Corporate Ethicist Dr. Pia de Solenni (’93) Shares Career Insights with TAC Students

Dr. Pia de Solenni (’93), director of corporate engagement for IWP Capital, visited her alma mater last month to speak with students about how her Thomas Aquinas College education has served her professionally. 

In her work at IWP, a Catholic investment screening company, Dr. de Solenni relies on her formation as an ethicist and theologian to advocate for Catholic values in secular corporations. Her talk, “Don’t Hide Your Light Under a Bushel,” emphasized the power of Catholics in the workforce to promote the common good and be witnesses to Christ. “We are all the Church, we are all the body of Christ, and our job is to be the body of Christ in the world,” she told students. “We are supposed to be the leaven, we are supposed to be the salt.”

Dr. de Solenni shared her experience of working to promote pro-life values and Christian morality in the various roles she has worked throughout her career — including as the onetime chancellor of the Diocese of Orange, California — and the value of her time at the College in preparing her for that mission. “The reason I talk about not hiding your light under a bushel is because I think that the education you have been given is exceptional,” she told students. “What you have been given here is incredible, and I would just encourage you to think about all the places where you can use it.”

Additionally, she reminded students not to underestimate themselves and the influence that they have to bring about change in a largely secular society. “You have a tremendous opportunity to impact the world,” she said. “In your relationships, if you are blessed with children, religious life, single life, whatever it may be, if you do it intentionally, you will impact the world, probably in ways that you will never know until, God willing, you are in Heaven. I encourage you not to underestimate how much you have been given, and to see it as a gift.”