Movers and Shakers

Denny’s Names Louis
Laguardia to New VP Post

Denny’s has named Louis Laguardia to the new position of vice president, talent acquisition and diversity. In his role, Laguardia will provide hiring best practices and promote diversity efforts to ensure Denny’s attracts and retains high-performing and diverse talent at its more than 1,500 restaurants and in support positions. A native of Cuba, Laguardia has a master’s degree in industrial psychology from Stevens Institute of Technology and a doctorate in research and measurement from New York University. Most recently, Laguardia, who has over 25 years of experience in human resources, was vice president of staffing and diversity for Frito Lay North America. Laguardia has also held senior leadership positions for American Express Consumer Card Group, Blockbuster and H.E.B. Grocery Company.

Ibarguen named chairman
of News museum in D.C.

Alberto Ibargüen, president and chief executive officer of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, has been named chairman of the Newseum, a museum of news funded by the Freedom Forum that will open in Washington in the fall. The $435 million project is expected to open in September. Ibargüen currently leads the Knight Foundation, one of the nation’s largest private independent organizations which makes grants of more than $90 million annually to promote excellence in journalism. Ibargüen was a newspaper executive for more than 20 years, first at the Hartford Courant in Connecticut and then at Newsday in New York, before joining Knight Ridder. He was publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald until July, when he assumed his current position at the Knight Foundation. Ibargüen is on the Trustees’ Council of the National Gallery of Art, the Advisory Council of the Public Accounting Oversight Board and is a member of the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is former chairman of the board of the Public Broadcasting Service and has served on the boards of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and other nonprofit organizations and educational institutions.

AT&T names Latinos
to top posts

Following the long-awaited merger between AT&T and BellSouth—which, together, had shared ownership of Cingular Wireless—the newly combined company outlined its key leadership and organizational structure. First, the company is quickly rebranding all its operations under the single name of AT&T, which means that BellSouth and soon Cingular will market themselves as AT&T. Ralph de la Vega, Cingular’s former chief operating officer, has been promoted to group president of Wireline Operations at AT&T’s headquarters in San Antonio, Texas. Thaddeus Arroyo, Cingular’s former chief information officer, also has been promoted as CIO of all of AT&T’s operations. Cingular finished its fourth quarter of 2006 with 61 million subscribers—more than any other U.S. carrier.

Bardasano Named EVP of Entertainment, Telemundo

Carlos R. Bardasano has been appointed executive vice president of network entertainment for Telemundo. He replaces Ramón Escobar. Bardasano will report to Don Browne, president of Telemundo, and will oversee programming, on-air promotions, specials and the network’s innovative writing workshop, Taller Telemundo. Most recently, Bardasano was vice president programming development of Univision Television Networks, charged with building programming for Univision’s broadcast and cable networks. Before joining Univision, he held the post of vice president of programming for Telemundo, responsible for all prime-time programming and production.

Mexican American Legal Defense
Fund appoints new leader

The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) board of directors has selected John Trasviña as the sixth leader of the nearly 40y-year-old organization. For the past two decades, Trasviña has played a major policy role at local and federal levels on immigration and civil rights matters. During 2005, he served MALDEF as senior vice president for Law and Policy and was elevated to interim president and general counsel in March 2006. In the 1980s and 1990s, Trasviña was general counsel and staff director of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and the legislative counsel for MALDEF.

Palladium equity partners announces investment in ATC panels

Palladium Equity Partners recently announced that it made a significant minority investment in Aconcagua Holdings, owner of ATC Panels, a fast-growing producer of particleboard, fiberboard and thermally fused melamine panels. ATC Panels employs approximately 600 people throughout North America and is headquartered in Moncure, North Carolina. This is the third investment of Palladium Fund III, which closed in March 2006 with $520 million of committed capital, and the second investment by Palladium to be announced.

Anna Carbonell receives lifetime
award for work in broadcasting

Anna Carbonell was selected as this year’s recipient of the Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association (LISTA) Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in broadcast journalism, for being a trailblazer in the broadcast industry, and for her lifelong commitment to the empowerment of the Hispanic community. Carbonell serves as vice president, press and public affairs of NBC4 and Telemundo 47 in New York and as a member of the NBC Diversity Council, where she advises senior management as to best practices and corporate policy for securing and maintaining a highly qualified and diverse workforce.

Jorge Plasencia to lead new communications partnership

Jorge A. Plasencia has been named chairman and CEO of República, a new full-service branding, advertising and communications company serving clients in South Florida, the U.S. Hispanic market and in Latin America. Plasencia will partner with Luis Casamayor, who for 12 years has been the principal of Cosmyk Group, a creative marketing agency based in Miami. Cosmyk Group’s client roster as well as its current employees will become part of the newly formed entity. Plasencia was previously vice president and operating manager for Univision Radio. He also spent five years as vice president of Estefan Enterprises, and was director of Hispanic marketing for the Florida Marlins Baseball Club. In 1991, he co-founded Amigos For Kids, a nonprofit organization that assists abused and underprivileged children in Miami.

Efforts to increase Hispanic
homeownership recognized

Frances Martinez Myers, chairman of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP), was recognized among the real estate industry’s top leaders for her efforts to increase Hispanic homeownership. Realtor Magazine, the publication that serves the 1.3 million members of the National Association of Realtors, publishes the prestigious list annually. Myers, who heads the 14,000-member NAHREP, was singled out for her campaign to increase Hispanic homeownership by raising awareness of the issues that challenge Latinos. A 30-year veteran of the real estate industry, Martinez Myers handles her responsibilities at NAHREP in addition to her day-to-day role as senior vice president at the Philadelphia-based Fox & Roach/Trident LP, where she oversees the business development efforts of Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors, the fifth largest real estate company in the United States.

Latino physician honored
for public service

Dr. Richard Izquierdo was awarded the Surgeon General’s Medallion, the highest honor granted by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The award was presented by former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona. Izquierdo was honored for his more than four decades serving low-income communities in the Bronx, where he made it his mission to render free or low-cost health services to patients in need, especially in the Hispanic community. He opened his first clinic in 1962 in the South Bronx, just two blocks from his home. It eventually expanded and grew into the Urban Health Plan, a network of bilingual clinics where patients can receive anything from medical attention for the whole family to prenatal care and even dental care. In addition, Urban Health Plan organizes workshops, lectures and events at which the community can learn about healthcare.