Diana Bellini (Business Management ’06) was born in Ecuador and immigrated to meet her family in Queens when she was 12. She graduated from an under-resourced inner-city high school in Queens with a large minority population, a high crime rate, and a low graduation rate compared with those of other New York high schools. Most of her friends dropped out along the way. Her father’s “highest education was eighth or ninth grade,” she said. Though her mother never finished her last semester of college, she encouraged Diana to get an education so she could have a better life.
During Diana’s college search, The King’s College had been at the bottom of her list; she hadn’t grown up religious and hadn’t wanted to attend a Christian school. However, the financial aid at King’s was superior to her other prospective schools’, making King’s her only feasible option. Then in her freshman year, Diana converted to Christianity. Combined with her experience as a first-generation immigrant, Diana’s Christian faith has fueled her to use her finance profession to empower those on the margins of society.
Diana viewed graduating from high school and college as first steps for her to escape poverty, get a good job, and achieve financial security. Determined to earn a bachelor’s degree, she started college at King’s in 2002.
When her first semester began, she was surprised by her classmates' faith. “Everybody was super nice” and talked a lot about Jesus, she says. “I started realizing that I’m here because God had this plan for me. Then my college experience became beautiful.”
The dean, David Leedy, and his wife, along with the religion classes, helped foster the growth of her faith. “They weren’t pushy,” Diana explained. “They were talking from love.” She prayed regularly with fellow students and learned more about the Bible in her classes. Additionally, she found her education at King’s very challenging: it stretched her mind and impelled her to explore what she believed about morality, politics, society, and God, and why she held those beliefs.
Her sophomore year, with one of her business classes, she toured the New York Stock Exchange. It was a pivotal experience. “I didn’t know what to do with my business major until that moment,” she recalled. When she entered the NYSE building, she realized she wanted to work in finance.
Diana married her husband Tony, whom she met at King’s, right out of college. Tony had been born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pa., and they decided it was time to start a new life in his hometown near his family. He had found a job there as a sales manager for a roofing company, and Diana was able to freelance for a family business while she sought longer-term employment in finance.
The decision to move away was difficult for Diana, since her whole family still lived in New York City. But in 2009, she got a job as an accounting specialist at BNY Mellon in Pittsburgh, and her finance career was finally underway.
She wanted to show them that a first-generation Ecuadorian immigrant woman could lead faithfully in a senior role at a company.
At King’s, Diana had learned that her faith could and should permeate all areas of her work and leadership. “That idea was always in the back of my mind,” she said. Diana remained at BNY Mellon for 11 years, and she and Tony welcomed their daughter Sophia in 2012. During her time at BNYM, Diana aimed to be a role model for Sophia, her extended family, and other Latinas in her community. She wanted to show them that a first-generation Ecuadorian immigrant woman could lead faithfully in a senior role at a company.
A Latina Trailblazer
By Celina Durgin
A Christian and a first-generation immigrant, Diana (Bautista-Endara) uses her finance profession to mentor and empower others, particularly within Pittsburgh’s Latino community.
THE KING'S COLLEGE MAGAZINE
Ivy Artieda, Diana’s cousin and good friend, says Diana is “a very determined woman, something I admire very much.” Ivy grew up with Diana in Ecuador and later immigrated to the UK, where she now works as a senior vice president and marketing manager at Forex Capital Markets. She and Diana have always kept in touch. From their childhood in Ecuador, Ivy recalls Diana’s determination when her family moved to the U.S. and Diana moved to Quito to live with Ivy’s family. It was hard to adjust to life without her parents, but “she became this invincible person,” Ivy said. “I’ve seen that reflected in everything she has done since she came to the U.S.”
With the help of mentors, Diana scaled the ladder at BNYM until she eventually managed US public funds and central banks in Latin America, buoyed by her financial skills and Spanish fluency.
As her career progressed, however, her home environment became more stressful. Her frequent travel for BNYM regularly took her away from her family. Diana tried to balance being a successful businesswoman with being a successful wife and friend, and hence, she sometimes “excelled at one and struggled with the other.” To see her way through this tension, she talked it over with close confidants, such as her cousin Ivy, her best friend Roy, and her husband. Her managers and mentors were also a key source of perspective. They affirmed her value in her role, which she sometimes couldn’t see clearly herself.
Diana’s current manager Erik Kimbrough, PNC Wealth Management Pittsburgh market director, has since reiterated this perspective. “She’s very driven, very outward-thinking, extremely creative and service-oriented with clients, persistent in developing her spheres of influence,” he said. “She has a high degree of attention to detail and is a well-rounded individual. She’s had to fight for where she is in life. It’s incredible.”
Ultimately, Diana chose to trust God and the patterns of advice that suggested she should push through this difficulty and learn how to manage it.
Though she is confident in her choice, her considerable challenges with work-life balance remain. To face them, she has perfected her skill in time management and organization. Adhering to a schedule like Diana’s takes a lot of sheer discipline. If she knows she wants to earn a new qualification by a certain date, she’ll calculate that she needs to study from 8pm to 9pm every single day, so that she can still find time to work, sleep, exercise, take her daughter to school, and ski with her family on weekends.
At the heart of her efforts lies her desire to assist her community, especially other young Latinas trying to advance in a male-dominated corporate environment. She wants to help them find a voice and an executive demeanor. She wants to teach them to negotiate higher salaries and ask for projects and promotions—in short, to help them learn the same confidence and determination she has acquired in her life.
“Latinas are so grateful, but that can be a drawback when negotiating,” Diana said. “It’s a silent culture. Latinas don’t ask for what they want. Women in general are less likely to ask for raises, and Latinas are even less likely.”
“I started realizing that I’m here because God had this plan for me.”
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Over the last seven years, she has been involved with the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA) by mentoring students and young professionals. She served as president for the Pittsburgh chapter from 2015–2017 and is currently a board advisor. As chapter president, she helped Latinos find career opportunities within corporate America. She especially remembers Ana Karen Romero, whom she mentored and for whom she harnessed her ever-growing network within Pittsburgh companies.
After meeting Ana, Diana immediately noticed her skill set, work ethic, and overall potential. Diana lent her influence in BNYM to propel Ana to various roles within that company over the years, which led to Ana’s current position as vice president in the credit department. Diana believes God has gifted her with the ability to empower others. In 2016, Diana was featured in Pittsburgh magazine’s “40 Under 40” list, confirming her gifts and success.
Diana’s knack for networking and desire to invest in others’ futures led her to her current role. Since July 2019, she has worked as a senior relationship strategist at PNC Wealth Management. She now focuses on helping individuals and families make smart financial decisions to reach their goals. She excels at her job partly because she can “relate to people of diverse backgrounds with a high degree of empathy and understanding, connecting through shared worldly experiences,” Erik said.
Diana tries to understand what her clients care about, many of whom come from Latino immigrant communities. Usually they’re handling money that they’ve worked hard to save all their lives, or that they’ve inherited from a loved one. She has to ask them the tough questions: If you died tomorrow or your spouse passed, what would happen to your money? In this context, she serves by being an emotionally resilient and neutral advisor.
Diana says that “Latinos nationwide need more financial empowerment,” and this is true also of her clients in Pittsburgh. Recently, she led a financial wellness event on the importance of investing. Buying a home is the biggest dream in Latin America, but Latinos who immigrate to the U.S. typically don’t realize the power of investing, Diana says. “They’re the No. 1 consumers in the country but also least likely to invest,” she noted.
Diana speaks and advises her clients on debt repayment, retirement plans, and how taxes affect earning and investing. Since financial freedom also requires earning enough to pay those debts and make those investments, Diana continues helping people like Ana find higher-paying jobs. “The more you earn, the more money you can put back into your community’s economy,” Diana said. The Pittsburgh Latino community has grown since 2007 when Diana moved there, and through her work, she feels that she has helped bolster its economic development.
As she has sought to inspire her daughter, Diana has come to see her daughter as an inspiration as well. Sophia is visibly proud of her mom’s achievements, and Diana is pleased to show her that immigrant women can accomplish what she has. At the same time, Diana reminds Sophia that God honors all good work: “If your job is to wash windows, then do your best, and that’s using your talents to honor the Lord.”
