Margaret Lazo is a Chief Human Resources Officer and board member known for taking a strategic and active role in ensuring successful outcomes for highly visible companies in transition. An inclusive executive with a history of successful leadership in the US, Latin America, Europe, and Asia, Margaret is a trusted partner in establishing business strategies, ensuring compliance, managing risk, and improving diversity. She has guided organizations through complexity, including M&As, multiple CEO and ownership changes, and the creation of mandated risk and compliance standards and capabilities. As a member of the NBC Universal Board, she provided operational expertise and oversight to ensure a successful transition to Comcast.
Margaret is an accomplished human resources executive with a distinguished career spanning major media and financial organizations. At Univision Communications, she played a pivotal role in navigating leadership and ownership transitions, establishing compliance and ethics structures, enhancing employee experience, and launching strategic initiatives, including the Univision Foundation. At GE Capital Americas, she led HR during the company’s designation as a SIFI and its subsequent $100B divestiture, overseeing talent management, compliance upgrades, and business wind-down efforts. Earlier in her career, she held senior HR leadership roles at NBC Universal before and after its acquisition by Comcast, partnering with a broad range of media brands and contributing to diversity efforts across GE. She began her career at Macy’s, where she completed their Executive Training program and held various HR roles.
Margaret currently serves as an independent director at UMB Financial (UMBF: NASDAQ) and is a member of the Compensation and Risk Committees. A longtime participant in industry and community groups, she serves on the Board of Hispanic Federation and has previously served on the boards of the T. Howard Foundation and “I Have a Dream” Foundation, Los Angeles. She has been honored as a “Wonder Woman” media leader by Multichannel News (2019), Imagen Foundation’s “Most Powerful & Influential Latinos” (2011), and a “Woman of the Year” by the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation (2008), Margaret earned a BS in Communications and Business, cum laude, from St. John’s University.