Iris “Chiqui” Santos is has more than 25 years of global corporate, consulting, and government experience in organizational transformation, facilitating the development of leadership skills, the creation of high-performing organizations, and cross boundary strategic partnerships. Chiqui’s strong business and leadership background comes from having worked for Hewlett-Packard’s (HP) Ink Supply Business for the Americas Region for over 20 years.
She was the first Latin Woman to hold the position of Vice President/General Manager in HP’s global hierarchy group, where she was responsible for leading manufacturing operations in Puerto Rico, Boise, South Africa, Singapore, and Ireland, and leading the design and implementation of HP’s Commercial Ink Global Strategy.
As a consultant, her clients included Coca Cola, Humana, Horizons Corp, Honeywell, among others. She has worked with Economic Development group of Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica. Chiqui has a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of Puerto Rico.
Following her career in the private sector, she paused her retirement to help the Government of Puerto Rico by:
❖ Developing strategic alignment between agencies and stakeholders.
❖ Using innovative methods and modifying strategies to ensure cost-effective processes for use of government resources.
❖ Bringing fresh approaches and ideas to government after years outside of it in corporate world. Learned there that it is all about implementation and execution and the teams/people that make it happen– bring that outlook to government.
❖ Bringing deep experience and knowledge on economic issues, but perhaps most importantly on how to manage, lead and empower people.
❖ Using her strong record on budget formulation and execution both in government and private sector settings.
❖ Bringing cost-effective IT to modernize processes and functioning of government.
She has contributed to the Government from 2018 to present in the capacity of:
❖ Department of Economic Development and Commerce – Under Secretary – Present
❖ Office of Management and Budget – Director
❖ Policy Based Budget – Secretariat
❖ OMB Information Technology and the Center of Federal Opportunities (COF) – Deputy Director
❖ Office of the Governor Authorized Representative (GAR) – Deputy Director
