A driana Graham is ready to start the next great chapter of her global career at Rollease Acmeda

Adriana Graham, CIO, Rollease Acmeda; Photo by Nids Creations

BY BILLY YOST, HISPANIC EXECUTIVE

Adriana (Adri) Graham pursues her life with such prowess and confidence that one cannot help but be inspired.

A Journey of Courage and Conviction

At thirteen, Graham left Colombia to move to Germany by herself in pursuit of tennis greatness. Now mother of a seventeen- and fourteen-year-old, Adri cannot imagine what she would do if her own kids moved halfway across the world. But she’s grateful for her parents’ sacrifice and the trust they bestowed upon her. Without them, she would not have become the dynamic leader she is today.

“My parents let me pursue my first dream of becoming a professional tennis player; they believed in me,” Graham says. “I didn’t have anyone to tell me to brush my teeth, or do my homework, or go to sleep when I moved to Germany. So, I had to develop a sense of self-discipline and leadership early-on in life.”

Twenty Years at Tyson Foods: A Trailblazing Career

After twenty years in half a dozen different roles at Tyson Foods, Graham is once again making a great move. She never thought she’d leave the company where she grew as a professional, made many lasting connections, and became the leader she is today. However, this trailblazer is charting new horizons, assuming the chief information officer (CIO) role at Rollease Acmeda, a global design and manufacturing leader in the window covering industry.

Charting New Horizons at Rollease Acmeda

As Graham prepares to take on CIO responsibilities for JM Family Enterprises-owned Rollease Acmeda, there’s a distinct awareness that she’s joining one of the top twenty largest private companies in the US. While she’s spent the bulk of her career working for a public company, Adri sees the move as a great opportunity to grow, influence, lead, and empower an organizational culture that leverages technology to drive significant digital transformation.

A Global Leader with a Multicultural Background

Her role is also an international one—one of the more appealing parts of the role for Adri, who was born in Colombia, grew up in Germany, and traveled all over the world playing tennis and, later, working for Tyson. She is fluent in Spanish, English, German, and Portuguese, too. This new role will give the CIO the chance to be a global coach, a global transformation driver, and a leader with the power to influence diverse teams all over the world.

“Rollease Acmeda is an innovative company on the cutting edge of design, development, and distribution with operations in Australia, Europe, and the US. And we’re expanding into Mexico,” Graham says. “I will have the opportunity to work with a talented and diverse team to shape and influence digital frameworks to bring global operational capabilities to convergence.”

Photo by Nids Creations

To know where Graham is headed, it’s important to look back at the decisions that have made her who she is. By the time Graham was twenty-one, she knew her tennis career was coming to an end. She had a few good years left, which she would play out at the University of Arkansas (UA), but she knew she wouldn’t try to build her life around the sport and decided to forge a new path.

Graham found an incredible mentor in the former chancellor of UA, John White Jr., who offered Graham the opportunity to be his graduate assistant while she worked through her master’s degree. It was there she saw one of Arkansas’s great state leaders at work, effectively shaping the rest of her career.

Shaping the Future: Graham’s Impact at Tyson

The Latina leader came to Tyson first as a senior master data analyst, and quickly grew into the role of team lead for Tyson’s business intelligence organization. From there, her career would blossom at Tyson for the next two decades, as she led SAP (systems, applications, and products) implementations, infrastructure, and applications across China, India, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina operations—a role she was the first to fill.

Graham was the founding leader of Tyson’s Business Relationship Management organization where technology strategy, framework, and governance were aligned to enable execution of information technology (IT) solutions. She served as Tyson’s business leaders’ strategic partner on technology advancement, innovation, and digital transformation across the value chain.

Inspiring the Next Generation

What’s more? With the passion of inspiring future Hispanic leaders, uplifting Tyson team members, and serving Latino communities across the nation, Graham became the inaugural leader and chair of Tyson’s multicultural and Latino business resource groups. Her dedication has earned her recognition as one of Arkansas’s top women in business by the Arkansas Business Journal and selection as one of the top Young Hispanic Corporate Achievers (YHCA) in the US by Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR).

Empowering Teams Through Technology

One of Graham’s most personally fulfilling moments at Tyson came with the organization’s partnership with Beekeeper, to deliver an empowering mobile-enabled employee experience for frontline team members during COVID-19. With more than fifty-seven different languages spoken within Tyson and lower levels of frontline digital literacy, the company needed an easy-to-use multilingual solution for getting news and updates to the essential staff working through the pandemic.

“Implementing Beekeeper was more than about spreading information. It allowed us to enhance communication, engagement, collaboration, and activation with our team members at all levels of the organization,” Graham says. “More importantly, it was a way to improve safety and celebrate team members and essential workers in their own languages.”

“Frontline workers often have no—or inadequate—technology to help them deliver their best work,” says Daniel Sztutwojner, cofounder of Beekeeper. “Beekeeper empowers champions like Adriana to equip their frontline workforce with digital solutions needed to unlock their full potential. Adriana’s passion for making Tyson workers’ lives better is exemplary.”

A Vision for Leadership: Graham’s Guiding Principles

As Graham prepares for her next great chapter to unfold, there is a quote she’s always got nearby, ready to remind her of the kind of leader and, now the kind of CIO, she wants to be. In the words of Simple Truths and Successories Inc. Founder Mac Anderson: “Great leadership usually starts with a willing heart, a positive attitude, and a desire to make a difference.”

Graham has the next big chance to make that difference now.

Family, Love, and Growing Up

Adriana Graham is a newly minted CIO who can lead global teams through massive transformation. However, her most cherished achievement resides within the love, warmth, and affection shared among her family—and the fact her teenage children, Karina and Lucas, think she’s cool.

Graham speaks of her husband, Devin, as if they’re still newlyweds: “His mind and heart inspire me, and I hope I do the same for him. Every day, I am filled with gratitude for the blessings of our beautiful family, the support we offer each other and the opportunity to continue to grow up together.

Hispanicexecutive.com