Carol Sanchez to Receive Athena Award from MetroWest Chamber of Commerce

The MetroWest Chamber of Commerce will bestow the coveted ATHENA Leadership Award® to Carol Sanchez of Sanchez and Santiago tomorrow night, Nov. 14 at the Chamber's 118th Annual Meeting & Awards Gala at the Sheraton Hotel.

The award is presented to a woman-or man-who is honored for professional excellence, community service and for actively assisting women in their attainment of professional excellence and leadership skills.

Sanchez, a Framingham resident, founded the first 100 percent Latina CPA firm in New England in Marlborough, and was a founding member of ALPFA, an organization that develops “Latino Leadership” which focuses on addressing the challenges of professional minority women. 

Sanchez previously was awarded the 2011 YWCA of Boston Academy of Women Achievers, the 2010 Delta Sigma Theta Sorority’s Women of Purpose Award, was vote in 2009 one of Boston Business Journal’s “20 on the Move" and won the U.S. Hispanic Chamber and Latina Style magazine’s Entrepreneur of the  Year award in 2006.

She is a board member at Marlborough Savings Bank and  a board & finance committee member at UMASS Medical Center and Marlborough Hospital. 

She was a board member and former VP  of the Board of Directors at the Massachusetts Society of CPAs and board & finance committee member of the Center for Women and Enterprise. 

She was a member of the Framingham Finance Committee.

She has vast experience in Audit, Accounting, Internal Audit, Merchandising, International and consulting experience with many multinationals. 

She started her career with KPMG’s audit division. From there, she gained experience in internal audit with GTE (now Verizon). Then, she launched the internal audit function for The Timberland Company, traveling throughout Europe and Latin America implementing new systems and processes.

Then, at Staples, Inc. she managed a staff of 25 and oversaw all the cash activity and cash accounts for all the Stores in the United States.

At Stride Rite International Corp. as the Director of International Operations and Merchandising, she oversaw all the company’s inventory, sales and operations outside of the US. 

From 2000 to 2004, Sanchez worked as the Director of Client Service for Resources Global Professionals.

 And in 2004, she launched her firm and the first Latino-owned CPA firm in New England.

Sanchez is just one of a handful of honorees at the 118th Annual Meeting and Awards Gala of the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce tomorrow night, Nov. 14 at the Sheraton Framingham.

Tickets are $75 and if still available, can be purchased by visiting www.metrowest.org or calling 508-879-5600.