International Women’s Day Spotlight: Puerto Rican Entrepreneur Builds Business and Balance, Paving the Way for Other Women To Do the Same

To celebrate International Women's Day (Sunday, 8 March), EO is highlighting members who are paving the way for other women to lead and thrive.

Years into a promising career in corporate human resources and labor law, Azalea García Corujo (EO Puerto Rico) found herself trying to mesh a demanding professional life with motherhood’s delicate rhythms. When daughter was born, Azalea negotiated a part-time professional services arrangement: “I wanted to stay at home some of the time with her,” she says, but the compromise never quite fit. “I am not a part time worker. I am a workaholic, which is not good, but that is my nature.”

The pivot point came after a complex pregnancy with twins a few years later: A law firm she had been working with asked her to fold her growing HR client base into a new consulting firm it would own. “On that day, I decided I am not going build the consulting firm for another person,” she says. “If I am going to manage the consulting side of the business, I will do it on my own.”

She appreciated the offer but walked away, keeping her clients and embarking upon building the balanced life she long craved — but long worried may not be attainable.

Azalea García Corujo (EO Puerto Rico) 

A Blank Slate

In the wake of Hurricane Maria, Azalea was approached to help stand up the island government’s new destination marketing organization, which was established by law to revitalize tourism after the devastating storm. The nonprofit that would become “Discover Puerto Rico” would serve as the country’s central hub for tourism promotion.

Initially, the client told her they would only need about 10 hours of her time every week as they ramped up to launch, but when Azalea assessed the scope — 30 to 45 employees, job descriptions, organizational charts, recruitment, structure — she knew the task would be far more demanding. So, instead, she drafted a comprehensive plan and presented it to the board. She won the contract and created her firm on the spot. (For expedience’s sake, she named it after her own initials: AGC.)

Though she was operating on a demanding timeline, the project “was the dream job for any HR consultant to have a blank slate to create an organization from the bottom up,” she says. She defined culture first, then built structure around it. After executing the high-visibility project successfully under a tight deadline, a slew of referrals soon followed.

When she realized that early success portended an opportunity to scale rapidly, Azalea joined EO's Accelerator program, which is designed to help startups reach US$1 million in annual revenue. Through Accelerator’s curriculum and peer accountability, she began systematizing operations and formalizing business development. “Having that group of people who were going through the same struggles that I was going through really helped me set a pathway for how to grow,” she says.

A little more than two years later, AGC crossed the US$1 million revenue mark. After graduating from Accelerator and joining EO as a full member, Azalea enrolled in a rigorous nine-month venture accelerator program in Puerto Rico that required some of her employees to also participate: The experience taught her that she needed to learn to delegate and trust others with the businesses’ nuances so she could focus on the big-picture vision.

“I had to learn to let go of control,” she says. Fast forward to today and she can take a two-week trip without frantically checking in on the business. “It means that you have an organization that works without you,” she says.

An All-Women Model

AGC employs 15 people — a dozen HR consultants and an internal services team handling payroll and staff support — while outsourcing its marketing and accounting functions. Of note, all of those employees are women: “It is very important to us,” she says. “We want to give our clients what they need to empower their people, but we also want to empower women to follow their dreams within flexible schedules.”

Roughly half of her consultants are single mothers. Others are caregivers to aging parents. The firm’s operating model reflects Azalea’s own lived tension between ambition and being present for family. “I have employees that I know that I will not be able to talk to them in the afternoon because they are picking up their kids,” she says. “Maybe I can talk to them in the evening or tomorrow — and I am fine with that.”

In exchange, clients receive seasoned professionals capable of advising directly with owners and executives. “Being able to offer that opportunity to these women allows them to flourish as professionals,” she says, “but at the same time it allows us to provide a service that is really complete and complex.”

Through the years, her children grew acutely aware of the tradeoffs inherent in managing a family and a business — but have embraced them. “My kids know my clients’ names,” she says, laughing. “I tell them, ‘I love being your mom, but I really love what I do.’”

Azalea and her team 

Paying It Forward 

Azalea now serves as EO Puerto Rico’s chair for the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA), a competition for student founders. The role aligns closely with her own formative experiences in entrepreneurship clubs during high school. “When they introduced me to the GSEA program, I identified with it,” she says. “If I can help inspire another generation of entrepreneurs, it would mean a lot to me.”

Last year, she attended GSEA’s Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) regional competition in Brazil, and she traveled to Panama for this year’s iteration. Watching student founders present ambitious, impact-driven ventures was “mind-blowing,” she says. In Puerto Rico, the biggest challenge is getting students to apply,” she notes. “I have accepted that challenge.”

It is one more commitment layered atop an already full life. For Azalea, though, impact and growth are complementary, not mutually exclusive. She did not have to sacrifice being a present mother and wife for her own ambitions. Instead, she designed a structure that ensured they could coexist — and invited other women to do the same.

Her daughter is 20 now. The twins are 17. Did pivoting to start her own company bring her the balance and fulfillment she long sought? “Yes,” she says, “I was able to establish some structures in my company that have really helped me not control everything … It is not only about balancing time with your family, but how much time you dedicate to yourself. So, now I am focusing on that part.”

Interested in becoming an EO member like Azalea? Learn more here. 

Azalea's family