Navigating a path to success by collaboration

GETTING IT DONE: Textron’s Marie Carlino has a reputation at the diversified manufacturer for making sure that her assignments are done and done right. With her are Al Gutierrez, left, a sytems specialist, and Russel Marceau, a systems manager, at the company’s Providence headquarters. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
GETTING IT DONE: Textron’s Marie Carlino has a reputation at the diversified manufacturer for making sure that her assignments are done and done right. With her are Al Gutierrez, left, a sytems specialist, and Russel Marceau, a systems manager, at the company’s Providence headquarters. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

Textron’s Marie Carlino is a true businesswoman, not just a woman in business.
Yes, there is a difference.
“I believe a woman in business is a worker who shows up every day and completes what is needed. A true businesswoman is dedicated, she is a visionary and makes every attempt to drive success in everything she does,” said Charles Affleck, a program director and colleague at Textron Inc.
Some of Carlino’s success may have rubbed off from her mother, an Italian immigrant who married a Navy cook and came to this country without language or family. She found her way, and made her way. She is her daughter’s hero, and Carlino is honoring that legacy as a woman who – like her mother – takes on challenges and spends her life learning the way.
“I see myself as a businesswoman who drives results by fostering teamwork and collaboration as well as inspiring others to be successful. … I have had good role models and mentors here at Textron over my career, and for women to succeed in business, being mentored and being a mentor is important,” she said.
In her 33-year career with the company, Carlino has held many and varied positions, with each opening her up to new challenges and broadening her perspective.
“During my tenure at Textron, I’ve had the privilege of working with some very influential business leaders who have left a mark on my career,” she said. “I’ve witnessed Textron’s evolution into a global industry leader in aircraft, defense, industrial and financial business.”
Today Carlino is a director for IT application, managing Textron’s buyer application, which processes more than $1 billion for the company. She managed to carve out this impressive career in one of the state’s largest companies by never putting down a mission picked up.
“Marie takes everything she has ever been assigned to the very end. She never pushes off duties to others or assigns things to people who do not have the expertise to handle it. … It is for this reason she has never failed,” Affleck said.
A certified Six Sigma black belt, Carlino is also ITIL V3 certified and has attended Textron’s executive development program, conducted by Harvard Business School. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and an MBA from Bryant University.
Other successful businesswomen can boast similar, impressive CVs. But Affleck pays her the biggest compliment: “She’s the person you go to when you want something done.”
He used an example of a time when Carlino was asked to renegotiate a large contract. The project had been attempted several times by other management leaders, but they were unsuccessful. “Marie managed to overcome the obstacles that others were unable to see and implemented a new agreement with all the required deliverables,” he said.
In her time with Textron, Carlino has managed ongoing contractual relationships with major third-party outsourcing partners for IT services and support. She was also responsible for corporate-wide shared services operations, including contract management, supplier negotiations, telecommunications management, business-application development and support, and IT-sourcing strategies.
Carlino facilitated senior-level executive sessions regarding an enterprise-wide telecommunications outsourcing deal and the move to an activity-based costing model. During this time she also renegotiated and restructured a 10-year, $1.2 billion telecommunications outsourcing contract resulting in savings of $2.8 million in the first year.
Her success is worth noting on its own, but Carlino takes extra pride in her work.
“As a Rhode Islander, born and educated in this state, I am proud to have carved out a career working for one of the largest, global companies on the Fortune 500 list; but most importantly, being directly involved in delivering enterprise-wide systems and services for Textron across the globe,” she said.
Carlino is also an active volunteer in the community. She has committed her time as a mentor for the Providence Year-Up program and the Veazie Street Elementary School Reading program. She is also on the board of trustees for the Graniteville WWII Veterans Foundation.
Just don’t bother her while she’s making gravy.
We’re not talking about that brown stuff poured over hot turkey sandwiches – we’re talking about Italian Sunday gravy, deep red and flavored with meats. Carlino learned how to cook from her parents.
When asked if there’s a celebrity or hero she’d dream of cooking for, she hesitates. She knows what she’d cook – veal picatta. But her heroes are not business executives or celebrities. She’d cook for her parents.
“They are my heroes,” she said. •

No posts to display