Carly Sanchez is the executive vice president, head of talent acquisition, AA/EEO and diversity recruiting for San Francisco, CA-based Wells Fargo, wellsfargo.com/about/careers. In her role, she’s “fortunate to be able to contribute to enabling career opportunities and maximizing potential for our team members and candidates. I enjoy that I’m able to work with a dedicated and exceptional team at Wells Fargo, a company that truly embodies the culture of caring.” Sanchez, who’s based in San Antonio, TX, considers culture “the heart” of Wells Fargo and a contributor to the company’s long-term success and stability. A part of the firm since 2013, she provides leadership for the company’s AA/EEO program and serves as Corporate HR’s primary liaison to the Enterprise Diversity and Inclusion Office to ensure our recruiting programs are aligned with and support enterprise diversity priorities and expectations.

Sanchez - who grew up in Pennsylvania - previously worked at SunTrust, where she was responsible for strategic planning, processes, policies and operations for talent acquisition and diversity. Before that, she served as global head of talent acquisition and chief diversity officer for AIG. Sanchez served as director of strategic staffing at USAA in San Antonio, where her responsibilities included building a world-class college recruiting program and leading the recruiting teams for USAA’s property and casualty company, its federal savings bank and all customer service units for the San Antonio headquarters.

Additionally, Sanchez held a number of roles in higher education administration, including director of college relations for the Riverside Community College District (CA) and director of admissions and recruiting for Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. She’s also has served on numerous boards throughout her career, and is currently a board member of the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp).

All of this experience has led her to her current Wells Fargo post, where her talent acquisition team is leading the effort to help the company achieve its goal of increasing its veterans team member population to 20,000 by 2020 via extensive national/local outreach, development programs and resources, and internal efficacy. In alignment with the company culture that promotes volunteering, Sanchez often starts many team gatherings with volunteer activities to support United Way organizations.

She says seeing numerous individuals who were able to access educational or job opportunities they hadn’t thought possible has been encouraging throughout her career in admissions in higher education and in talent acquisition.

“To watch [them] flourish and contribute in ways they might not have imagined continues to motivate and inspire me,” notes Sanchez, who holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Harvard University in Cambridge, MA and a master’s degree in developmental psychology from Tufts University in Medford, MA.

The best career advice she’s received is this: “Be open to all potential opportunities, including positions that might be considered lateral moves rather than promotions.