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In Good Company
Big business has been hard hit by a declining
economy and a fast-revolving door of top-level executives. Despite
the tough times, these leaders and companies
have still managed to contribute to their communities and demonstrate
innovative strategy and good governance.
By Sara Fernandez-Cendon
The Best Latinos in Business
From CEOs to presidents to founders, these Latinos run the show
in every field from construction to pioneering technology. Many
have lead their companies to the top of their industries, others
have pioneered new innovations and others still have broken through
the glass ceiling and paved the way for others to follow in their
footsteps. Their leadership, ambition, strength and commitment to
their community has lead them to be dubbed among 2009’s Top
25 Best Latinos in Business.
 Carlos
Gutierrez
Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce
Gutierrez acted as the voice of business in government when he served
as the 35th Secretary of Commerce under President George W. Bush.
As Secretary, one of his goals was to pry open global markets for
U.S. companies. He played a key role in the passage of CAFTA-DR,
a landmark agreement that strips away trade barriers, expands export
opportunities and aims to boost opportunity throughout Latin America.
A former chairman of the board and CEO of the Kellogg Company, Gutierrez
moved back into the private sector with the election of President
Barack Obama. Born in Havana, Cuba as the son of a pineapple plantation
owner, Gutierrez studied business administration at the Monterrey
Institute of Technology in Queretaro, Mexico.
 Jorge
M. Pérez
Chairman and CEO, Related Group
Consistently listed among Forbes’ richest Americans, Pérez
heads the nation’s leading developer of multi-family residences.
Pérez has served on the boards of many cultural and artistic
organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts and the
Miami Art Museum. His professional and philanthropic work have been
recognized both in the U.S. and abroad—he was the first
American developer ever to receive the Icon in Real Estate Award
of Excellence at MIPIM in Cannes, France. Perez graduated from Long
Island University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and
from the University of Michigan with a master’s degree in
urban planning.
 Maria
Elena Lagomasino
CEO, GenSpring Family Offices
Before becoming CEO of GenSpring Family Offices, Lagomasino served
as chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Private Bank where she supervised
management of more than $300 billion in client assets. A recognized
leader in the wealth management industry, she started her banking
career at Citibank and later joined Chase Manhattan Private Bank,
where she eventually became head of the Global Private Banking Group.
Lagomasino serves on the board of Avon Products Inc., the Coca-Cola
Company and the Lincoln Center Theater, in addition to being a trustee
on the board of the National Geographic Society.
 Bob
Rodriguez
CEO, First Pacific Advisors
Rodriguez’s investment company boasts of not having had a
single calendar-year loss since he took the reins in 1984. In addition
to his role as CEO, Rodriguez manages the company’s new income
portfolio and separate accounts in the Small/Mid-Cap Value equity
style. Morningstar, an investment research company, recently named
Rodriguez Fixed-Income Fund Manager of the Year, an honor he has
received twice before. Fortune magazine also recognized Rodriguez’s
vision in protecting his clients’ investment ahead of the
current financial crisis with preemptive measures taken as early
as 2004.
 Eduardo
Castro-Wright
Vice Chairman, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
As president and CEO of Walmart U.S., Castro-Wright was responsible
for overseeing more than 3,000 stores. In his new role as vice chairman
for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., his role impacts more than 7,000 stores
and 2 million associates in 15 world markets. A graduate of Texas
A&M University, he worked his way up to the top of Nabisco Inc.
as president and CEO of the company’s operations in Mexico
and in Venezuela. Before joining Walmart in 2001, he held several
leadership positions at Honeywell. He serves on the board of directors
for MetLife Inc., the Hispanic Scholarship Fund and Retail Industry
Leaders of America.
 Ralph
Alvarez
President and COO,
McDonald’s Corporation
Alvarez sets the global strategy and directs operations for nearly
32,000 McDonald’s restaurants in 118 countries. A graduate
of the University of Miami, Alvarez served first as president of
McDonald’s Mexico, then became president of McDonald’s
USA, the position from which he led the company’s U.S. turnaround.
He serves on several boards, including the board of trustees for
Chicago’s Field Museum and the International Advisory Board
of the University of Miami, and is an active supporter of Ronald
McDonald House Charities.
 Gustavo
Cisneros
Chairman and CEO,
Cisneros Group of Companies
Cisneros has led his group of companies since the late 1960s. Having
gone through several periods of expansion, the company today is
one of the largest privately held media, entertainment, telecommunications
and consumer products operations in the world. Cisneros also makes
educational and cultural contributions through the Fundación
Cisneros, led by his wife, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, and has
spearheaded initiatives to strengthen democracy, free trade, economic
development and integration throughout Latin America.
 Cristóbal
I. Conde
President and CEO,
SunGard Data Systems Corporation
Conde, a native of Chile, co-founded Devon Systems International
Inc., a company that provided systems for the interest rate and
currency derivatives markets. Conde joined SunGard in 1987, after
the company bought Devon. At SunGard, he started the Trading Systems
division in 1990 and served as COO from 1999 until 2002, when he
was elected CEO. Conde, who also serves on SunGard’s board
of directors, holds a degree in astronomy and physics from Yale
University.
 Castulo
de la Rocha
CEO, AltaMed
Health Services Corporation
As head of AltaMed, a health services nonprofit in Southern California,
de la Rocha helps about 48,000 underserved families each year. His
leadership in the Hispanic community spans nearly three decades,
with board memberships including the Latino Issues Forum, the Latino
Coalition for a Healthy California, the Los Angeles Orthopedic Hospital
Foundation and others. De la Rocha has received recognition from
the U.S. Surgeon General and the American Diabetes Association,
among many other organizations, for his dedication to the health
needs of Hispanics.
 Enrique
Conterno
President, Lilly USA,
Member, operations committee
The Peruvian-born Conterno took over as head of the giant pharmaceutical
company’s U.S. operations in January after steadily working
his way up the corporation’s ladder, starting as a sales representative
in 1992. He held roles as a financial analyst, marketing associate,
and business development manager before becoming the marketing director
for Peru and Brazil and eventually running the company’s operations
in Mexico. Lilly’s global employees number approximately 40,000,
and its medicines are marketed in 143 countries.
 Ralph
de la Vega
President and CEO,
Mobility and Consumer Markets, AT&T
Since October 2008, de la Vega has lead all consumer marketing,
sales, content and converged services, customer care and operations
for wireless and wired services at AT&T. Prior to serving in
that role, de la Vega held several leadership positions in AT&T,
including president and CEO of AT&T Mobility, and in Cingular
Wireless, where he served as COO. De la Vega is a member of the
board of directors of both Junior Achievement Worldwide and the
Boy Scouts of America. He recently was inducted into the Hispanic
Scholarship Fund’s prestigious Alumni Hall of Fame.
 Paul
J. Diaz
President and CEO,
Kindred Healthcare Inc.
As CEO of a top-ranking health services company, Diaz is one of
the country’s most recognizable minority leaders in healthcare.
Diaz serves as director of Davita Inc., which provides dialysis
services for patients suffering from chronic kidney failure. He
also serves on the board of directors of the Bloomberg School of
Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. A graduate of the Georgetown
University Law School, he founded the Paul J. Diaz Scholarship Fund
to help students with financial needs and promote ethnic diversity.
 Enrique
Hernandez, Jr.
Chairman, President and CEO,
Inter-Con Security Systems Inc.
Hernandez has been at the helm of Inter-Con Security Systems Inc.
since 1986. Prior to that he served the company as vice president
and assistant general counsel, and later as executive vice president.
A former litigation attorney, Hernandez is a trustee of the University
of Notre Dame, a member of Harvard University’s Resources
and a member of the Harvard College Visiting Committee. He also
sits on the boards of McDonald’s Corporation, Nordstrom Inc.
and Wells Fargo & Company, and recently joined the board of
Chevron Corporation.
 Armando
Nuñez, Jr.
President, CBS Paramount
International Television
Nuñez was named to his current position in 2004 after the
merger of Paramount International Television and CBS Broadcast International,
where he had served as president since 1999. Today, Nuñez
oversees international distribution, sales and marketing of programming
for CBS News, Showtime, CBS Paramount Network Television and CBS
Television Distribution. Nuñez is responsible for creating
and licensing international formats such as America’s Next
Top Model; he is also on the board of visitors of the George L.
Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.
 Hilda
Ochoa-Brillembourg
Founder, president and CEO,
Strategic Investment Group
Ochoa-Brillembourg founded Strategic Investment Group in 1987. She
is founding chairman of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, a trustee
of the Washington National Opera, and member of the advisory committee
of the Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard
University, among many other affiliations with artistic and educational
institutions. She also serves on the boards of General Mills Inc.,
the McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. and the Harvard Management Company.
Her achievements have earned her wide recognition, including a Fulbright
Lifetime Achievement award.
 Dr.
J. Mario Molina
President and CEO,
Molina Healthcare, Inc.
Molina Healthcare was founded in 1980 by Dr. C. David Molina to
serve the needs of low-income patients. For the past 25 years ,
Molina’s son, J. Mario Molina, has held various positions
in the company, including medical director and vice president responsible
for provider contracting, member services, market and quality assurance.
After his father’s death in 1996, J. Mario Molina was elected
chairman of the board and became CEO at the company. Molina is a
member of a number of professional organizations and serves as a
national trustee of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
 Michael
Montelongo
Senior Vice President and Chief
Administrative Officer, Sodexo Inc.
Before becoming the chief administrative officer for Sodexo’s
operations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, Montelongo led strategic
marketing for the company. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy
at West Point, Montelongo’s role as assistant secretary of
the Air Force during President Bush’s administration made
him the highest-ranking Hispanic in the Air Force. Montelongo also
holds a master’s degree from the Harvard Business School and
has been recognized numerous times for his business achievement.
 Alex
López Negrete
President and CEO,
López Negrete Communications
López Negrete founded his full-service marketing agency in
1985. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, the company just opened a
second office in Los Angeles and serves clients such as Wal-Mart,
Miller Brewing Company, Bank of America, Microsoft Corporation and
NBC Universal Motion Pictures Group. López Negrete has served
on the board of several nonprofits, including the American Institute
for Public Service, and has received recognition for his many contributions
to the advertising industry.
 Vilma
S. Martinez
Partner,
Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP
In addition to holding a partnership at the Los Angeles law firm,
Martinez has also established herself as a leading Latina on corporate
boards. She is currently a director at Anheuser-Busch Companies,
Fluor Corporation and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation.
She has also been a staff attorney for the NAACP, sat on the Council
of Foreign Relations, was a former president of MALDEF, and was
a Dean for America, among many others. She has also received the
Medal for Excellence from Columbia Law School.
 Orlando
Ayala
Senior Vice President for Emerging
Markets, Microsoft Corporation
In his current role, Ayala is focused on bringing about economic
and social progress through the strategic use of technology. He
moved into this role after co-leading Microsoft’s Unlimited
Potential Group, charged with helping reduce the digital divide
by creating social and economic opportunity to the estimated 5 billion
people not yet realizing the benefits of technology. Ayala joined
Microsoft in 1991 as senior director for Latin America and later
held positions with wider reach, including senior vice president
of the Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partner Group.
 Dr.
Hector Ruiz
Executive Chairman,
Advanced Micro Devices inc.
Ruiz was recently named to the executive chairman position after
serving Advanced Micro Devices first as COO and then as CEO since
2002. Prior to joining Advanced Micro Devices, Ruiz had a 22-year
career at Motorola, where he last served as president of the semiconductor
products sector. Ruiz serves on several boards, including the board
of the Eastman Kodak Company, and provided the vision behind the
50x15 Initiative that seeks to provide basic Internet access to
50 percent of the world’s population by 2015.
 Alberto
Verme
Global Co-head of
Investment Banking, Citigroup
Verme, who has held his current position since 2004, was recently
deployed to Dubai as a sign of Citigroup’s interest in serving
clients in the Middle East, an area the company considers a growth
opportunity. Originally from Peru, Verme began his career at the
World Bank in 1979. In the 1990s he joined Salomon Brothers and
worked as head, and later chairman, of Citi’s Latin America
Investment Banking Group. Later he served as head of Global Energy,
Power and Chemicals Investment Banking before taking his current
role.
 Albert
C. Zapanta
Chairman of the Board of Managers, Paz Energy LLC; President and
CEO, United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce
Zapanta has a distinguished record of military service and has had
numerous presidential appointments, including White House Fellow
and Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Members and Administration.
Zapanta recently retired as director of Governmental Affairs for
ARCO; in that role, he conducted negotiations between the U.S. and
Mexican governments on oil and gas matters. Zapanta’s experience
in the energy sector led him to co-found PAZ Energy in 2006. Zapanta
also serves on the board of Tyson Foods Inc.
 Linda
G. Alvarado
Founder, President and CEO,
Alvarado Construction
Alvarado has 35 years of experience in the construction industry,
and she is also the first Hispanic to own a major league baseball
franchise, The Colorado Rockies. Her success as a businesswoman
and a trailblazer has been recognized numerous times, with honors
such as being inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame,
the Horatio Alger Award and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Business Woman of the Year award. Alvarado sits on the boards of
3M, Lennox International, Pepsi Bottling Group, Pitney Bowes and
QWEST Communications International Inc.
 Monica
Lozano
Publisher and CEO, La Opinion;
Senior Vice President, Impremedia
As the leader of the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the United
States, Lozano has huge influence and has used her position to further
the causes affecting Latinos in the U.S. She was recently named
to President Barack Obama’s Advisory Council For Economic
Recovery. A new independent board formed to help the president formulate
his response to the current crisis. She also sits on the boards
of Bank of America and Walt Disney Company, as well as the Weingart
Foundation, the board of regents for the University of California,
and is a trustee for the University of Southern California.
10 Companies Working for Hispanics
By Tony Cantú
This past year, a tightened credit market fueled by
the meltdown of the mortgage market threw a wrench into the economic
cogs. The resultant recession has left a trail of corporate downsizing
and bankruptcy in its wake, from firms having to resort to massive
layoffs to stay alive to those ceasing to exist altogether.
For that reason, many of the companies that would have contended
for inclusion on Hispanic’s Top 10 list dropped off the charts,
their ability to retain jobs for minority workers and executives
uncertain even while meeting other diversity-related goals. But
even before the economic slowdown, tabulating the best firms for
Hispanics posed a significant challenge, given another part of our
criteria related to minority representation on executive boards
of directors. Unfortunately, Hispanic appointments on corporate
boards among the elite Fortune 500 is a perennial shortcoming currently
hovering at 3 percent.
Those obstacles toward diversity made for some rough reckoning in
achieving a “best” list. Rankings being as mercurial
as economic shifts—this tally spotlights firms showing the
most potential to adhere to our main considerations of diversity,
board representation and minority-focused philanthropy. In separating
the corporate wheat from the chaff, we consider the following firms
deserving of calling themselves among the best.
In a climate of upheaval in the financial industry, this Charlotte,
N.C.-based banking firm has emerged virtually unscathed. While the
company is receiving federal bailout money, BOA grew with the purchase
of Merrill Lynch. The outlook on its retention of jobs—including
a 45 percent minority workforce—appears strong. Hispanic board
representation: Monica Lozano, Publisher and CEO of La Opinion newspaper.
The company’s commitment to diversity largely
was born after one of the biggest racial discrimination lawsuits
in American history. However, it appears genuine in making diversity
a priority, filling 30 percent of its management ranks with minorities.
It also is a big contributor to minority organizations, including
the National Association of Hispanic MBAs. Hispanic board representation:
Chiquita Brands chairman and CEO Fernando Aguirre.
General Mills could teach its peers a thing or two
about diversity, with a board of directors that is 63 percent minority—including
an 8 percent Hispanic representation. With a solid base of Hispanic
workers, the company also contributes philanthropically to groups
catering to minorities, including the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.
Hispanic board representation: Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg, CEO of
Strategic
Investment Corp.
This Bethesda, Md.-based hospitality industry giant
conducts mandatory diversity training monthly throughout its operations.
Additionally, its philanthropy extends to various organizations
catering to Hispanics. The company earmarks much of its top tier
contractor procurement budget to minority- and women-owned firms.
Hispanic board representation: George Muñoz, former Assistant
U.S.
Treasury Secretary.
Given a workforce comprised of legions of minorities,
the global beverage maker has an external diversity council—which
meets quarterly with the company’s chief executive —to
ensure continuation of such hiring practices. The National Council
of La Raza and the Hispanic College Fund are among regular beneficiaries
of the company’s philanthropy. Hispanic board representation:
Knight Foundation Chairman and CEO
Alberto Ibargüen.
Valero Energy has consistently been named to Hispanic
Magazine’s “Corporate 100” list recognizing the
top companies employing and serving Hispanic Americans. Supervisors
are evaluated in part on their equal employment opportunity efforts
and results. The San Antonio-based company relies heavily on Hispanic
MBAs in scouting for talent. Hispanic board representation: Ruben
M. Escobedo, owner of a namesake accounting firm.
So far, Walmart is one of the few companies largely
unaffected by sales slowdowns. In fact, it is making significant
gains by slashing prices, making cost-cutting layoffs unlikely.
The retailing giant’s commitment to diversity is clear, with
the size of executive bonuses largely dependent on diversity hiring
goals. Hispanic board representation: Former U.S. Small Business
Administration chief Aida Alvarez and retired Telemundo Chairman/CEO
Roland A. Hernandez.
Roughly 40 percent of this company’s workforce
is minority, and its board makeup is 8 percent Hispanic. Those higher-than-average
levels are part of a continual process, as Disney is known for its
community outreach to recruit new talent. The firm also gives generously
to groups working with underrepresented segments of the population,
including the Boys & Girls Club of America. Hispanic board representation:
Monica Lozano.
With a sizable number of minorities among its workforce,
the company has been recognized by the United States Hispanic Advocacy
Association for its diversity and corporate giving to Latino organizations.
The company also has made it into Hispanic Magazine’s “Corporate
100” for such commitment. Hispanic board representation: Jerry
Porras, a professor emeritus at the graduate school of business
at Stanford University.
With a workforce that is nearly 15 percent Latino,
this financial services company undertakes annual reviews measuring
key goals that include diversity. The bank also recently bought
Wachovia, making it the second largest bank for deposits. As the
nation’s second largest mortgage servicer, it helped 498,000
homeowners modify their loans and avoid foreclosure in 2008. Hispanic
board representation: Enrique Hernandez, Jr., chairman of Inter-Con
Security Systems.
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