Visa SVP of People: The future of your business is in HR’s hands

“HR was traditionally seen as a behind-the-scenes player,” but the new reality is that “the future of the business is in our hands”.

That’s the viewpoint of Maribel Diz, Senior Vice-President of People and Head of People for the Latin America and Caribbean region at $40 billion revenue payment tech giant Visa.

“Without our expertise and our council, strategic objectives are going to be difficult to obtain,” Diz tells UNLEASH in an exclusive interview.

Organizations can have great plans and strategies, “but if you don’t have the people to execute those strategies, it’s going to be difficult”, if not impossible, to succeed.

“We’re responsible for that talent…I fear that we don’t embrace it enough”.

At UNLEASH America 2026, Diz will be digging into how HR leaders can unlock their executive and strategic impact.

Ahead of the Las Vegas show, UNLEASH got a sneak peek. Diz shares that leaders must stop using buzzwords and trendy phrases like ‘executive presence’ or ‘develop your leadership’.

Instead, they must focus on creating a common cultural language for the organization. One of the ways Visa does this is by ensuring “corporate comms and HR are always in lockstep to make sure we’re carrying that culture of collaboration, of leadership, of care and kindness in everything we do”, adds Diz.

Plus, Visa enables Diz to have access to “a whole sandbox where I can implement all these cutting-edge HR ideas with the full backing of the leadership teams”.

Leaders, you need to break generational stereotypes

In her role as CHRO for the Latin America and Caribbean region, Diz is on a mission to not just debunk leadership buzzwords, she also is passionate about overcoming misconceptions and stereotypes leaders and employers have towards young employees.

“We need to shine a light on some of the misconceptions that both sides have”, and figure how leaders and early career workers can meet in the middle to the benefit of the organization.”

“There’s heat out there when it comes to newer generations – they are often labelled as non-productive, lazy, and non-committed”.

However, Diz tells UNLEASH: “I don’t see that at all” in her research – she will share the full data at UNLEASH America 2026.

The reality is that Gen Z and Millennials are no longer the future of work, they are the workforce. Plus, employers need them because “they’re true digital natives”.

AI adoption comes easier to younger generations – Diz shares that, at Visa, Gen Z and Millennial employees are a true “powerhouse…the production that comes out of those two generations is just staggering”, and this because is they “leverage technology so well”.

As a result, organizations need them to teach older generations how to replicate that with technological prowess.

Rather than just focusing on “how we attract” younger workers, HR needs to lean into grounding, training and educating early career employees on how the world of work works, and what is expected of them.

The key is leaders and older generations on one side and then Gen Z and millennials on the other finding “common ground”.

Maribel Diz, Senior Vice-President of People, Visa.

Diz shares how Visa is bridging the gap between different generations in its 34,000-strong workforce.

The payments giant begins with recruiting – looking at both hard and soft skills, characteristics like grit, as well as whether the individual’s purpose aligns with Visa’s goals.

Once they are employed, Visa ensures they have support, especially regarding career development.

Younger generations are “petrified of becoming irrelevant or falling behind” and want to be up to date on the latest technology; “they don’t want to become their parents”.

While Visa has various formal learning opportunities, including a renowned university, another piece of the puzzle is leaders.

Many employees will stay with their leader or manager “if they’re inspired by them” and have “forged trust with them”.

“Sometimes they will get offered bigger roles, and they will decline that because they just want to continue learning from their leader”.

This also explains why Diz is so passionate about unlocking leadership impact – it has an outsized role on not just the executive’s own success, but impacts their wider team and, ultimately, business bottom lines.

Maribel Diz, Visa and UNLEASH America 2026

Visa’s Maribel Diz will be debunking leadership and generational misconceptions on both Day 1 and Day 3 of UNLEASH America 2026. You cannot afford to miss out on her two sessions in Las Vegas.

Diz is very excited about speaking at and attending her first UNLEASH show. Top of her to-do list for 2026 is “becoming an expert on AI”, and she sees UNLEASH America as the perfect place to help her on this journey.

She wants to learn from experts, colleagues and vendors – and see what ideas she can implement at Visa. Three must attend sessions for Diz are with Josh Bersin, Workday’s Dave Wachtel and Cardinal Group’s Peter Lynch.

Feeling the FOMO? It’s not too late to grab a pass to join us in Las Vegas, 17-19 March.