As Senior Vice President and Community Relations Executive for the Western Region, Ocañas is responsible for managing Wachovia’s community relations for California, Nevada and Arizona. In this position, Ocañas oversees employee involvement and works with Wachovia’s various lines of business that provide lending, investment, and other services to low and moderate income communities. Ocañas is also the region’s leader over the Wachovia Foundation, which is responsible for charitable giving. “In everything I do, I work to make sure that Wachovia’s brand is maintained and that we have a positive image,” he said.According to Ocañas, Wachovia’s culture of being committed to community service is what attracted him to the company. This culture can be seen in the company’s numerous programs and initiatives that support and encourage community involvement, including financial literacy programs, home buyer education programs, small business technical assistance and a program known as WachoviaVolunteers! 

WachoviaVolunteers! is a network of local chapters that connects Wachovia employees to volunteer opportunities in their communities. “Wachovia provides their employees with four paid hours a month—that’s six days per year—of paid time off for community service,” Ocañas explained. 

Although expert in his banking knowledge today, Ocañas’ career did not begin in this industry. “I started my career as a translator and interpreter in Houston, Texas,” he said. Upon graduation from Rice University in Houston, he immediately went to work with the Hispanic Chamber in Austin so that he could broaden his business knowledge. “I wanted to firm up my business skill set but still leverage my interests and skills in diversity.” 

From there he moved to the banking industry. After getting some initial banking experience, Ocañas temporarily left banking and worked for seven years as a leader of the Texas Association of Community Development Corporations (TACDC). “TACDC was a state wide organization focused on communities in Texas, especially support for disadvantaged parts of the state,” Ocañas explained. 

While working at the TACDC, Ocañas entered into an Executive MBA program at the University of Texas, and was the only student representing a non-profit company in his class. He said, “I wanted to go back to Corporate America and use all of my business skills for the betterment of my community. Wachovia had a variety of community programs plus a great reputation for the work that they do in the community and with their employees.” 

In 2005, Ocañas re-entered the world of banking and joined the team at Wachovia.Ocañas attributes his career success to the foundation that his family and parents provided for him. “We are an immigrant family and we grew up poor on the border of Texas. My family instilled in me good values and grounding of what is important. I learned to work as hard as it takes to have a better life.” 

Ocañas’ career has not been without challenges, however. When reflecting on some of the obstacles that he has had to overcome in Corporate America, he recognized that unnecessary barriers for women and minorities still sometimes exist. However, Ocañas offers advice on breaking through those barriers: 1) be the best that you can be; 2) really understand the business that you are in and how the infrastructure works so that you can navigate it; and 3) have the courage to not just show up, but to point out the barriers that exist and help break them down for others. “Sometimes with diversity issues, companies are not aware that they have barriers until someone is courageous enough to point them out. If you don’t point them out, companies can’t fix them,” Ocañas said. 

Ocañas’ advice to other diverse corporate professionals seeking to follow a similar path is to “Be true to yourself; don’t deny who you are to fit in.” In keeping with his personal commitment to service, he also advises, “Do something to volunteer in the neighborhoods that you came from. Believe me, it will keep you grounded.”