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Jesús León – Finding Success in a New Country
Jesús León, senior vice president, chief development officer for CIENA Corporation, was 15 when he fled Cuba. His family lived a comfortable life there – his father was a pharmacist and his mother was a teacher – but once Fidel Castro came to power they knew they could no longer stay.
"It was difficult for all of us to leave together. My parents arranged to have my older brother and me stay with cousins in Philadelphia and my two sisters were sent to stay with my uncle in Miami. My younger brother and my parents stayed in Cuba until they were able to leave," recalls Jesús.
Fortunately, the family's separation was relatively short. "We were lucky because while it may have seemed like forever, we were separated for less than a year before my parents were able to arrange for all of us to be together in Miami." However, in order to leave Cuba, the family had to leave everything behind and start their lives over.
Though it was a difficult beginning, Jesús used his experiences as motivation for his success. After finishing high school in Miami, he went on to major in engineering at the University of Florida and graduated with both a bachelor's and master's degree in engineering.
Jesús and his wife Consuelo moved to Atlanta to begin their careers. Consuelo pursued her master's degree at Georgia State while Jesús enrolled at Georgia Tech to pursue his Ph.D., but when an opportunity to work at Scientific-Atlanta presented itself, he felt it was too good to pass up.
"I thought one day that I'd like to teach at the college level but my career got in the way," said Jesús. "We had just started our family and it was tough to do it all, so I left Tech with A.B.D. [all but dissertation] status in electrical engineering."
Meanwhile, Jesús' career at Scientific- Atlanta took off. He quickly went from entry-level to management, leading a team of engineers. He realized that as he moved into more managerial roles that he needed to strengthen his business skills, and applied to Robinson's Executive MBA program (EMBA). "The program was very valuable. It not only gave me the tools that have helped me as a business leader, it also opened my eyes to globalization," he said.
In addition to the skills the program gave him, Jesús said that the class had a lot of fun together. "It was a great group and there are so many wonderful memories. One in particular was our two-week business tour of Japan. Two of my classmates and I had taken a side trip to Kyoto and stayed in a 'riokan' [an authentic old-style Japanese inn]. It was customary to wear a kimono for dinner but none of us could figure out how to properly get the garment on. An elderly Japanese woman at the inn tried to help us. You had to be there, but watching this little old woman who didn't speak any English try to show three grown men how to get dressed was priceless," he said, chuckling.
After graduating in 1985, Jesús continued with Scientific-Atlanta but soon left to pursue an opportunity with an Atlanta start-up. After four years working with several smaller companies, he accepted a position with Alcatel Standard Eléctrica, S.A, a division of Alcatel Alsthom Group. Based in the company's Madrid office, he spent more than five years with the company and was promoted to vice president, engineering for the Access Systems Division. During that time he led the product development for all Access products with responsibility for more than 1,200 engineers in Europe, Australia, and South Africa. "It was an exciting job and [it] gave me the opportunity to put the global knowledge that I had learned in the EMBA program to work," said Jesús. But in 1996, he was lured back to the states after receiving a phone call from some people he had worked with at Scientific-Atlanta.
"They had recently started a new company and asked if I was interested in joining them," said Jesús. "I thought it was a great opportunity and it didn't hurt that I also knew a few of the people involved, some of whom were personal friends I had stayed in touch with – so I said yes."
Jesús joined CIENA Corporation as vice president and today serves as the company's senior vice president, chief development officer. Throughout his career, he has maintained a connection to the Robinson College as a member of the steering committee and later president of the EMBA Alumni Club. He has also served as an adjunct professor for both the undergraduate and graduate programs in international business and taught a graduate course in operations management.
He and his wife have instilled the importance of higher education in their children – Consuelo Beatriz Bills, an engineer; Cristina del Carmen León, an attorney; and son Lorenzo Javier León, an undergraduate student at Robinson.
Reflecting over his life and what his early experiences taught him, Jesús said, "I have learned that money does not shape who we are. Motivation and the ability to succeed come from what we carry within each of us. I believe that is what is most important, and what you do with what's inside is what ultimately shapes who you are."
This article was published in vol.III issue I of Back to Business, an alumni publication of the J. Mack Robinson College of Business.
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