Kettering University alumna...........

Kettering University alumna and former Sun Microsystems leader recognized as only Filipino-American to serve on the board of a Fortune 500 company

By Beata Mostafavi | Flint Journal The Flint Journal

FLINT, Michigan — Marissa Peterson was just 16 when her family moved from the Philippines to the United States in search of a better life.

There were cultural adjustments. English was her second language. Her family left a comfortable lifestyle to start all over.

But 33 years later, the Kettering alumna has helped influence some of America’s top corporate giants — and today, she is the sole Filipino-American to serve on the board of a Fortune 500 company.

“I was a little bit surprised that I was the only one,” said Peterson, 49 from her home in Fremont, Calif. “In a way, I think it’s just a matter of time like with a lot of things. Just like getting enough women on the board, progress has come but it’s been slow.”

Since 2008, Peterson has been a member of Fortune 500 insurance group Humana Inc’s board of directors.

A recent report by the Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc found that among 90 Fortune 500 companies, 96 Asian and Pacific Islanders hold board seats.

Peterson, who graduated from General Motors Institute that is now Kettering in 1983 before going on to Harvard business school, is best known for the 17 years she spent at Sun Microsystems Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif.

She retired from Sun as executive vice president of worldwide operations, services and customer advocacy in 2005 and oversaw nearly a third of more than 30,000 employees. She also held leadership roles at Saturn Corporation.

She said in a global economy, diverse viewpoints are essential to key decision-making for the world’s most influential businesses.

“I’ve lived here long enough that I consider the U.S. my home but deep down I’m still a Filipino and I’ve been able to benefit from both of those backgrounds,” she said. “I don’t know how anybody can do it without help, which is why diversity of expertise at the board level is so important. The experiences you are able to bring are different. Styles are different. The connections and networks of people you know are different.”

She said she’d never heard of Flint or Kettering when her family left their native country for California via a petition from her grandfather who served in the U.S. Navy in 1978.

“My grandfather and dad believed, as many immigrants did, that there were more opportunities here,” she said. “I was sad I was leaving all my friends and my home behind but I also knew enough to know that long term it would lead to more possibilities.”

Peterson had excelled in math and science at the prestigious and competitive Manila Science High School in the Philippines where she graduated as valedictorian.

But in America, expenses were a barrier to college.

Her father Benjamin thought of the only thing he knew to do. He wrote a generic letter to what was then the most powerful company in the world: General Motors.

The proud father told them all about his young and bright daughter.

The letter fell in the hands of a human resource director in Michigan who happened to know about Manila Science High School and was impressed that Peterson had graduated at the top of her class.

So he visited the family in California and offered Peterson a full-ride GM scholarship with several colleges to choose from.

She chose GMI.

“I didn’t know much about the school. I didn’t know it was in Flint, Michigan,” she remembered with a laugh. “GM was so powerful back then and I knew GMI specialized in engineering so I went there.”

She attended at age 16, as one of the youngest students and among just a handful of other females.

Over the five years, she worked several co-op jobs at AC Spark Plug, including in the factory, personnel, labor relations and product engineering.

She credits her work experience as the reason she was accepted into Harvard as an undergraduate.

The former Kettering trustee, who is now an executive coach and business consultant for such big name clients as Apple, Yahoo and EBay was regularly recognized for her accomplishments in her career.

She has received such awards as Sun Microsystems President's Excellence, Silicon Valley Tribute to Women and Industry, and San Francisco Business Times Top Women in Business.

She credits her parents’ support, from driving the one-hour commute everyday in the Philippines so she could attend an elite science high school to ensuring she got a good college education.

Her culture’s emphasis on being family-oriented, faith in god and work ethic have also shaped her, said Peterson who has three siblings.

“Everything our parents did was around supporting our education,” she said. “They had a strong belief in education as a way to achieve excellence and progress in life and that was instilled in me.”

Today, she has started several scholarship programs including at her former high school in the Philippines and at Kettering University.

The efforts fit with a Filipino cultural trait called “Utang-na-loob,” which means "a debt of gratitude."

“I really feel in the US I have such a sense of indebtedness and gratitude for all I’ve been given,” she said. “I want to help open those opportunities for others that I’ve been able to take advantage of ... to pay it forward.”

She said she’s grateful she was able to retire by age 42 and enjoy time with husband of 24 years Eric and children Steven, 19 and Katherine, 14.

“I’m grateful I was able to achieve great things in the corporate world but I also have a family that is so lovingly intact,” she said. “I just feel like in the end you measure your life by the quality of relationships both on the corporate side and family side and what I’m most proud of is I was able to have both.”

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