. She's currently the only Filipino who's working as a marketing strategist at Texas Instruments (TI)in Dallas, Texas. The article originally appeared in Cordillera Today's May 6 issue. Happy reading!:-)

Picking Up Stones, Gaining the World

Fifty centavos. This was her first salary as a six-year-old girl who had to carry stones from Sabangan River to a house being constructed near their house. In her village, almost all the children earned money this way. They would jump at the opportunity to get paid for an easy job because they do harder work at home for free. After she got her pay, she hopped to the store and bought a soy sauce for their use at home. “I don’t remember buying myself a candy because I was just so excited to buy something for my family,” she recalls.

Today, she travels frequently from the US to Europe as a marketing strategist for one of the world’s leading semiconductor firms. Only 39, Marlene Paredes is currently the only Filipino working in strategic marketing for Texas Instruments (TI) in Dallas, Texas.



Often the smallest and only female in their team, Marlene (extreme left) poses with her colleagues during a business trip to Salzburg, Austria.

Barely 5’1, bereft of jewelry and without any trace of make-up, Marlene looks fresh out of college in a pair of gray denims and long-sleeved white shirt. She presents herself the way she’d like to be known: a simple woman who’s grateful for every blessing that has come her way. Indeed, there are few Filipinos, Igorots for that matter, who have reached what she has achieved.

“As a marketing strategist, my work involves defining and executing marketing and business strategy for the European and Korean automotive markets. I travel a lot to Europe and sometimes to Korea to visit customers and also our sales groups for these regions,” she says.

Marlene’s excellent work served as her passport to her present job. She was then working as an engineer at Team Pacific in Taguig when she learned of an opening at TI’s Mexico City factory. Without any connections and just her resume to back her up, she was immediately hired as a process engineer. In 1994, she left the Philippines for Mexico City, where her career would bloom.

“It was my first time to work in a foreign country and I was still very new in the corporate world. And I also couldn’t speak Spanish! I felt homesick during my first few weeks,” she shares.

Thus, she poured all her energy at work while learning how to speak and write in Spanish. Just after six months from being hired, she was promoted engineering manager for assembly and in less than one year, as operations manager. Not even in her 30s, female, and a newcomer, Marlene was tasked to manage about 80 percent of the semiconductor operations at TI-Mexico.

Right after her promotion, TI Mexico’s top management gave her the authority to redesign the whole factory. Despite her broken Spanish, she successfully led and executed the project, putting TI Mexico in the radar screen of the executive management. “Our factory’s output increased by over 1000 percent after we were done with it,” Marlene recalls, smiling.

There was no stopping her after that. Marlene then co-wrote a paper on factory re-engineering which was chosen as one of the 12 papers to be presented in an international conference of semiconductor engineers in Mesa, Arizona.

She was the only woman and the only Filipina presenter in that event attended by semiconductor manufacturing engineers all over the world. “As I stood to present, I was literally shaking but after about five minutes, I got my full bearing and presented like a real pro,” she shares.

When she left Mexico City , Marlene received about 10 despedidas, many from people who, at the start of her work, asked “why someone with a red badge (at TI, this indicates the employee has less than 5 years’ experience) can lead someone with a gold badge (over 20 years’ experience).”



Marlene visits the Eiffel Tower in Paris during one of her business
trips to Europe.

Achieving success at an early age meant Marlene had to postpone her personal life as she focused on her work. After almost five years in Mexico, she decided to shift career from the technical side to the marketing side of the business. “I told myself, ‘Now that I have proven that I can be who I want to be, it’s time to focus on myself.’”

Moving to Dallas, she started doing apprentice work for marketing before getting into her current position. She was able to learn the business side of TI while having time for herself and her family. “I was able to spend more time with my family traveling to Hongkong , Singapore , Thailand and Cebu. My priorities now have shifted from career to my personal life,” she adds.

Being a manager is actually no big deal for Marlene. “The business environment these days is very, very dynamic. Within the past few years, we have seen lay-offs in our company and around us. If you can’t add value to the organization, you are gone,” she explains.

Is it difficult working in a predominantly male environment? “Most of the men I work with respect and acknowledge me as a woman so I disregard those that don’t. Regardless if you are a woman or not, how you carry yourself has a huge bearing on how people treat and respect you.” She enjoys her current job because it allows her to get an insight of how cars would look like in the future. The best part of all is that it enables her to work with talented people from all over the world.

Born and raised in Sabangan, Mountain Province, Marlene was valedictorian from elementary until high school. She finished electronics and communications engineering from Saint Louis University in 1988 and obtained her license in the same year.

It’s ironic that this talented woman never dreamed of becoming an engineer. “I wanted to be in business. I was supposed to take up commerce but when my sister decided to enroll in the same course, I chose engineering instead so there would be no sibling rivalry.”

She chose to major in ECE later because it was new at that time and there was a big demand for communications engineers. “I have no regrets now of my choice. I think someone up there was guiding me throughout.” But Marlene still hopes that one day, she would be able to fulfill her dream of running her own business.

Her constant hunger for learning and boundless love for her family push Marlene to give her best in everything she does. “Losing my dad and almost losing my sister at a very young age matured me early. I have always wanted to give my mother and my family the best that I can.”

For all that she has achieved, Marlene believes that success is not measured in terms of money and power. “Inner peace, love, faith and contentment are harder to find and can never be bought.”

Believe in yourself and work hard to get to your dream, Marlene advises. “Start by being proud to be an Igorot and to be from the mountains of Cordillera. Every time I tell people I am an Igorota, I get a strange look and they say ‘You don’t look like one.’ I ask them, ‘How does an Igorota supposed to look like?’ I should know better because I am one,” she shares with a laugh.

“I thank God first of all and my family for keeping my feet on the ground. Today, I can say that I am truly content with my life and that I have remained the same person as I was, the same little simple girl who bought soy sauce with her 50-centavo pay,” she ends, beaming.