conducting business with a social mission
Mary Ann Tocio admits with a laugh that when she entered the SOM in 1989, she really didn't think she'd learn that much. As a 40-year-old, senior-level manager for a Boston-based health care provider, she was interested in securing the MBA credential to validate her work experience and better position herself for an eventual job change.
"The quantitative classes, the collegial relationships, and the network I tapped into there proved far more valuable than I had anticipated," says Tocio. "Before I even finished the program, Bright Horizons Family Solutions approached me about a position, and though the timing was a bit earlier than I had wanted, I accepted the job. It turned out to be the best move of my life."
As president and chief operating officer of Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Tocio is responsible for all domestic and global operations for the world's largest provider of employer supported child care, early education, and work/life solutions. Bright Horizons operates more than 500 childcare centers in the U.S., Europe, and Canada and provides care to more than 60,000 children.
"The best part of my job is that I can work in the kind of business that can do well and do good. It's a company with a social mission. We have the opportunity to create new models of childcare and to encourage employers to make investments in their employees. We're a business with a societal impact, and we're a business that's achieving exciting results. I've seen our stock prices rise; I've seen the number of our employees grow from 1,500 to 16,000; and I've seen corporate infrastructure developed to support that growth."
As the partner of choice for more than 400 organizations, including 75 Fortune 500 firms, that offer affiliated childcare services, Bright Horizons pays particular attention to national and global work/family life issues. Tocio is quite familiar with the recent U.S. media reports that indicate women are "opting out" of the work world to pursue full-time motherhood and says emphatically, "I just don't see it."
"I'm in the business of supporting working families; not enough of them can afford to live on a single income. We're not experiencing a drop in our numbers that would reflect the kind of change the media is suggesting, so we'll keep on offering the quality child care working mothers and fathers have come to expect from us."