As President of Global Advertising for Disney, Rita Ferro leads all global advertising sales for the company’s powerhouse portfolio of entertainment, news and sports properties, including Disney’s linear, digital and ad- supported streaming businesses across ABC; Disney Channels Worldwide; Disney+; ESPN and ESPN+; Freeform; FX; Hulu; and National Geographic. Rita is renowned for her dynamic leadership servicing brands at the intersection of data, advertising technology and premium content. Disney offers advertisers a one-stop-shop to leverage the incredible breadth of Disney’s brands, best-in-class storytelling and scale of audiences, to drive results and impact. 

Rick Gomez is executive vice president and chief commercial officer for Target and a member of the company’s leadership team. He has oversight of Target’s multicategory merchandise assortment, including home, apparel and accessories, essentials and beauty, hardlines, and food and beverage. He also leads owned brands, enterprise insights, and merchandising planning and capabilities.

Since joining Target in 2013, Rick has held a number of leadership roles across the enterprise. He was promoted to the executive leadership team in 2017 when he was named chief marketing officer, and in the ensuing years his role was expanded to include leadership of Target’s e-commerce and strategy teams as well. As chief marketing, digital and strategy officer, Rick played a critical role in Target’s 2017 strategy reset and the launch of Target Circle in 2019.

In 2021, Rick was named chief food and beverage officer, a role in which he helped successfully reposition Target as a leading destination for food, with industry-leading growth across popular owned brands, including Good & Gather and Favorite Day.

Prior to joining Target, Rick served as vice president of brand marketing at MillerCoors. He also held multiple leadership roles at PepsiCo, including chief marketing officer of the non-carbonated beverage portfolio. He began his career in brand management at the Quaker Oats Co.

Rick received a B.A. from Dartmouth College. Rick serves on the boards of the National Museum of the American Latino at the Smithsonian and The Wendy’s Corp.

Michael M. Crow is an educator, knowledge enterprise architect, science and technology policy scholar and higher education leader. He became the sixteenth president of Arizona State University in 2002 and has led ASU’s rapid and groundbreaking transformation into one of the world’s best public metropolitan research universities. As a model “New American University,” ASU simultaneously demonstrates comprehensive excellence, inclusivity representative of the ethnic and socioeconomic spectrum of the United States, and consequential societal impact.

Lauded as the “No.1 most innovative school” in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for ten straight years, and garnering top accolades for its global impact and student employability, ASU is a student-centric, technology-enabled public enterprise focused on global challenges that grew its research expenditures more than eight-fold since 2003 and earned AAU membership in 2023. Under Crow’s leadership, it has established more than thirty new transdisciplinary schools, including the School of Earth and Space Exploration, the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, and launched pioneering multidisciplinary initiatives including the Biodesign Institute, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, the nation’s first School of Sustainability, and significant initiatives in the humanities and social sciences.

Solomon D. (“Sol”) Trujillo is a global business executive who has been recognized as a game changer and innovator for his transformation of three large market-cap global companies in three different corridors of the world (the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific). His leadership was recognized by Bloomberg naming Sol one of the 100 most influential Latinos, as well as more recently named by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in philanthropy.

Known for his transformation, leadership, innovation, and performance, across different world cultures, and for driving unprecedented growth, he has led various sectors, including communications, media, and technology. He was a leader in the digitization of our lives, launching the first fixed-line broadband deployments, introducing the first version of the smart phone, and launching the world’s first nationwide national ultra-highspeed wireless broadband networks. His digital leadership resulted in Sol being named the First Digital Telco CEO by the U.S. Presidential Science Adviser.

With a focus on our nation’s economic growth in the 21st Century, Sol was the first to identify the U.S. Latino cohort through facts and data as the core engine of economic growth, which led to co-founding and chairing the Latino Donor Collaborative, where he was responsible for creating the first data centered think tank regarding the U.S. Latino cohort, focused on an accurate branding of the cohort’s economic importance.

Sol founded VELOCITY, the national business event focused on the 21st Century New Mainstream Economy, and highlighting the U.S. Latino cohort as the unique growth driver in our nation’s capitalist system.

Sol is recognized as the leading champion of U.S. Latinos in 21st Century America’s New Mainstream Economy and is a respected opinion leader on technology, business, and the global economy. He is frequently featured in leading publications such as TIME, Forbes, Barron’s, Wall Street Journal, and programs such as MSNBC and CNBC, presenting facts and data and insights regarding the U.S. Latino cohort and its economic growth leadership across our nation’s economy.

Trujillo is the founder of L’ATTITUDE VENTURES FUND, a purpose-led venture fund that invests in early stage US Latino and Latina-founders. He also chairs the Trujillo Group, LLC, investing in domestic and international private companies.

He has served on numerous global boards including Western Union, PepsiCo, Bank of America, EDS, Orange S.A., Telstra Group Limited, Gannett, US West, Target, Soufun (China), and WPP, formerly the world’s largest communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company.

Additional distinguished roles include Chairman and Founding Partner of New Cadence Productions, a U.S. television and film content creation studio, and Senior Advisor for Bain & Company Management Consulting. He is also a Member of the board of advisors at Stanford School of Medicine Center on Longevity.

Sol Trujillo served as a trade policy advisor to both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. Trujillo was awarded the Ronald H. Brown Corporate Bridge Builder Award by President Clinton for creating opportunities for women and minorities. Among his many other global awards are:

2025 TIME100 Philanthropy 2025 Award
2024 OCHCC Estrella Lifetime Achievement Award
2023 TIME Magazine Latino Leaders Making an Impact Award
2022 Bloomberg 100 Most Influential Latinos Award
2019 Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) LEGADO Lifetime Achievement Award
2018 Hispanic Executive’s Top Ten Leaders of 2018 Award
2017 Silicon Valley Latino Leaders (SVVL) Lifetime Achievement Award
2016 Council of Urban Professionals (CUP) Lifetime Leadership Achievements Award
2008 CEO of the Year by Australian Telecom Magazine, in recognition of his
achievements in the privatization and transformation of Telstra
2013 National Hero of the Year Award by United States Hispanic Leadership Institute
2012 National Association of Corporate Directors Top 100 Directors Award

Born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with family roots in the U.S. that date back to the early 1500’s, Mr. Trujillo holds a Bachelor of Science in business and an MBA (Finance) from the University of Wyoming with honorary doctorates from the University of Wyoming, the University of Colorado, Whittier College, and Miami Dade College. He currently resides in California.

Esai Morales is an award-winning actor and producer with a career spanning over four decades, celebrated for his iconic performances. Most recently, he appeared in “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning” and will star in the upcoming sci-fi thriller “War Machine.”

Morales gained recognition for his breakout role in “Bad Boys” and subsequently for his portrayal of Bob Morales in “La Bamba,” the highest-grossing rock-themed biopic of all time.

Other film credits include “Master Gardener,” “Superfly,” “Bad Boys,” “Rapa Nui,” “My Family,” “Fast Food Nation,” “Paid in Full,” “Gun Hill Road” (Grand Jury Nominee at Sundance 2011), “Spare Parts,” “The Wall of Mexico,” and the upcoming “So Much For Love.”

His notable television credits include “Ozark,” “How to Get Away with Murder,” “NYPD Blue,” “Criminal Minds,” “Resurrection Blvd,” “American Family,” and “Titans.”

His theater work features performances in Oscar Wilde’s “Salomé” with Al Pacino, “The Tempest” with Raúl Juliá, “The Exonerated,” and his musical debut in “The Mambo Kings.”

AWARDS
Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award – “Tamer of Horses”
Alma Award for Outstanding Actor in a Feature Film – “Death In Granada”
Alma Award for Best Actor in a Television Series – “NYPD Blue”
Imagen Award – Entertainer of the Year (“NYPD Blue”)
Imagen Award for Best Actor – “Gun Hill Road”
NAACP Award nomination for “We Have Your Husband”
Arpa International Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award (2015)
Grand Marshal, National Puerto Rican Day Parade NYC (2018)

In 1997, Morales co-founded the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, which has awarded over $2 million in scholarships to Hispanic students. He actively supports various causes, including public health, literacy, environmental issues, immigration, arts funding, and social justice.

Kevin Demoff is in his 17th year as President of the Los Angeles Rams and in 2024 was named President of Team & Media Operations for Kroenke Sports and Entertainment.

As President of Team and Media Operations, Demoff oversees operations of all KSE teams including the Denver Nuggets (NBA), Colorado Avalanche (NHL), Colorado Rapids (MLS), and Colorado Mammoth (NLL), as well as operations of all KSE Media properties including Altitude Sports and Entertainment, KSE Radio, and Outdoor Sportsman Group.  In this role, he reports to KSE Vice Chairman Josh Kroenke.

As President of the Los Angeles Rams, Demoff serves as the team’s top front office executive and liaison to owner and chairman, Stan Kroenke, on all organizational matters.

After serving on the working group that helped Kroenke return the Rams – Los Angeles’ original professional sports team – home to L.A., Demoff is playing a significant role in delivering on Kroenke’s vision to design and construct Hollywood Park, the 298-acre sports and entertainment district in Inglewood that features SoFi Stadium, the home of the Rams. Beyond the stadium, the campus includes the 6,000-seat YouTube Theater, an office complex that is the home of the NFL’s West Coast headquarters, a retail district that is under development, and is currently the largest entitled real-estate project in Southern California.

Demoff has also joined forces with the LA24 Olympic Bid Committee to help deliver the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games to Los Angeles along with other marquee events like the FIFA World Cup 26™ and Super Bowl LXI in 2027. Beyond the impact of Super Bowl and other major events hosted in LA and Inglewood, the Hollywood Park development is expected to generate hundreds of millions in new annual economic activity across the region.

In Demoff’s tenure with the Rams, he has shaped the club’s business efforts with a focus on delivering a best-in-class experience for fans and partners, building a team that reflects Los Angeles, and increasing the club’s presence in the community. He has spearheaded the organization’s efforts to become one of the strongest philanthropic partners in professional sports and has intentionally built one of the most diverse front offices in sports. The Rams rank in the top quartile of all NFL teams in terms of racial and gender diversity across the organization.

Demoff has also expanded that commitment beyond LA and helped launch the Black Sports Business Symposium, which aims to create new opportunities for diverse professionals in sports, and to increase Black representation in the industry. He also regularly supports programs aimed at increasing diversity across the NFL, including the Ozzie Newsome General Manager Forum and Quarterback Coaching Summit.

Reinforcing the Rams’ commitment to the Los Angeles community, Demoff was selected to sit on the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce’s CEO Council and serves on multiple boards including the Los Angeles Sports Council, and the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission, as well as its philanthropic initiative, ChampionLA.    

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Calif., Demoff received a bachelors’ degree in history and a Masters in Business Administration from Dartmouth, where he serves on the MBA Leadership Council.

For four decades, Stan Kasten has been a highly respected sports figure and developed a reputation for creating winning franchises, relying on three pillars – scouting and player development, enhancing the fan experience and community outreach – to establish franchises built for long-term success on and off the field.

That track record has continued during his tenure with the Dodgers, where the club has had an unprecedented run of success. With the 2024 World Series title, Los Angeles has now won two of the past five World Series, four National League pennants in the past eight years and 11 NL West titles in the past 12 seasons. With three World Series titles and more victories, postseason appearances and division titles than any other in the majors in the past 50 years, no team executive can lay claim to as much success in baseball as Kasten.

Since Kasten became the Dodgers’ President and CEO in 2012, the team has topped the Majors in attendance each full season under his leadership while continuously making improvements to Dodger Stadium to keep the league’s third-oldest stadium among the best facilities in baseball. The Dodgers were also named ESPN’s 2020 Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year for the work and community impact of the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation. These achievements led Major League Baseball to award the Dodgers the 2022 All-Star Game, bringing the league’s jewel event back to Los Angeles for the first time since 1980.

Kasten has been a member of numerous MLB, NBA and NHL ownership committees during his professional career and is also a former trustee of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1999, Kasten became the first sports figure to hold the title of president of three different teams in three different major sports simultaneously, doing so with MLB’s Atlanta Braves, the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers. Kasten has continued to push the envelope with his leading roles on the Advisory Board of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, founded in 2023, and in the transformation of the Billie Jean King Cup women’s tennis team competition. 

In 1979, at age 27, Kasten launched his career in sports by becoming the youngest general manager in NBA history with the Hawks, a position he held until 1990. Kasten became the Hawks’ president in 1986. During his lengthy tenure in the Hawks’ front office, Kasten built the Hawks into a perennial contender, including four consecutive 50-win seasons from 1986-89 and a stretch of seven consecutive playoff appearances in the 1990s, and became the first – and only – NBA executive to win back-to-back Executive of the Year awards in 1986-87.

Kasten also became president of the Braves in 1986. From 1987-2003, the Braves won more games than any other team in MLB and won 14 consecutive division titles (1991-2005), five National League pennants and the 1995 World Series.

In 1999, when the NHL awarded Atlanta an expansion team, Kasten added the title of president of the Thrashers, as well as chairman of the newly constructed Philips Arena (now State Farm Arena). Kasten held all three positions until 2003, when he stepped down.

Prior to joining the Dodgers, Kasten was president of the Washington Nationals from 2006-10, where he worked to re-energize a dormant baseball fan base and simultaneously established a crown jewel franchise in Washington, D.C.

Kasten, the Los Angeles Sports Council’s 2013 Executive of the Year, is former Director of the Sports Lawyer Association and serves on the LA84 Foundation Board of Directors, the Rose Bowl Institute Advisory Board as well as the Board of the US Japan Foundation.

A native of Lakewood, N.J., Kasten is a graduate of New York University and Columbia University Law.

A dynamic and multi-hyphenate artist, Ramón Rodríguez has built a distinguished career  across film and television. He currently stars in the title role and serves as executive  producer of ABC’s hit drama Will Trent, based on Karin Slaughter’s bestselling novels.  Now in its fourth season, the series has garnered Ramón nominations from the Critics  Choice, Independent Spirit, and Imagen Awards for Best Actor in a Drama, along with the  Critics Choice Association’s Breakthrough Actor in Television award for Will Trent.

On the feature side, Ramón recently starred opposite Viola Davis in Amazon/MRC’s  action thriller G20. His past film credits include Disney’s The One and Only Ivan with  Bryan Cranston, John R. Leonetti’s horror film Lullaby, and standout performances in  major action features such as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Tony Scott’s The  Taking of Pelham 123 alongside Denzel Washington, Battle: Los Angeles, DreamWorks’  Need for Speed opposite Aaron Paul and Rami Malek, and Jordan Roberts’ Burn Your  Maps with Vera Farmiga, which premiered at TIFF.

On television, Ramón has demonstrated his range in acclaimed series such as HBO’s The  Wire, Showtime’s The Affair, Marvel’s Iron Fist and The Defenders, and Fox’s Gang  Related. Through his production company, Altura Productions, he continues to develop  and produce new projects under his deal with 20th Television.

Expanding beyond acting and producing, Ramón made his filmmaking debut with the  short The Language of Ball, which screened at over 30 festivals, was licensed by Topic,  and later distributed on Amazon. He has since directed the season three and four  premieres of Will Trent and is preparing his narrative feature directorial debut, co-written  with Rosie Perez, in which he will also star. Passionate about using his platform for impact, Ramón has championed relief efforts for  his native Puerto Rico. He directed the short documentary Pa’lante, which helped raise  more than one million dollars in disaster recovery funds and amplified awareness of the  island’s ongoing challenges.

Joaquin Nuño-Whelan is president of Lincoln, effective May 1, 2025. In this role, he is responsible for leading the brand’s global operations and for the continued evolution and growth of Lincoln as a world-class luxury brand. He will continue to advance the brand’s global product portfolio and develop differentiated, connected experiences for Lincoln customers around the world. 

He reports to Lisa Materazzo, Ford’s CMO with dual reporting to Andrew Frick, president, Ford Blue and Model e and interim head of Ford Pro.

Nuño-Whelan brings more than 25 years of global experience in vehicle and technology development to this role, with a strong focus on luxury brands and premium vehicle development. He joined Ford in 2024 as the Vehicle Program Director for full-size utilities. 

Prior to joining Ford, he was the senior vehicle line director for new programs at Rivian and held several leadership roles during his more than 20 years at General Motors where he contributed to the development of premium vehicle lines. 

Nuño-Whelan holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from University of Detroit Mercy and a Master of Science degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Holly O’Neill is president of Consumer, Retail and Preferred, and a member of Bank of America’s executive management team.

Holly leads Retail Banking and Preferred Banking, two of the company’s eight lines of business. In this role, she is responsible for serving the financial needs of our 70 million clients through our 3,700 financial centers, 15,000 ATMs and client care centers, as well as through our award-winning digital capabilities.

Holly drives the strategies to deliver the products, services and education to support the financial health of our mass market clients, including individuals new to banking and from low- and moderate-income communities. She also leads the company’s work to provide personalized solutions, valuable rewards, and advice and guidance for more complex banking, borrowing and investing needs.

Holly joined Bank of America in 1996 in the Corporate and Investment Bank where she held various roles. She also served as chief operating officer (COO) for Bank of America Private Bank and for Merrill Lynch Wealth Management® Private Banking and Investment Group.

In 2025, Holly was named to Barron’s list of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance for the fourth consecutive year. In 2024, she was included in American Banker’s list of the Most Powerful Women in Banking for the second consecutive year. She has also been included in Forbes’ 50 Over 50 list and received a Silver Stevie Award for Customer Service Executive of the Year.

Holly is the executive sponsor of Bank of America’s Disability Advisory Council, ensuring the company is an employer of choice and key partner to our communities impacted by disabilities. She also serves on the Advisory Board of Special Olympics Massachusetts.

She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business from the University of New Hampshire and is a Chartered Financial Analyst®.

Fidel A. Vargas is President & CEO of HSF, one of the nation’s leading nonprofit organizations.

As President and CEO, Fidel is accountable for championing HSF’s vision and mission; ensuring the delivery of world-class service to every individual who interacts with HSF; safeguarding the organization’s financial health and sustainability; and leading an unrivaled, high-performance team that delivers industry-leading operational excellence and impact.

Founded in 1975, HSF empowers students and parents with the knowledge and resources to successfully complete a higher education, while providing support services and scholarships to as many exceptional students, Scholars, and Alumni as possible. As one of the country’s leading nonprofit organizations, HSF provides a broad range of programs and support services to 25,000+ parents and students annually and has awarded over $726 million in scholarships since its inception.

Before joining HSF, Fidel was a Founding Partner of Centinela Capital Partners, an alternative asset management firm that invested nearly $1 billion in leading emerging private equity and venture capital funds. At the age of twenty-three, Fidel was elected the country’s youngest Mayor of a major city, Baldwin Park, California.

Fidel has served on various public and private sector boards and commissions, including President Clinton’s Advisory Council on Social Security; President Bush’s Commission on Strengthening Social Security; and Presidents Bush’s and President Obama’s Commission on Presidential Scholars. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, on President Biden’s Commission on White House Fellowships, and the boards of the Charter School Growth Fund, the Latino Donor Collaborative, and the Latino Theatre Company of Los Angeles.

Fidel is an HSF alum and holds an M.B.A. and an A.B. in Social Studies from Harvard University.

Tom Llamas is anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas and anchor of Top Story with Tom Llamas, a daily streaming primetime newscast on NBC News NOW. In his role, Llamas leads breaking news and political coverage for NBC News and NBC News NOW. 

His previous marathon coverage on big news nights, including the 2024 Election Night and the September 2024 Presidential Debate, has led NBC News NOW to ratings milestones. Throughout the 2024 campaign cycle, he was also a key contributor to NBC News’ network coverage and on Election Night, he provided viewers with the latest breakdown of numbers and results from the Big Board.

Since rejoining NBC News in 2021, Llamas has reported across the globe on major breaking news, including on the New Orleans terror attack, the Israel-Hamas war, the war in Ukraine, the June 2024 assassination attempt on President Trump, the deadly Baltimore bridge collapse, the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Tokyo and Paris Olympics and numerous natural disasters, including the 2023 Lahaina wildfires.

Throughout his career, Llamas has conducted a wide-range of news-making interviews, including with President Donald Trump, who he covered on the 2016 campaign trail, First Lady Melania Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Iran’s former Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Marco Rubio, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, and the survivor of the Baltimore bridge collapse, among many others.

 
Prior to joining NBC News, Llamas was the anchor of ABC News’ World News Tonight weekend edition and was the fill-in anchor during the week. He was also the network’s chief national affairs correspondent and anchored breaking news and live events for ABC News Live.

Llamas has been in broadcast journalism for over 25 years, with deep roots at NBC News throughout his career. He began his broadcast career as an intern for a Telemundo local station, eventually working with the NBC News’ Special Unit and then taking on the role of an NBC News campaign embed in 2003. He also held roles in local news, including at WTVJ in South Florida as a general assignment reporter and WNBC in New York, where he served as an anchor and investigative reporter. 

Llamas has received numerous awards and honors throughout his career, including the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Presidential Award of Impact and the El Award from El Diario, the largest and oldest Spanish-language daily in the U.S. In 2022, he and his team were awarded NAHJ’s Al Neuharth Award for Investigative Journalism. In 2013, he received Emmy awards for Best Anchor and Best Hard News Story and in 2012, he won two regional Edward R. Murrow awards for feature and hard news reporting. Additionally, he was also part of the WNBC team that won the Murrow award for breaking news coverage of Hurricane Sandy in 2014.  

A native of Miami, he graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans with Bachelor of Arts degrees in broadcast journalism, as well as drama and speech. Llamas also completed a program at the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies, which focused on Raul Castro and Cuban American voters. 

He currently resides in New York with his wife, two daughters and son. 

Llamas is on TikTok at @TomLlamasNBC and X & Instagram at @LlamasNBC.

Patty Juarez has spent more than 30 years at Wells Fargo where she has held a variety of leadership roles. Currently, Patty serves as the Head of Hispanic/Latino affairs. She is responsible for building a Hispanic/Latino external engagement portfolio focused on national cultural engagement, executive recruitment, business development, and stakeholder relations. She partners with External Engagement, and Government Relations to curate national and local stakeholder activities.

Patty has a long history of leadership in the Latino community. She is former chairwoman and current board member of the Orange County Hispanic Chamber, she is on the board of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, and on the advisory board for the Latino Donor Collaborative. She is also on the board of Governors at Chapman University and on the Chancellor’s Council at the University of California, Berkeley. Patty is also involved in diversity and entrepreneurship initiatives at Cal, Stanford, and Harvard Universities.

Externally, Patty often speaks about topics such as access to capital, multi-cultural marketing, and financial literacy. Internally, Patty is past president of the Hispanic & Latino Connection Employee Resource Network, which has 53 chapters and represents more than 35,000 Latinos at Wells Fargo. Patty lives in Orange County, California, with her children Isabella and Max.

Raul A. Anaya is president and co-head of Business Banking, one of Bank of America’s eight lines of business, and is a member of the company’s executive management team.

Raul is also currently leading Bank of America’s comprehensive wildfire response and rebuilding efforts for the Greater LA region to support clients, employees, and impacted communities.

As a co-head of Business Banking, Raul, along with Sharon Miller, lead a nationwide team that serves 11 million business owner clients and more than 3.4 million start-up to mid-sized businesses with annual revenues up to $50 million, including one out of every three small business in the country.

Under their leadership, Bank of America is consistently ranked as the #1 small business lender according to the FDIC, has been recognized as the “Best Bank in the U.S. for Small and Midsize Enterprises” by Global Finance magazine, and has received the “Outstanding Customer Service Experience” award from J.D. Power for 14 consecutive years.

In addition to his responsibilities as president of Business Banking, Raul serves as president of Bank of America for Greater Los Angeles, leading integration of Bank of America’s business lines to ensure delivery of the bank’s global financial services to individuals and businesses locally. He also oversees the bank’s local corporate and social responsibility activities, including philanthropic giving, community development lending and investing, environmental initiatives, diversity efforts, arts and culture projects, and employee volunteerism for the 6,000 employees who work in the Greater Los Angeles region.

Raul also leads Bank of America’s enterprise Hispanic-Latino business strategy, with a goal of growing the bank’s leading market share position serving the U.S. Hispanic-Latino population. Raul is also a member of Bank of America’s Global Opportunity & Inclusion Council, which helps drive our culture of opportunity and inclusion across the company.

Active in the community, Anaya serves on the boards of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce (past Chair), the AltaMed Health Services Foundation (past Chair), UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino in Washington D.C. Anaya is also a member of the Angeleno chapter of YPO Gold.

Anaya joined Bank of America in Houston in 1989.

Guillermo Diaz, Jr. is a transformative business leader and advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion. He is the Founder and CEO of Conectado Inc., a Web3/AI platform advancing STEAM representation. Formerly Cisco’s Global CIO, he also chaired HITEC, the leading Hispanic tech executive organization. Diaz serves on the boards of Blue Shield of California, Jack in the Box, and Unicoin Inc., as well as Cristo Rey, NPower, and the Stanford Latino Entrepreneur Initiative. A U.S. Navy veteran, he holds a B.S. from Regis University and held leadership roles at Silicon Graphics, Ingram Micro, and Alza Corporation.

Mr. Gutierrez served as president and CEO of NRG Energy, America’s premier competitive power company, from December 2015 until November 2023. He joined the company in 2004 and helped build NRG from a regional wholesale generation business into a national, Fortune 500 energy company. Previously, he held the positions of Chief operating officer and Executive Vice president of commercial operations overseeing all commodities trading. He had also held several senior positions at energy merchant Dynegy and consulting firm DTP in Mexico City.

Mr. Gutierrez serves on the boards of Chipotle, Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP), Hackensack Meridian Health and Drexel University. He has also been a member of the Business Roundtable, Electric Power Supply Association and a boardmember of NRG Energy and NRG Yield (Now Clearway Energy). He holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the Universidad Panamericana and two master’s degrees – one in mineral economics from the Colorado School of Mines and one in petroleum economics from the French Petroleum Institute.

A fourth-generation physician whose paternal grandparents fled Germany in the early 1930s to build a new life in Mexico, Julio Frenk catalyzed his deep gratitude for the kindness of strangers into a lifelong mission to improve the health, education and well-being of people around the world.

Dr. Frenk became the seventh chancellor of UCLA on January 1, 2025. He also holds an academic appointment as distinguished professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management within the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Prior to joining UCLA, he served as president of the University of Miami from 2015 to 2024, where he was also a tenured faculty member. From 2009 to 2015 he was the dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the T & G Angelopoulos Professor of Public Health and International Development, a joint appointment with the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is the first Latino to lead these institutions of higher education.

Julio Frenk served as the federal secretary of Health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. There he pursued an ambitious agenda to reform the nation’s health system and introduced a program of comprehensive universal coverage, known as Seguro Popular, which expanded access to health care for more than 55 million previously uninsured persons.

He was the founding director-general of the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico, one of the leading institutions of its kind in the developing world. He also served as executive director in charge of evidence and information for policy at the World Health Organization and as senior fellow in the global health program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among other leadership positions.

I see myself as a bridge builder, shaped by experiencing and connecting across differences. My life spans the U.S., Mexico and Switzerland, and my family of musicians, writers, scientists, and physicians links together the arts, sciences and humanities. Through my work in academia and public policy, I have endeavored to connect knowledge and action in service to the common good.

Chancellor Frenk holds a medical degree from the National University of Mexico, as well as a master of public health and a joint Ph.D. in medical care organization and in sociology from the University of Michigan. He has received honorary degrees from eleven universities in the United States, Canada, Europe and Mexico.

His scholarly production, which includes close to 200 articles in academic journals, as well as many books and book chapters, has been cited more than 37,000 times. In addition, he has written five novels for young people explaining the functions of the human body. 

Frenk is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico and El Colegio Nacional (the most prestigious learned society of scientists, intellectuals and artists in Mexico). He has received numerous recognitions, including the Clinton Global Citizen Award for changing the way practitioners and policy makers across the world think about health, the Bouchet Medal for Outstanding Leadership presented by Yale University for promoting diversity in graduate education, and the Welch-Rose Award for Distinguished Service from the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health. In 2024, he was named one of TIME magazine’s top Latino leaders for his contributions to public health and higher education.

Dr. José Hernández is a University of California Regent and the President and CEO of Tierra Luna Engineering, LLC, an aerospace engineering consulting firm. From 2001 to 2011, Dr. Hernández worked at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in various roles including legislative analyst, branch chief, materials research engineer, and astronaut. He was assigned to the Space Shuttle Discovery and served as a flight engineer on its penultimate mission, STS-128, which completed construction of the International Space Station. During this 14-day mission, Dr. Hernández and his crew delivered and installed over 7 tons of equipment to the ISS.

Prior to his tenure at NASA, Dr. Hernández spent 17 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he contributed to the X-ray laser project and co-developed the first full-field digital mammography system for early breast cancer detection. Additionally, he worked in the nuclear non proliferation field, serving as the Lab’s Deputy Program Manager for the Russian Highly Enriched Uranium Implementation Program and as a Program Manager at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of International Material Protection and Cooperation.

Aside from running his aerospace consulting company, Dr. Hernandez has authored three books and is currently working on publishing his fourth. One of his books is a self- penned autobiography titled Reaching for the Stars, which served as the basis for the Amazon Prime Video movie A Million Miles Away, starring Michael Peña. He has come full circle with his roots, as he also owns and operates a vineyard, producing three varieties of wine under his Tierra Luna Cellars label.

Dr. Hernandez is also a world renowned and very busy motivational speaker. His autographed books, wines and speaker bookings can be obtained through his tierralunacellars.com website.

Dr. Hernández holds a Master’s degree in Signals and Systems Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Pacific. He has been honored with ten honorary Doctorate degrees.

A California native whose parents immigrated from Mexico and whose father worked in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley, Dr. Juan Sánchez Muñoz has deep roots in the UC System and the Central Valley region. He earned his B.A. in psychology from UC Santa Barbara. Prior to earning his M.A. in Mexican American studies from California State University, Los Angeles he was a secondary school teacher and instructor in the California Community College system. He earned his Ph.D. in education at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied curriculum & instruction in the Division of Urban Schooling.

Dr. Muñoz joined UC Merced as the school’s 4th Chancellor from the University of Houston Downtown (UHD), where he served as president and within his first year launched the university’s largest capital campaign and led the institution’s recovery efforts after Hurricane Harvey. Prior to UHD, Dr. Muñoz served as senior vice president and vice provost at Texas Tech University.

He is the author of book chapters, academic articles, essays, refereed and invited conference presentations and professor in the Department of Sociology. He is a graduate of the Academy for Innovative Higher Education Leadership offered jointly by Arizona State and Georgetown Universities, ACE’s Spectrum Executive Leadership Program, Harvard University’s Institute for Management and Leadership, UC Berkeley’s Executive Leadership Academy, and the University of Texas Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Policy’s Governor’s Executive Development Program.

Dr. Muñoz has served on the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ Commission on Access, Diversity and Excellence, and is currently on the board of directors of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, Excelencia in Education, and the American Council on Education. In 2020, he was appointed by Governor Newsom to the board of the California Strategic Growth Council. Additionally, he serves as a member of the Aspen Institute American Talent Initiative Steering Committee, the Mercy Medical Center Community Board and the Campaign For College Opportunity Board of Directors. In 2023, he was appointed to the Carnegie Postsecondary Commission.

Ted Craver served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Edison International, an electric utility and energy services company, from 2008 to 2016, when he retired. Before joining Edison in 1996, he worked in the banking industry for 23 years. Mr. Craver currently serves on the Board of Directors of Duke Energy Corporation, where he is the Independent Chair, and the Board of Directors of Wells Fargo & Company, where he chairs the Audit Committee. He is a Senior Advisor to Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, a Senior Advisor to Bain & Company, and serves on the Advisory Boards of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation and Cordoba Corporation. During his time as CEO of Edison International, Mr. Craver served terms as Chairman of the Edison Electric Institute and the Electric Power Research Institute. Mr. Craver also served two terms on the Economic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Sara Fischer is an award-winning media correspondent for Axios and a founding staff member at Axios. She is also a media analyst at CNN.

Fischer authors a weekly newsletter on media trends that reaches over 160,000 professionals across the media, tech and entertainment industries. (Sign up here: https://www.axios.com/signup/media-trends)

She also helms a paid membership program called Media Trends Executive that provides exclusive news, data and analysis for top professional’s media and entertainment.

Beyond her weekly column and membership product, Fischer oversees Axios’ media coverage for the newsroom and steers the company’s products and events around that topic.

Her coverage spans corporate media, advertising and marketing, technology, social media, deals, entertainment, media regulation, policy and consumer habits.

Axios Media Trends was recognized by the Association of Business Journalists as the best media and entertainment newsletter for 2025. Fischer was named to Mediaite’s “Most Influential in News Media” list for 2022. She was included in The Washingtonian’s list the 500 “Most Powerful People in Washington D.C.” in 2022 and 2023. She was named to Forbes “30 Under 30” Media list in 2019.

Suzette Quintanilla is best known as the drummer for the iconic, Grammy Award-winning band, Selena y Los Dinos. Suzette performed alongside her sister Selena and brother A.B. and they have sold over 70 million records worldwide. The success of the group helped establish such notable number one hits like “Como La Flor,” “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom,” “Dreaming of You” and many more. Their music continues to inspire generations and has now reached over 17 Million RIAA Certifications.

Today, Suzette is the current CEO & President of Q Productions, Inc. and is helping to continue the success of the multi-million dollar company founded by her father, Abraham Quintanilla Jr. Suzette is at the forefront of numerous projects related to her family’s legacy including being Executive Producer of the Netflix Original “Selena: The Series” and of the highly anticipated documentary, “Selena y Los Dinos” that was recently acquired by Netflix to premiere this Winter. The upcoming documentary has won awards at The Sundance Film Festival, The Miami Film Festival and The South by Southwest Film Festival. As another instance of her impactful direction, Suzette was a creative force behind two sold-out Limited-Edition Collections with MAC Cosmetics that have further cemented Selena’s impact on the Beauty Industry.

Currently a Board Member of The Selena Foundation, Suzette is committed to honoring Selena’s legacy by supporting education, Latin music, and cultural initiatives. Under her guidance, the foundation has donated over $250,000 to various organizations that uplift the community.

Passionate, visionary, and deeply rooted in family and heritage, Suzette continues to ensure that Selena’s legacy remains a vibrant and inspiring force in the world.

Jorge Martel leads T-Mobile Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, overseeing all operations including Engineering, Retail, Customer Care, Marketing, Finance, and Supply Chain. With full P&L accountability, Puerto Rico operates as a financial unit—serving 1.8 million customers, approx. 900 team members, and one of the fastest growing markets generating over $1B in annual revenue.

Under his leadership, T-Mobile Puerto Rico has become the market share leader in both consumer and wireless business, consistently recognized for excellence. The network has been ranked by Opensignal as having the highest 5G availability in the world, and Ookla named it the Best Mobile Network in Puerto Rico. The team has also been honored as one of Puerto Rico’s Top Employers nine times.

Beyond business results, Jorge has championed community impact and innovation. He guided recovery efforts after Hurricane Maria, ensuring employee safety while restoring service in record time. He also led the landmark naming rights partnership for Distrito T-Mobile, the company’s 4th venue of its kind. His contributions earned him the 2018 CEO Peak Award.

A Boston College graduate with a degree in Economics, Jorge lives in Puerto Rico with his wife Juliana and daughters Bianca and Anabella. Outside of work, he enjoys mountain biking and is a music junkie.

Monika Mantilla is the Co-Founder and CEO of Altura Capital, a pioneering impact investment firm focused on scaling high-performing businesses across the U.S. in the verticals of consumer, business services, healthcare and manufacturing through a methodical approach known as the “Altura Way.” With over 30 years of experience in private equity, private credit, and scaling businesses, Monika has built a values-driven platform that has delivered meaningful economic and social impact. A recognized thought leader and advocate, Monika serves on multiple boards including WT Group, Earthlab Holdings, Coastal Painting, Cidrines, and several national non-profit boards including the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative, and Chair of the USHCC Educational Fund. She was the first Latina to receive the HHF Award in Business and has been named one of the Top 15 Latinos in Finance and Top 100 Latino Leaders by Latino Leaders Magazine.

Diana Trujillo is a flight director for Human Space Flight leading a team of astronauts and specialists at NASA Johnson Space Center flying the International Space Station.  Prior to this role, she served as the group supervisor for Integrated Planning and Sequencing for Surface Missions at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. In that role, she supported mission operations for NASA’s ongoing exploration missions on the surface of Mars as well as the planned Mars Sample Return mission. She previously served as a mission lead for the Mars Perseverance rover, where she led the operations team. She also served as a surface flight director during the early surface operations of the Mars Perseverance rover, including rover commissioning and the deployment of Ingenuity, the first helicopter to operate on another planet. Previously, she served as a mission lead and the engineering operations deputy team chief for the Mars Curiosity mission.

Trujillo was born and raised in Cali, Colombia, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland in College Park, with additional studies at the University of Florida in Gainesville. She also is a graduate of Miami-Dade College in Florida and the NASA Academy at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. In 2021, she received the Cruz de Boyacá, the highest honor that the government of Colombia bestows upon civilians.

Austin is a General Manager at Microsoft, where he works to empower healthcare organizations to achieve more and leverage the most comprehensive technology platform to drive business and clinical efficiency. He has over twenty years of experience in leading high-performance teams that help customers with their digital transformation using cloud, AI, and modern workplace technologies. He holds a Master of Science in Health Informatics from the University of San Francisco, and is a published author in the area of healthcare systems and informatics.

Austin is passionate about improving the way we live, work, and play using cutting-edge technology. He is driven by the digital transformation imperative in healthcare and the opportunities it presents to deliver better patient care and population health. He has a proven track record of driving innovation and business value for his customers and employees, as well as collaborating with industry partners and stakeholders. He is a Bay Area native and lives in San Francisco, CA.

With decades of experience leading corporate social responsibility programs, private philanthropy and public private partnerships, Deidre consults with companies and start-ups, philanthropic foundations, public private partnerships, and nonprofits through her firm, A Better Impact. Current clients include the LA Philanthropy Wildfire Working Group, a group of CEOs representing philanthropic institutions in Los Angeles collaborating with civic and government leaders on recovery and rebuild efforts following the January 2025 wildfires.

As Founding Executive Director of the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, she lead public private partnerships in response to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, and launched the California Volunteers Fund with Governor Gavin Newsom. She led philanthropic transformation both as the Executive Director of a private foundation, and as Mattel’s chief global social impact strategist where she built the foundation of their current CSR programming.

She serves as a Governance & Sustainability Center Fellow with The Conference Board, on the Boards of Accelerator for America and Accelerator for America Action, the Social Impact Fund and continues as Adjunct Professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy.

Eddie Borrero is senior vice president and CIO at Stellarus, the for-profit healthcare technology company providing scalable products and services to help health plans reimagine the healthcare system into one worthy of family, friends, and neighbors. Launched in 2025, Stellarus’ innovative technology solutions are initially available to Blue Shield of California’s more than 6 million members, under the parent company, Ascendiun.

Borrero leverages more than 25 years of technology and information security leadership experience to drive the entrepreneurial innovation and strategic technology investments at Stellarus, aligning products to dynamic healthcare system needs.  

Prior to this, Borrero was Chief Information Security Officer at Blue Shield of California for five years, where he led robust security strategies and modernization to protect the organization’s technology environments and business processes. Previously, as CISO at the global human resource consulting firm, Robert Half International, Inc., he developed security strategies to support business growth in an accelerated digital business model. 

Borrero sits on a variety of technology advisory boards, including Whimstay, Cyera, Halcyon, Trustmi, Cyberstart Investment Group, and ForgePoint Investment Group. 

In 2024, Borrero was honored with the HITEC 100 Award for influential global Hispanic technology executives – and named a Bay Area CISO ORBIE Award finalist. In addition to his professional roles, Borrero volunteers with organizations that support individuals without stable housing, survivors of domestic violence, and Hispanics and veterans who are in pursuit of technology careers. Borrero sits on the boards of HITEC and Cristo Rey De La Salle East Bay High School in this line of service work.

Borrero holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, California. He graduated from the Stanford Executive Program in Leadership and received a Chief Information Officer Certificate from Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College. Borrero is a veteran of the U.S. Navy, having served on the USS Abraham Lincoln. 

Monica Medellin is a filmmaker and the founder of Waves Made Media, a production company dedicated to expanding narratives around women in sports. Monica is the creator and an executive producer of Surf Girls, which is the first women’s sports documentary on Prime Video.

Her work has been featured by The Emmys, The Clios, Forbes, Sports Business Journal, Elle Magazine, and Shondaland, among others.

She has developed, directed, produced, filmed and edited content for companies including Nike, The Olympics, LA28, Prime Video, Hello Sunshine, TOGETHXR, Red Bull Media House, SMAC Entertainment, Skydance Sports, World Surf League, Vans, and McDonalds. And she has collaborated with celebrities like Reese Witherspoon, Gabrielle Union, and Michael Strahan as well as Olympic athletes like Alex Morgan, Sue Bird, Chloe Kim, and Simone Manuel to bring her film & TV concepts to life.

Monica has also consulted for global sports leagues including the Association of Tennis Professionals, and worked in-house at the World Surf League, producing video content around professional surfers for its audiences, and as a video producer for the Los Angeles Times. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of Oregon.

Monica is passionate about making the art and business of filmmaking more accessible for women. She has been invited to speak and teach at leading film schools and journalism programs in the country including University of Southern California, Chapman University, Loyola Marymount University, San Diego State University, San Francisco State University, and Brentwood High School in Los Angeles.

She writes a free weekly newsletter called Waves Made Weekly to 2,000+ filmmakers, providing actionable advice and resources for navigating the film & TV industry.

As the Global AI Sales Leader, Josh oversees and drives the go-to-market strategy to grow AI sales, drive comprehensive, strategic execution of GTM.  His scope is across a global sales organization that spans account segmentation and industries, and helps grow Cisco’s share in the dynamic AI market.

He leverages his expertise in law, policy, and regulations to provide solutions that meet the highest standards of compliance and security. He has significant credentials in secured US Government Azure CSP and AWS Authority to Operate (ATO), that enable him to serve the complex and evolving needs of the AI industry.

Joseph Acevedo is Managing Director and Co-Head of Portfolio Management for the BlackRock Impact Opportunities Fund (BIO) – a multi asset strategy that invests in private equity, private credit, infrastructure and real estate – within BlackRock Equity Private Markets. 

Joseph has over 25 years of financial services experience with a focus on private market investment. He has served as board director or observer to portfolio companies across the healthcare, business services, media, technology, and financial services industries. He is currently board chair of Lift RetroFitness FTX and Lone Peak Dental Group; and board director of Synergy Equipment. He has executed direct private investment transactions across buyouts, growth capital, credit and infrastructure.

Joseph was previously a co-founder and Managing Director of MoonSail Capital, LLC, a lower middle market private equity firm, where he was responsible for sourcing, due diligence, structuring, and monitoring of direct investments. Joseph was a Principal at Pharos Capital Group where he held primary responsibility for managing transaction teams, leading due diligence efforts, and monitoring portfolio companies.  Prior thereto, Joseph was Director of Business Development at Univision, where he launched and led new business initiatives. At JP Morgan and SG Cowen, Mr. Acevedo was an Associate in the Latin American equity research group, covering the media, telecommunications, mining and steel industries. He began his career in 1996 as a Financial Analyst structuring fixed income transactions for government municipalities at Merrill Lynch.

Joseph graduated from Harvard College with an A.B., cum laude, in Government and holds an M.B.A. in Finance from the Wharton School, where he was a Robert A. Toigo Fellow.  He is a Board Member of the New America Alliance (NAA) and former board member of the Toigo Alumni Endowment.

Art Tigerina, a Bryan, Texas native, has thrilled audiences for over three decades with his powerful performances. Known for his versatility, Tigerina leads the Art Tigerina Band, a Tejano/Country fusion group that performs throughout Texas and the U.S. Tigerina also leads the Texas Country band, the Jukebox Preachers. Tigerina’s earliest musical influences stem from his father and brothers who were also musicians. Tigerina was impacted early on as a child where out of necessity, he’d accompany his mother to work during the graveyard shift at a truck stop. “I remember late at night hearing all the old country songs on the jukebox- I didn’t realize it then, but those songs shaped my taste in and longing
for playing music.”

In the early 90’s, Art made the decision to move to San Antonio, TX with the hopes of furthering his singing career. Art did not know a single person in San Antonio and lived by faith in his car. It was here that he began his Tejano career singing for a number of bands, including CityView Band. It was with CityView that he recorded his first CD entitled “Vueltas y Vueltas”. This title track was a hit for not only CityView, but later it was re-recorded with Grupo Vida where it found even greater success.

After one audition for vocalist, Art would find his band home with Grupo Vida for 17 years. Accomplishments with Grupo Vida include 2 Grammy nominations, 10 albums, and multiple awards, including Tejano Music Awards Showband of the Year. At the height of their time together, Art and Grupo Vida supported the (Dixie) Chicks on a year long tour playing Tejano music for sold-out crowds across the country.

In 2013, upon his exit from Grupo Vida, Tigerina explored retirement. He married and took a well-deserved year off from touring. But in 2015, Art began the solo project, the Art Tigerina Band (ATB). It has been a successful venture to include a hundred plus show tour a year, an album release, a 2018 Tejano Music Award Male Vocalist of the Year award, and Induction into the Tejano Roots Hall of Fame, Class of 2019.

In February 2021, after his experience during the pandemic and the release of ATB’s “An Empty Glass,” Art started the all country band, the Jukebox Preachers. Art feels he has come full circle from those nights as a kid sleeping in the truck stop booth. “I just knew someday, somehow, I’d be a singer. And I knew as I got older that I really wanted to sing country music. I’m just a good ol’ boy from Bryan, TX, and now I’m able to share the music I love. With my wife’s support, we expanded our business model (Tigerina Entertainment) and started the (Jukebox) Preachers. Now we offer my music to a wider audience. It’s like a dream come true…again.” Most recently, the Jukebox Preachers were named Texas Country Showdown 2024 Grand Champions at the Texas Country Music Awards. The Texas Country Music Association (TCMA) presented the Texas Country Music Showdown, a spirited competition featuring eight top Texas bands vying for cash prizes. The Jukebox Preachers ft. Art Tigerina took the stage and emerged victorious, crowned as the Texas Country Showdown Grand Champions during the awards ceremony. The Jukebox Preachers have released original songs, including ”Bourbon and Bad Decisions,” “Seat 25,” and “Dust Clouds and Smoke.” The first Jukebox Preachers album will be released mid-late 2025.

For updates and more information on the Art Tigerina Band and the all-country band the Jukebox Preachers, follow them on Facebook and Instagram. Art Tigerina Music is available on all digital platforms.

For all booking and media requests, please contact Chris Tigerina at tigerinaentertainment@gmail.com or call/text 806-787-9738.

Joe Posada, one of Tejano music’s most celebrated saxophonists, is also recognized as a timeless vocalist and a well-versed lyricist. As an accomplished composer, Posada has managed to successfully fuse the sounds of Jazz and Tejano by creating a melodic flow found intriguing by a wide range of music lovers.

My name is Mario Ortiz, born and raised in Del Rio, Tx. I now reside in San Antonio Tx. I have been in the music industry for over 25 years. I am the owner of STUDIO 830, a professional recording facility in San Antonio; where I run an independent Record Label (BABY GRAND RECORDS). I am also a professional touring musician. Currently I am the Music director and Keyboardist for JACQIE RIVERA (daughter of the late JENNI RIVERA), Keyboardist for Latin RnB artist FRANKIE J, Keyboardist for THE COMMODORES, and Music Director and Keyboardist for RAM HERRERA.

ACCOLADES – 1 American Grammy, 4 Latin Grammys, Multiple TTMA Awards for Best Album, Producer of the year, Songwriter of the year, Producer for #1 ITUNES Album, and Currently nominated for Best Tejano Album for 2025 LATIN GRAMMY as Music Producer.

Stefani Montiel is a powerhouse in Tejano music whose artistry, vision, and passion have redefined the genre for a new era. With a career spanning decades, she has become one of the most decorated and respected artists in Latin music, earning her place as both a trailblazer and an icon. 

A six-time Grammy-nominated artist, Stefani has consistently pushed musical boundaries, blending tradition with innovation to deliver a sound that is uniquely her own. Her electrifying performances, bold creativity, and unwavering dedication to her craft have garnered countless accolades, including the coveted title of Entertainer of the Year at the 2024 Tejano Music Awards. 

In May of 2025, Stefani released her highly anticipated album “Seguiré”, a project that embodies resilience, passion, and her signature artistry. The album follows the success of her beloved collections Mis Favoritas Vol. 1 and Mis Favoritas Vol. 2, further showcasing her versatility and staying power as one of Tejano’s leading voices. Stefani continues to demonstrate that her creative fire only burns brighter with time as her latest project has fans and critics alike hailing her as one of the most dynamic forces in Tejano music. 

Beyond her personal achievements, Stefani embraces her role as a mentor and visionary, working closely with emerging artists helping to guide and shape the future of the Tejano industry. Her influence extends far beyond the stage as she represents empowerment, resilience, and the enduring spirit of Latin music. 

Stefani Montiel is more than an entertainer; she is a cultural force. With every performance, every song, and every milestone, she reminds us why she is and will always be one of the most celebrated and inspiring figures in Tejano music.

As Head, U.S. Commercial Bank, Tony is responsible for developing and implementing strategy, building new customer relationships and overseeing the overall financial performance of the business. He leads nearly 3,000 team members committed to providing optimized financial solutions and industry- specific relationship management for commercial clients, including Middle Market Investments Banking, Real Estate Banking, Treasury and a wide range of diversified and specialized businesses. The team works holistically with companies to provide an integrated suite of commercial debt products, treasury and payment solutions, deposit products and services, M&A advisory, mezzanine finance, and equity. In addition, Tony is a member of the BMO U.S. Management Committee.

With more than 30 years of industry experience, he brings diverse expertise to his role spanning senior banking, commercial client acquisition and market expansion. Prior to joining BMO, Tony served as Managing Director and Segment Head for Commercial Banking clients in the Western United States at JPMorgan Chase. He was responsible for more than 30 offices and their respective teams of commercial bankers, delivering the firm’s global capabilities to local clients.

Tony joined JPMorgan Chase in 2018 from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he served as a Global Client Acquisition Executive across the U.S. and Canada for its global commercial bank. Prior to that, he was the Market Executive, overseeing financial professionals specializing in strategic debt, treasury, and capital markets solutions for commercial banking companies in California.

Tony holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance from the University of San Diego and, this past year, completed the Harvard Business School Presidents Program for Leadership. He is a FINRA registered principal with Series 7, 63, and 24 securities licenses.

An active community member, Tony serves on the board of directors for the California Chamber of Commerce, YPOLA (Young Presidents’ Organization Los Angeles), and the LA Sports Council. He has also been an executive committee board member for the LA EDC and LA Chamber of Commerce, and a board member of Discovery Cube LA.

Throughout his career, Tony has received several accolades. For multiple years, he has been named to the LA500 by the Los Angeles Business Journal, recognizing him as one of the most influential and impactful executives in Los Angeles.

A native of San Diego, Tony resides in Manhattan Beach, California with his wife Christine and their three adult children: Kaitlyn, Juliana, and Peter.

Brandon Levin is a Director in the Office of the CEO at Snap Inc. In collaboration with the California Community Foundation, he was a member of the founding team that launched the Department of Angels, a new nonprofit focused on supporting impacted community members in Altadena, Pasadena, the Palisades and Malibu in the aftermath of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.

A native Angeleno, Brandon serves on the boards of the Pasadena Playhouse, the Otis College of Art and Design, the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, and the USC Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy. He is a member of the West Coast Advisory Committee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Leadership Council of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, and Teach for America’s Reinvention Council. Brandon is also a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

He has a BA and JD from Yale and an MBA from Harvard. Brandon is a member of The State Bar of California and lives in Los Angeles with his wife.

Contessa Brewer is a CNBC correspondent appearing throughout Business Day, covering key industries including gaming, insurance, and travel and leisure. She joined the network in 2017 and is based at CNBC Global Headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

A National Emmy Award-winning journalist, Brewer is renowned for her marathon on-air coverage of breaking news and major political events. As a substitute anchor for CNBC’s Business Day programs, she provides steady, trusted leadership during critical news cycles. Brewer’s expertise spans across industries, and she offers insightful analysis on the latest business trends in hotels, cruises, casino, online gambling, and the insurance market.

Brewer has moderated keynote panels at esteemed events such as the Global Gaming Expo, MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference and SBC Summit Americas.

Before joining CNBC, Brewer was an anchor at MSNBC, where she hosted daily news programs and the long-running primetime series Caught on Camera. Her extensive career includes contributions to CBS News, CBSN, WNBC, NBC News, and MSNBC, where she covered presidential elections, government shutdowns, natural disasters, and geopolitical shifts.

Brewer began her career in Reno, NV, followed by Palm Springs, CA, and Milwaukee, WI. A Remembrance Scholar and magna cum laude graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication and Honors Program, she has also narrated several audiobooks. Brewer resides in New York with her husband and twin sons.

Mark Howard is the Chief Operating Officer of TIME​​,​​where he oversees operations across the​ company’s print, digital, technology, consumer marketing, e-commerce, AI, licensing, and finance​ divisions.​

​With more than 25 years of experience in the media and technology sectors, Mark most recently served as​ ​Chief Business Officer at OpenWeb, where he directed data products and solutions, business development, and strategic partnerships. Prior to that, he was Chief Advertising and Partnerships Officer at Penske Media Corporation (PMC), where he managed revenue operations across PMC’s media portfolio. At PMC, he also led a corporate industry thought leadership team, advancing the company’s influence through research, events, and strategic initiatives. Additionally, he spearheaded the launch of a first-party data studio, creating innovative data solutions and personalized audience experiences.​

​Earlier in his career, Mark served as Chief Revenue Officer at Forbes from 2013 to 2020, leading the company’s digital and print platforms, live events, custom content, advertising, licensing, and business intelligence. During his tenure, he successfully expanded Forbes into new revenue streams, including live events and branded products.​

​Mark has also held senior leadership roles at various media and ad tech companies, gaining deep expertise​ ​in data analytics, product development, marketing technology, and advertising. Renowned for his ability​ ​to build and lead high-performing teams, he is a strategic innovator with a track record of fostering​ ​partnerships, driving business growth, and shaping industry conversations.​

George is a powerful example of someone actively refining his purpose while remaining rooted in service. A disabled veteran, George served as a Marine Sergeant in the infantry. Born and raised in Chicago and holds a B.A in Criminal Justice, he went on to serve as a sheriff’s deputy in Gila County, Arizona, before relocating to Portland, Oregon, in 2013 to begin his career in state government and executive of Social Determinants of Health for the State of Oregon.

Today, George serves as Co-Founder and CEO of the Hispanic Construction Council, and as COO of the Umpqua Transportation District in Douglas County, Oregon.

Track Record of Impact

Managed a $300M state portfolio advancing health equity, with expertise in cross-sector alignment and strategic fund deployment.

Former sheriff’s deputy specializing in high-risk investigations, earning credibility across public safety, justice reform, and community trust.

Built national visibility and influence, securing media coverage, bipartisan support, and partnerships across government, labor, and private industry.

Andrea Trujillo is the Chief Marketing Officer and Partner in Velocity — an experiential business event based in Los Angeles. 

Prior to Velocity, Andrea was the Chief Marketing Officer of L’ATTITUDE a national business event centered around The New Mainstream Economy.

Andrea is brand builder and innovator with a track record of being part of award winning ad campaign teams (TBWA/Chiat/Day), being a digital pioneer (DailyCandy), having lead digital brand market sectors (Clique Brands), and having launched several brands and brand concepts, including her own, called A.sweeT. 

Andrea is also an angel investor, with a knack for identifying up and coming brands that are making impact within industries.

Andrea was named a Top 100 Latina Disruptor by Hola! Magazine in 2023, and has been featured for her brand work in Forbes, Newsweek en Español, People, E! News, The Today Show and more. She has her finger on the pulse of cultural relevancy transferring the cultural currency to business impact. 

On the personal side, Andrea is also a former D1 and semi-professional soccer player. She is a founding member of the Angel City Impact Fund, has been a Board Member of Global Gift USA, and has done active fundraising and work for Camp Ronald McDonald, Yes We Can Foundation, and Voto Latino. 

Ana Valdez is the President and CEO of The Latino Donor Collaborative. She is an American marketing, media, research, and political expert and thought leader with 30 years of experience in business, media, and the corporate world. Born and raised in Mexico City, she has studied and worked in Mexico, Europe, and the United States. She has lived in Los Angeles, California, since 1997. Valdez began her career at Nielsen, where she developed the company’s largest market research client base. She then worked for Banamex, now Citibank, attracting multi-billion-dollar foreign investors and helping them identify the best business opportunities in the country. Since then, she has worked at the United Nations in Geneva, the Clinton Administration in Washington, DC, and has collaborated with companies such as Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Procter & Gamble, Pepsi, CBRE, Morgan Stanley, and McDonald’s, among others. Since 2014, Valdez has served as the executive leader of the Latino Donor Collaborative, working directly with corporate CEOs and the C-suite to establish a think tank called the Latino Data Collaborative. The LDC produces economic data and business fact-based tools to identify market growth opportunities and develop innovative strategies to engage the new mainstream consumer. Research partners include Columbia, Stanford, UCLA, ASU, Bain, BCG, Accenture, and NERA. As the CEO, Ana has transformed LDC’s data into a tool for all American resource allocators: CEOs, the C-suite, and institutions such as the
Federal Reserve, the White House, and the Joint Economic Council of Congress. At the same time, Ana has served on the board of trustees of Southern California Public Radio since 2011 and chaired the board from 2016 to 2020. During those four years, Ana led the national search for a new CEO and made a deliberate strategic effort to create growth by using fact-based data to identify additional audiences. Ana has been recognized as one of the Top 10 Latinos in America in 2018 by Hispanic Magazine, one of the Top 50 Most Influential Latinas in the United States in 2020, one of the Top 100 Latinas by Latino Leaders Magazine in 2021, and one of the eight CHANGEMAKERS within the 2022 Fifty Most Powerful Latinas by ALPFA, 100 Top Latino Leaders in 2022 by Latino Leaders Magazine, Top Latina Leaders 2023 in Latino Leaders Magazine, and nominated for Inspiring Women of the Year in 2023 by the LA Times, to name a few. She is a sought-after national and international speaker, having worked as an assistant professor at Tec de Monterrey, an on-air political and media analyst for Fox11 and Univision, and a blogger for MyFoxParents.com, Huffington Post, and CNN online. She is a best-selling published co-author of the book Extraordinary Latinas in March 2023.

Pedro J. Pizarro is president and chief executive officer of Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison (SCE), one of the nation’s largest electric utilities. Edison International is also the parent company of Trio, a portfolio of competitive businesses providing integrated sustainability and energy advisory services to large commercial, industrial and institutional organizations in North America and Europe. He is a member of Edison International’s board of directors.

Pizarro served as president of SCE from October 2014 through May 2016, when he was elected president of Edison International. He was elected chief executive officer in October 2016. Previously, Pizarro was president of Edison Mission Energy (EME) and chaired its board of directors from 2011 until the sale of its assets to NRG Energy in April 2014. EME, a subsidiary of Edison International at the time, was an independent power producer that owned, leased, operated and sold energy and capacity from electric power generation facilities and engaged in hedging and energy trading activities in competitive power markets. Pizarro joined Edison International in 1999, moved to SCE in 2001 and progressed through several leadership roles before joining EME.

Before his work at Edison International and SCE, Pizarro was a senior engagement manager with McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles, providing management consulting services to energy, technology, engineering services and banking clients. There, he developed corporate strategy, handled mergers and acquisitions and oversaw operational and organizational engagements.

Pizarro earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and held National Science Foundation and Department of Defense graduate fellowships. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Harvard University.

Pizarro is co-chair of the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council, the principal liaison between the federal government and the electric power industry to prepare for and respond to national-level disasters or threats to critical infrastructure. He is the immediate past chair of the Edison Electric Institute and continues to serve on its board, as well as the boards of Caltech and 3M.

Pizarro previously served on the boards of the Electric Power Research Institute, Analysis and Resilience Center for Systemic Risk, Argonne National Laboratory, Electric Power Supply Association, California Power Exchange, Colburn School, House Research Institute, Southern California Leadership Council and Western Energy Institute. He also represented the electric industry on the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB), co-chaired the SEAB Innovation Working Group, and served on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery.

Marie Lynn Miranda, a nationally renowned leader in higher education and geospatial health informatics, became the 10th chancellor of the University of Illinois Chicago in July 2023. She also serves as a faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science. Chancellor Miranda brings a focus on access and excellence at scale across UIC’s educational, research, and clinical enterprises. She champions a vision that prioritizes the success of students and seeks to enhance faculty scholarship and UIC’s $500 million research profile. 

As chancellor of UIC, Miranda has introduced five strategic priorities essential to UIC’s continued success as Chicago’s only public research university. These priorities reaffirm UIC’s commitment to student success; expand the research profile to position the university at the forefront of innovation and Chicago’s knowledge economy; engage with the region’s communities with a focus on educational and health equity; forge productive partnerships with businesses, nonprofits, and the government sector to create opportunities for faculty and student engagement; and elevate UIC as a destination to recruit and retain world-class faculty and staff. These priorities are advancing the university’s equity-focused mission to provide the broadest access to the highest levels of educational, research, and clinical excellence. 

Miranda is also director of the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative (CEHI), a research, education, and outreach organization committed to fostering environments where all people can prosper. The initiative is best known for its work on childhood lead exposure — contributing to the CDC’s decision to set a more protective standard for childhood blood lead levels, developing strategies for combating lead in drinking water, and identifying lead in aviation gasoline as a contributor to elevated blood lead levels. CEHI’s most recent work focuses on racial residential segregation and how segregated neighborhoods experience greater exposure to social and environmental stressors, which drive health and educational disparities. CEHI now calls UIC and Chicago home. 

Miranda’s tenure at UIC is also marked by her active involvement in Chicago’s civic life. She serves on the Board of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and The Chicago Network. She also serves on several national boards, including the Doris Duke Foundation, the Environmental Defense Fund, the National Institute for Nursing Research, the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, and the Executive Committee of the Board of Hispanic Serving Research Universities. 

Before joining UIC, Miranda held leadership roles at several prominent institutions. She served as provost at Notre Dame, where she led the academic response to the COVID-19 pandemic and launched diversity initiatives. At Rice University, as provost she implemented $230 million in strategic investments centered around molecular nanotechnology, data sciences, neuroengineering, inequities and inequalities, and general research competitiveness. At the University of Michigan, she restructured the doctoral program and enhanced alumni relations as dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment. Miranda started her academic career at Duke University, where she was a faculty member for 21 years and served as director of undergraduate programs for the Nicholas School of the Environment. 

Miranda is a Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of Duke University, where she earned a bachelor’s in mathematics and economics and was named a Truman Scholar. She has a PhD and master’s from Harvard University, where she held a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Miranda is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Miranda and her husband, Christopher Geron, are the proud parents of three children, two English Setters, and roughly 500,000 honeybees.

Tomás Mier is a Mexican American music journalist. He is a Staff Writer at Rolling Stone, where he’s dedicated to covering trends in pop and Latin music. At Rolling Stone, he’s covered the rise of stars such as Chappell Roan, Fuerza Regida, Peso Pluma and Omar Apollo, and conducted interviews with icons such as Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, and Christina Aguilar, among others. Tomás is a frequent guest moderator at the Grammy Museum’s programs, where he hosts interviews with musicians such as Sabrina Carpenter, Ellie Goulding, and Enrique Bunbury. He also runs a successful TikTok page with over 141,000 followers, focusing on music news and concert reviews. Before his work at Rolling Stone , Mier was a Digital Music Writer at People Magazine, where he wrote a cover story about a survivor of Marilyn Manson. His byline has also been featured in outlets such as Teen Vogue ,  Los Angeles Times, and 
San Jose Mercury News. Tomás graduated from the University of Southern California, and earned a B.A. in Journalism and Contemporary Latino Studies.

Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora, met in college during their senior year. They both were sitting in a business ethics class when their professor mentioned a random fact in a lecture about sustainability – “gourmet mushrooms can grow on spent coffee grounds.” Curious about that fact, they both reached out to their professor for more information and were connected to each other. What followed was an immediate connection built off a shared curiosity & passion to figure out not just how to grow their own mushrooms, but also how the rest of their food grew. We’re on a mission to reconnect every family & kid back to where food comes from by helping them experience the magic of growing it themselves – no green thumb or backyard needed. We hope you enjoy our organic gardening products and join us on our journey to get America growing!

‭Steven Wolfe Pereira founded Alpha to solve a critical problem: most boards are governing AI‬ transformation without the frameworks, intelligence, or peer networks they need to make sound‬ ‭fiduciary decisions.‬

Alpha delivers what directors actually use: proprietary governance intelligence, executive-level AI‬ ‭education, and access to the most AI-experienced board members navigating similar challenges.‬ ‭Our clients include public and private company boards facing AI decisions that will define their‬ competitive position and regulatory exposure for the next decade.‬

Wolfe Pereira brings relevant operating experience: 25+ years driving technology transformation,‬ including $5+ billion in strategic transactions as Chief Marketing Officer at AI-first companies‬ ‭Datalogix (acquired by Oracle, $1.2B) and Neustar (acquired by Golden Gate Capital, $3B). His‬ ‭executive leadership spans Publicis Groupe, TelevisaUnivision, Quantcast, and co-founding the‬ ‭award-winning edtech company Encantos. He began in private equity at Blackstone Group and‬ Salomon Smith Barney and started his technology career in 1999 joining Akamai Technologies in‬ their network infrastructure engineering group.‬

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Currently serving as an independent board director at the Latino Community Foundation, Save the‬ Children, and Whalar, Steven understands governance challenges from both an experienced operator‬ ‭and the boardroom perspective. His AI governance insights have been featured in major business‬ ‭publications, and LinkedIn named him a Top Voice.

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Education: Fulbright Scholar, Tufts University B.A., MIT Sloan Executive MBA, Stanford Directors’‬ Consortium.

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Specialties: Board Advisory & Corporate Strategy; AI Governance & Risk Assessment; AI, Data &‬ emerging technologies; Go-to-market Revenue, Marketing & Communications.‬

Sandra Velasquez is the founder of Nopalera, a Mexican luxury bath and body brand. She was born and raised in San Diego, California, by Mexican immigrant parents. Before launching Nopalera, she was a professional musician, the lead singer and guitarist for the Latin alternative band Pistolera. She founded Nopalera in 2020 to celebrate and elevate Mexican culture through self-care products rooted in the nopal cactus.

Dr. David Arreaga is Co-Founder and CEO Ares Materials. His vision is to enable bendable, wrappable, rugged and lighter electronics. He leads a US and Mexican-based team in the quest to discover new materials with the power of AI to enable the next generation of displays. The Ares team of data scientists is creating novel materials through their unique platform to accelerate to solve some of the most critical challenges in the electronic display world.

Florian is an accomplished business leader and author, with hands-on experience bringing innovative products to market. As InOrbit’s CEO and co-founder, Florian leads strategy, fundraising and go-to-market activities. He is passionate about raising awareness around the new category of RobOps, sharing his compelling vision for the evolution of robotics and the future of work. He is also a co-founder of the Robot Operations Group, a community-led organization of experts in scaling robot deployments. Florian is an investor, advisor, board member, and mentor to young startup founders.

Eric Aguilar is the Co-founder and CEO of Omnitron Sensors. He is an experienced entrepreneur and leader in the field of advanced sensor systems, particularly for robotics and autonomous platforms. Aguilar’s career spans over two decades, focusing on sensor design and innovation. He held senior positions at companies like Tesla and Google X, where he worked on projects such as the Model 3 firmware and Google Project Wing. He also led sensor integration at Argo AI. Previously, he developed sensors for drones at the U.S. Navy Research Labs and drove product development for a sensor company acquired by Google. Aguilar holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from California State Polytechnic University and is a recognized speaker on MEMS and sensor technology.

When the Latina artist and entrepreneur was in art school, professors told her that she had to choose one thing and pursue it. They wanted her to pick a particular style to avoid commercialism — to become an artist’s artist. But Jaramillo always knew she could make a bigger impact if she followed her heart and made art for everyone. Decades later, she’s the founder, president, and chief story officer of Encantos. The story-teaching platform uses Jaramillo’s art to create books, games, digital content, and other resources to help kids — particularly Spanish-and-English-speaking bilingual kids — think critically and creatively.

J​ose A. Jurado is a Senior Research Economist at the Seidman Research Institute. Dr. Jurado​ joined Seidman in February 2023 from Carnegie Mellon University, where he worked as a​ postdoctoral research fellow. Previously, he worked as an economist at Banco de México’s​ research division.​

​Dr. Jurado currently serves as the P.I. on a study for Chicanos por la Causa, focusing on the​ socio-economic mobility of Latinos in the State of Arizona. He has also served as P.I. on two​ previous installments of the Official U.S. Latino GDP Report™ in partnership with the Latino​ ​Donor Collaborative. He is passionate about U.S.-Mexico bilateral security issues and racial​ disparities in policing in the U.S.​

​His work has been published in the Journal of Development Economics and was awarded first​ place in the 2022 edition of the Victor L. Urquidi prize in economics for best research paper​ focused on Mexico. Dr. Jurado earned a Ph.D. in economics from Brown University in 2021.​

Dr Hoffman is a Professor of Economics at the W. P. Carey School of Business. His areas of expertise are regional economics, applied macro economics and forecasting. Since 2004 he has been Director of the Office of the University Economist, undertaken as a strategic university initiative at the direction of Arizona State University President Michael Crow. Dr. Hoffman is also the faculty director of the Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research where he directs the Productivity and Prosperity Project http://economist.asu.edu
  

Mr. Salazar is a retired NASA engineer with over 40 years of experience in telemetry, communications, speech control, command and data handling, audio, displays and controls, intelligent lighting, project management, and systems engineering. During his time at NASA, he has received various patents and awards, including the NASA Silver Achievement Medal, the John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award, and the NASA, Johnson Space Center Engineering Directorate Legacy Award for his contributions to human spaceflight. He has also co-authored several technical papers on spacecraft design, systems engineering, and Human Systems Integration. Mr. Salazar received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston and his Master of Science in Systems Engineering from Southern Methodist University. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas and holds an Expert Systems Engineer Professional certification through the International Council on Systems Engineering.

Erika Baez-Grimes is a Certified M&A Professional, business broker, and founder of The BPH Group, LLC, where she is on a mission to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs to build wealth through business ownership.

With more than 15 years of deal-making experience — including over six years brokering Main Street and lower middle-market transactions — Erika has interacted with hundreds of buyers across every stage of the acquisition journey. From early exploration and due diligence to financing and transition planning, she has gained rare, front-line insight into how buyers think, what they fear, and where they struggle most. This perspective sets her apart in the (ETA) community: Erika doesn’t just understand transactions — she understands buyers, and what it truly takes to prepare them for successful ownership.

In 2015, Erika founded The BPH Group, a business hub designed to help companies bridge organizational gaps, identify revenue opportunities, secure capital, and implement systems that cut cost and that drive growth. Now, for executives and aspiring entrepreneurs alike, The BPH Group provides ETA training, post-transaction management, pre-exit guidance, and value creation services nationwide. Through this platform, Erika and her team focus on equipping Latino professionals, wantrepreneurs, and first-time buyers with the tools, strategies, and confidence to acquire, grow, and ultimately exit businesses successfully.

Recognized with multiple awards from Fortune 100 organizations for her record-breaking sales career and for shattering ceilings in traditionally underrepresented spaces, Erika has also made a lasting impact in multiple financial services organizations by consistently delivering growth, mentoring leaders, and setting new standards of excellence. Erika serves on several business community, cybersecurity, and technology boards, and is a proud member of the Executive Committee for the Women Business Collaborative. In these roles, she brings her expertise in M&A, entrepreneurship, and value creation to help guide strategy, shape policy, and expand impact. She now channels that same performance-driven mindset into breaking barriers in ETA. Her belief is simple: Latinos deserve representation, access, and pathways to ownership — and ETA is one of the most powerful ways to build generational wealth.

A 2X CEO and 2X Executive Director, Esther brings a 35-year track record building enterprises, executing strategic business plans, and leading high performing teams. She has forged hundreds of strategic partnerships with Fortune 500 companies, institutional investors, search firms, and private equity.

Esther serves as Senior Advisor at Atlura Capital. She is on the Advisory Board of Angeles Investors and serves on the Board of Women Business Collaborative. From 2016 to 2023, she served as President & CEO of the Latino Corporate Directors Association (LCDA) where she built and led the rapid expansion of the first national network of Latino corporate directors and executive officers. She launched the BoardReady Institute and was executive producer of the Annual Board Leaders Convening covering corporate governance trends.

She brings a deep understanding of the intersection of corporate, non-profit, and national government sectors having led consequential entities including as Executive Director of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus at the US House of Representatives (1993 to 1999), Executive Director of small business procurement at the U.S. Department of Energy (1999 to 2001), business consulting with The Dewey Square Group (2002-2004), and CEO of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, a national non-profit leadership development organization (2004-2015).

She was recognized by Diligent as a 2022 Modern Governance 100 Honoree, served on the inaugural advisory council of NACD’s Center for Inclusive Governance, and as faculty for Competent Boards — based in Canada. Esther was recognized by Al Dia News Service as the 2021 Person of the Year, by ALPFA as the 50 Most Powerful Latinas in 2021 and 2022, and recognized by Hispanic Executive Magazine and Latino Leaders Magazine for her leadership roles. In 2010, Esther was awarded the 2010 Alumni Seal Award by Occidental College, her alma mater. Esther has appeared as speaker at leading business forums, including the Bloomberg Summit, The Financial Times ODX conference, NACD Global Summit, and CNBC‘s Opportunity Forum, among others. Plus, her work has been featured in Bloomberg, LA Times, WSJ, the Sacramento Bee, USA Today, and Reuters, among others.

Rick Telles is a seasoned producer recognized for creating innovative and culturally impactful content. With decades of experience across reality television, documentaries, and feature films, Telles has consistently delivered compelling stories to audiences worldwide.

He is best known for co-creating and producing the groundbreaking VH1 hit The Surreal Life, a cultural phenomenon that redefined celebrity reality television. Telles also spent many years producing and directing hit MTV series, including Road Rules and Fear, which helped shape the early landscape of unscripted adventure television. His executive experience includes serving as a network executive at Syfy, where he successfully launched the acclaimed competition series Face Off, which became one of the network’s longest-running hits.

Telles has collaborated with major networks and streaming platforms, earning accolades for his contributions to the industry. Most recently, he executive produced the inspiring feature film A Million Miles Away, starring Michael Peña, further underscoring his versatility and commitment to amplifying diverse narratives.

Currently, he is developing two passion projects: Struck by Genius, the true story of a man who became a mathematical savant after a brain injury, and White But Not Equal, based on the landmark Supreme Court case led by Latino attorneys.

Driven by his passion for storytelling and advocacy, Telles continues to explore new frontiers in entertainment — championing projects that give voice to underrepresented communities and inspire audiences everywhere.

Cristo Fernández is a Mexican actor and filmmaker born in Guadalajara, Mexico. He began his professional life as a soccer player but discovered new passions in the Entertainment world. After finishing his acting masters program in the UK, he set his goals to creating independent projects as an actor, director, writer and producer, so he would create a reel and body of work to show. The plan paid off when he won the role of “Dani Rojas” the beloved AFC Richmond star football player, on the multi-Emmy winning comedy series “TED LASSO”, for Apple TV+ & Warner Bros. 

Fernández was recently awarded the “Rising Star Award” for Television from the Critics Choice Association during the 2nd Annual Celebration of Latino Cinema & Television. The award was presented by Oscar winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu. 

Audiences were thrilled to see him make his debut in the Marvel Universe with his end scene appearance in “SPIDER MAN: No Way Home.” Now with his role as “Wheeljack” in “TRANSFORMERS: Rise Of The Beasts”, he’s becoming a “go-to” for Hollywood action films. He has appeared in other shows like Acapulco with Eugenio Derbez on Apple TV+ and Zorro on Prime. 

In 2017, he founded Espectro MX Films, producing successful projects such as Una Pequeña Confusión (over 1M tickets sold in 2025 in theaters in Mexico), Corina (Best Feature at FICG 2024 + Audience Award 2025 at SXSW), and Las Tres Sisters (2025) released in over 180 Theaters in the US.

José de Castro is co-founder and CTO of Mapped, an AI-first data platform for the built world. A veteran product and platform leader, he previously served as CTO of Webex Teams after Cisco acquired his startup and later led platform strategy for Twilio until joining Mapped in 2020. At Mapped, José gets to leverage his passion for data and developer tools to make the world around us safer and more efficient; one API at a time.

Kati Fernandez is the Chief Content Officer at TOGETHXR, where she leads the company’s content vision, strategy, and execution. In this role, Kati oversees the development of original IP, studio programming, special events, and branded entertainment—driving both audience and revenue growth. Her leadership is focused on expanding TOGETHXR’s creative footprint across short-form, mid-form, long-form, newsletters, and podcasts, while shaping stories that reflect the brand’s unique position at the intersection of sports, culture, lifestyle, and identity. 

An award-winning Afro-Latina creative executive, Kati brings a deeply strategic and narrative-driven approach to storytelling. Prior to joining TOGETHXR, she served as Head of Development at ESPN, where she led the creation and evolution of some of the network’s most influential properties, including 30 for 30, ESPN Originals, and ESPN Films. Her work has spanned documentary, editorial, and branded formats, redefining what sports media can look and feel like across platforms. 

Outside of content, Kati is also active in the venture capital and social impact space. She serves as a board member to Camelback Ventures, which increases access and opportunity for women and entrepreneurs of color. She is also the co-founder of Lazos Al Futuro, a non-profit that provides scholarships and mentorship to students in the Dominican Republic, impacting over 30+ scholars and driving higher graduation rates. 

Recognized as a trailblazer in media, Kati has received numerous honors, including Sports Business Journal’s New Voices Under 30, Cynopsis’ All-Star Honoree, NextGen Collective’s 30 Under 30, and Young Alumni of the Year by the College of the Holy Cross. She was also named to the Cablefax Diversity List, spotlighting her commitment to shaping a more inclusive industry.

Carlos Barreto is a Latin founder who has lived and led across four continents, shaping global icons at P&G, Coca-Cola, Revlon and Kimberly-Clark before striking out on his own. Today he leads Cleverman, a fast-growing New York startup redefining men’s grooming with personalization and design. His journey from corporate boardrooms to building an award-winning brand has been featured on The Today Show, honored by Men’s Health, and spotlighted by BeautyMatter as one of beauty’s NEXT50 leaders.

Distinguished Velocity Awardee

Ken Salazar has served as United States Ambassador to Mexico, United States Secretary of the Interior, United States Senator, and Colorado Attorney General. He also served as Chief Counsel to Governor Roy Romer and as Director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.

Ambassador Salazar became a partner in 2013 at WilmerHale, a top-rated American law firm with offices throughout the United States, Europe and China. He opened WilmerHale’s Denver office.  He is now Senior Counsel at WilmerHale. Ambassador Salazar began his legal career with one of Colorado’s premier law firms, Sherman & Howard.

Ambassador Salazar has been admitted to practice law in state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. A lawyer, he has represented leading American companies in complex federal and state regulatory matters concerning consumer protection, antitrust, and privacy matters.  He also represented clients as a legal and policy expert on energy, environment, natural resources, and Native American matters.

Ambassador Salazar served on the Board of Directors of the Target Corporation.The Target Corporation is an American retailing company, founded in 1902, and a Fortune 100 company.

Ambassador Salazar also served on the Board of Trustees for the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic is the leading integrated health care, education and research center in the United States that was founded over 160 years ago.

Danteé Ramos is the dynamic force at the intersection of journalism, pop culture, and content creation. A native New Yorker by way of New Jersey, she proudly identifies as a Black and Salvadorian woman.

Danteé has an interest in uncovering stories that resonate deeply with her audience. Her extensive career includes collaborating with renowned media outlets and interviewing some of the entertainment industry’s most prominent figures. Mid-pandemic, she wrote & self-produced her original IGTV interview series “The Hot Seat” – with guests like Comedian/Actor, Lil Rel Howery, Author, Joel Leon, and many more.

In 2020, she was hired as a producer and On-air host for Black Girls in Media alongside her co-hosts, Shelby Smith and Kelly Ray. 

In 2023, she graced the screens as an On-Air host for MTV News’ Pop culture show Need To Know. While on the team, she reported on trending pop news and cultural topics. Her charismatic presence and ability to connect with audiences led her to co-host the MTV News LIVE Grammy After Show. Danteé’s versatility extends to the big screen, with a movie review credit on Paramount’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. 

Beyond her media roles, Danteé is the creative mind behind the personal brand ‘DanteesInferno.’ This brand has seamlessly collaborated with esteemed names such as Nissan, OGX, Cantu, Sally Beauty, ApHogee, and several more. 

Danteé’s goal is clear, “to continuously illuminate the richness of Black and Latine culture through diverse projects, roles, and vital conversations.” 

Outside of journalism, Danteé played “Geraldine” on Prime Video’s short film “Civic Mind.”

Jaime Guzman is the Director, Social & Community Impact, Los Angeles at Nike. Jaime leads community partnerships and investments in Los Angeles, powering the future of youth sport. Previously, Jaime led Nike’s social and community impact work in Chicago. Jaime has also served as the Deputy Director for Chicago Youth Opportunity Programs at the Obama Foundation where he led the strategy, design and implementation of the My Brother’s Keeper initiative in Chicago, President Obama’s initiative focused on building safe and supportive communities for boys and young men of color where they feel valued and have clear pathways to opportunity. Prior to this role, Jaime led place-based initiatives in various cities as the Director of Local Programs at the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance. 

Jaime has also held senior roles at various social impact, public sector, and nonprofit institutions, including as the Taproot Foundation’s Executive Director, Senior Director for Outreach at the Big Shoulders Fund, Chief Advisor to the Board of Trustees of the City Colleges of Chicago, on the senior leadership team at the Chicago Public Schools, the Midwest Regional Director for Education for UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza), and as a regional Program Director of Teach For America. Jaime has been a bilingual teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, and began his career as a Teach For America corps member in New Jersey. 

Jaime has also served his community as a civic leader, serving as a 2012 Leadership Greater Chicago fellow, and subsequently appointed by Chicago’s Mayor to serve as Vice President of the Chicago Public Schools Board of Education and by Illinois’ Governor to serve as Secretary of the Illinois State Board of Education. Jaime holds a Bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a Master’s degree in Education from Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

Kizmet Mills, VP, Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer has been with Nike nearly 10 years working (her dream company). She has served as Senior Director of Global University Relations and Recruiting Programs, leading the Talent Acquisition Center of Expertise (COE). In this role, Kizmet shaped the global strategy for early-in-career and emerging talent across Nike, Converse, and Jordan brands. Her leadership also extended to specialized talent programs – such as Nike’s world class internship program and enterprise initiatives to ensure alignment between talent strategies and priorities to advance Nike’s DEI commitments. 

In 2023, Kizmet joined the Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) team as Senior Director and member of the DEI leadership team. In this role, she led Talent Innovation, DEI Learning, Partnerships, and our Employee Resource Groups – known as the Global Nike UNITED Networks. 

Before joining Nike, Kizmet held various senior HR roles at global companies, building her career at the intersection of her passion and purpose: HR with a sharp focus on Talent and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace – where all employees can thrive and feel they belong.

Jay Hernandez (Panel Speaker) won Best Actor at the 2024 Imagen Awards for his role in the critically acclaimed movie “The Long Game”, that screened at the White House earlier this year. He is currently directing his first feature movie, “Night Comes”, starring Dafne Keen, Samantha Lorraine and Alexander Ludwig. He starred as the iconic character ‘Thomas Magnum’ in the hit CBS/NBC reboot series “Magnum P.I.”, as El Diablo in the Warner Bros./DC Comic feature “Suicide Squad” from director David Ayer, and opposite Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell in the R-rated comedy “Bad Moms” and its sequel “Bad Moms Christmas”. Jay emerged onto the Hollywood scene opposite Kirsten Dunst in the 2001 Buena Vista Pictures’ film “Crazy/Beautiful” which earned him an ALMA Award nomination for Outstanding Actor. His other credits include Eli Roth’s “Hostel”, Oliver Stone’s 9/11 project “World Trade Center”, Shonda Rhimes’ “Scandal”, the Universal film “Friday Night Lights”, and Disney’s “The Rookie”.

Kate Rogers is a correspondent covering the restaurant industry, small business and California economy based out of CNBC’s San Francisco bureau. 

Rogers joined CNBC in September 2014 as a reporter at the network’s Global Headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. She covered the reshaping of America’s small business economy during the pandemic and reported extensively on the government’s pandemic aid programs that received a second place National Headliner Award in 2022 for a series on Covid Relief Fraud. 

Previously, Rogers was a personal finance and small business reporter for FOX Business and FOXBusiness.com. Prior to FBN, Rogers was a reporter at the Nonprofit Times covering the business aspect of nonprofit management, and was an editor at the Union County Local Source. 

Rogers holds a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in Journalism and a minor in Women’s Studies from the University of Delaware. 

Follow Kate Rogers on LinkedIn and Instagram.

The Honorable Mark L. Madrid lives life with immense gratitude to God, his family, partner, pet,  and inner circle of trust. Renowned for his signature energy, discipline, and grit, Mark’s journey  is a testament to overcoming adversity, winning with integrity, and paying it forward. 

Mark is a national economic strategist, AI futurist, bestselling author, and the Founder and CEO  of Breakthrough Mavens, LLC, Fueling Excellence and Longevity with White-Collar Experience  and Blue-Collar DNA. Breakthrough Mavens is a pioneering fractional C-Suite firm powered by AI and grounded in human intelligence, delivering a white-glove, results-driven customer experience. 

Mark is the author of his first book, Energy, 21 Uncomplicated & Easy Tips to Start Your Day  Energized (Fig Factor Media), the first in a book series, Self-Fueling Excellence. Energy is an  Amazon.com best seller in three categories: Motivational Growth & Spirituality, Personal  Success & Spirituality, and Health & Spirituality. He is co-author of the Hero Club curated book  titled, The Leader’s Playbook: CEOs Transforming Vision into Action (C-Suite Publishing). 

A former Associate Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, Mark and his team  supported millions of U.S. small businesses with services from capital eligibility and education  to cybersecurity and procurement. 

His expertise has become a trusted compass for small businesses, tech startups, corporate  America, public-private partnerships, academia, nonprofits, and C-Suite executives across  America. 

Currently, Mark serves in distinguished fractional executive roles: Visiting Scholar at the Clinton  School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas and Entrepreneur-In-Residence at  NMSDC. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Texas State University McCoy College of  Business Foundation and the Board of Advisors at Trez.co, Qoollege, and Deizero. Mark sits on  the Advisory Council of the Hispanic Wealth Project and the Executive Board of Directors of  FRIENDS, Friends of the American Latino Museum, a national advocacy campaign to create a  Smithsonian National American Latino Museum.  

Mark is an esteemed member of the C-Suite Network Hero Club, an exclusive community of  Founders, CEOs, and Investors driven by distinguished integrity, transparency, and decisive  action.

Mark’s past accolades include being honored as the 2019 Silicon Valley Nonprofit CEO of the  Year by the Silicon Valley Business Journal, a reflection of his relentless commitment to  purpose-driven impact. His career launched on Wall Street with J.P. Morgan in 1995, following  his graduation with honors from the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of  Business. Also, he holds a Master of Nonprofit Administration, cum laude, from the University  of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business. 

As a sought-after keynote speaker and host of the Small Business is Big Business with Mark L.  Madrid podcast (powered by C-Suite Media), Mark is an inspiring global voice on economic  opportunity, financial literacy, and AI-powered transformation. Mark’s platforms in AI and AGI  include a groundbreaking AI Guidebook series collaboration with international award-winning  economic developer Kevin Johns and his custom curated AI small business educational forums.  In partnership with Conectado and its CEO Guillermo Diaz, Jr., Mark is deploying game changing fractional C-Suite industry standards, along with his digital twin Markitos. 

His national honors include the Jefferson Award for Public Service, the American Airlines Extra  Mile Award, and an appointment as an Honorary Colonel of the U.S. Army Reserve. Mark’s  unwavering integrity and commitment to excellence and authentic, results-driven innovation  position him as a respected national media commentator and an elite leader in every room. 

Mark has been featured in Forbes, Inc., United Nations Media, the New York Stock Exchange,  the Aspen Institute, American City Business Journals, The Hill, The University of Texas at  Austin, the University of Notre Dame, Texas State University, Stanford University, the Silicon  Valley Business Journal Leadership Trust, the C-Suite Network, the U.S. Conference of Mayors,  the National League of Cities, and iHeart Radio, among other leading platforms. 

The Honorable Mark L. Madrid embodies a philosophy of scaling with heart and velocity,  proving that no matter how noisy the world becomes, the strongest currency is clarity, and the  most powerful leaders are those who lead with unshakable integrity, fanatic discipline, a mighty  heart, the will to win, and contagious energy. 

Suemy G is a violinist and vocalist from Sacramento, California, now based in Los Angeles. She began playing violin at age five, starting with classical music, then mariachi, and now performs across a variety of genres—mostly pop. A graduate of USC’s Thornton School of Music, Suemy is a Latin Grammy nominee who has recorded for Lady Gaga and performed on renowned stages like the Hollywood Bowl and Dolby Theatre. She has shared the stage with celebrated artists such as Lila Downs and currently performs as a musician for The Walt Disney Company. In addition to live performances, Suemy records custom violin tracks for other artists out of her home studio. With dynamic stage presence, she lights up every performance with soul and energy.

• Marc has 25+ years Of extensive experience helping brands grow,
  from startup disruptors to established category leaders, and across
  categories and geographies. He has been with Kantar since 2005.
• Sampling of brands worked on: Google, YouTube, Corona, Modelo,
  Pepsi, Frito Lay, Beam Suntory, Discover financial, Wells Fargo,
  Quaker, Meta, Microsoft, The New York Times
• Currently serves as a subject matter expert and senior strategist in
  Kantar’s Brand practice

Patty Juarez has spent more than 30 years at Wells Fargo where she has held a variety of leadership roles. Currently, Patty serves as the Head of Hispanic/Latino affairs. She is responsible for building a Hispanic/Latino external engagement portfolio focused on national cultural engagement, executive recruitment, business development, and stakeholder relations. She partners with External Engagement, and Government Relations to curate national and local stakeholder activities.

Patty has a long history of leadership in the Latino community. She is former chairwoman and current board member of the Orange County Hispanic Chamber, she is on the board of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, and on the advisory board for the Latino Donor Collaborative. She is also on the board of Governors at Chapman University and on the Chancellor’s Council at the University of California, Berkeley. Patty is also involved in diversity and entrepreneurship initiatives at Cal, Stanford, and Harvard Universities.

Externally, Patty often speaks about topics such as access to capital, multi-cultural marketing, and financial literacy. Internally, Patty is past president of the Hispanic & Latino Connection Employee Resource Network, which has 53 chapters and represents more than 35,000 Latinos at Wells Fargo. Patty lives in Orange County, California, with her children Isabella and Max.

Adrienne Pulido oversees thought leadership and trends for U.S. diversity markets at Kantar MONITOR. She has been designing and leading marketing research for over 30 years in the US and in Latin America.  She has spent half her career as a research specialist and entrepreneur and the other half as a strategist and account planner in the advertising industry. 

Adrienne was a partner at an innovative cultural metrics firm and broke ground as the first Research and Account Planning Director of a U.S. Hispanic agency at Publicis, where she later served as COO.  She was also Planning Director for D’arcy Américas, covering over 16 Latin American countries under the Publicis umbrella.

Adrienne’s expertise covers the full spectrum of quantitative and qualitative survey design. She excels at developing culture metrics, utilizing cutting-edge tools and techniques, and transforming data into compelling narratives for strategic planning. A proud ambicultural professional fluent in English and Spanish, Adrienne holds an MBA and BBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Adrienne is a member of the Executive Latina Leadership Alliance (Ellas), member of the 2025 IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access) Council Insights Association task force, Hispanic Marketing Council (HMC) 2025 Strategic Excellence Awards Jury, the ANA Multicultural Marketing Awards Jury and was featured in the book- Think and Grow Rich – A Latino Choice. 

Zach DeWalt is Senior Director of Media Effectiveness at
Kantar, based in New York. He partners with leading
Advertisers, Agencies, and Publishers to design customized
measurement strategies that evaluate and enhance the impact
of paid media. With deep expertise in marketing analytics,
Zach helps clients translate performance insights into
actionable optimizations. His work supports smarter
investment decisions and drives greater marketing
effectiveness across channels.

Ana Valdez is the President and CEO of The Latino Donor Collaborative. She is an American marketing, media, research, and political expert and thought leader with 30 years of experience in business, media, and the corporate world. Born and raised in Mexico City, she has studied and worked in Mexico, Europe, and the United States. She has lived in Los Angeles, California, since 1997. Valdez began her career at Nielsen, where she developed the company’s largest market research client base. She then worked for Banamex, now Citibank, attracting multi-billion-dollar foreign investors and helping them identify the best business opportunities in the country. Since then, she has worked at the United Nations in Geneva, the Clinton Administration in Washington, DC, and has collaborated with companies such as Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Procter & Gamble, Pepsi, CBRE, Morgan Stanley, and McDonald’s, among others. Since 2014, Valdez has served as the executive leader of the Latino Donor Collaborative, working directly with corporate CEOs and the C-suite to establish a think tank called the Latino Data Collaborative. The LDC produces economic data and business fact-based tools to identify market growth opportunities and develop innovative strategies to engage the new mainstream consumer. Research partners include Columbia, Stanford, UCLA, ASU, Bain, BCG, Accenture, and NERA. As the CEO, Ana has transformed LDC’s data into a tool for all American resource allocators: CEOs, the C-suite, and institutions such as the
Federal Reserve, the White House, and the Joint Economic Council of Congress. At the same time, Ana has served on the board of trustees of Southern California Public Radio since 2011 and chaired the board from 2016 to 2020. During those four years, Ana led the national search for a new CEO and made a deliberate strategic effort to create growth by using fact-based data to identify additional audiences. Ana has been recognized as one of the Top 10 Latinos in America in 2018 by Hispanic Magazine, one of the Top 50 Most Influential Latinas in the United States in 2020, one of the Top 100 Latinas by Latino Leaders Magazine in 2021, and one of the eight CHANGEMAKERS within the 2022 Fifty Most Powerful Latinas by ALPFA, 100 Top Latino Leaders in 2022 by Latino Leaders Magazine, Top Latina Leaders 2023 in Latino Leaders Magazine, and nominated for Inspiring Women of the Year in 2023 by the LA Times, to name a few. She is a sought-after national and international speaker, having worked as an assistant professor at Tec de Monterrey, an on-air political and media analyst for Fox11 and Univision, and a blogger for MyFoxParents.com, Huffington Post, and CNN online. She is a best-selling published co-author of the book Extraordinary Latinas in March 2023.

Julie has extensive experience in shopper insights, having worked on the client side in consumer electronics, consumer healthcare, and QSR. She has partnered with a wide variety of retailers and manufacturers on turning insights into actions that grow categories and build brands. Julie holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Smith College and an MBA in marketing and decision support analysis from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.

Todd is a results-oriented brand strategist and consultant with over 22 years of extensive mixed methodology and advanced analytics research experience across all verticals including B2B.
An indispensable brand partner that helps develop and curate global creative campaigns that gamer attention through emotional engagement while deliver meaningfully different messaging that supports both brand growth and equity.

An Al enthusiast, adept at leveraging advanced techniques such as prompt engineering, personas, an synthetic data to extract meaningful information for impactful consumer insights and brand building.

A proven methodology and product innovator known for expanding traditional attitudinal insights by integrating System 1 and behavioral data. Author of “Feel, Behave, Think — the pathway to human decision making,” showcasing behavioral science and economics expertise in understanding and influencing human decision processes.

Active listener skilled in engaging clients to draw out insights that are blocked by cognitive biases. Proven relationship builder, delivering unity through actionable metrics that contribute to brand growth
and increased sales.

Gonzalo Perez is a consumer-obsessed insights leader with over 20 years of experience helping brands grow through deep consumer understanding- As Senior Director of Qualitative Consulting at Kantar, Gonzalo leads U.S. and global research engagements that span brand strategy, creative development, innovation, customer experience, segmentation, and 82B. He is also the qualitative lead for Kantaffs Sustainable Transformation Practice and advises clients on how to authentically engage high-grovvth and multicultural segments through cultural intelligence.

Gonzalo’s career has included Hispanic ad agency and client-side roles as wul as leadership roles at MTV Networks(now Paramount Global,) where he oversaw brand strategy and consumer insights and was the first Director of Multicultural Insights. He founded his own insights consultancy, where he partnered with brands like ESPN, Nike, MTV, NFL, Sony, and Kraft to elevate Hispanic and Millennial voices in marketing. Currently, his client portfolio at Kantar includes some of the most iconic brands in CPG, Tech and Communications, Apparel, Financial Services, Consumer Electronics, Media, and more.

Known for his empathetic and disarming moderation style, Gonzalo has conducted research with a wide range of aucfiences—from Gen Z and tech influencers to multicultural consumers and C-suite leaders. He is fluent in Spanish and skilled in both traditional and tech-fueled qualitative methods, including digital ethnographies, online communities, and Al-powered qual. Regardless of the methodology or approach, he helps clients unlock consumer insights that connect to
their strategic brand grov.’th initiatives and business objectives.

Gonzalo holds a BA in Psychology from Syracuse University

Alex, Founder and President of GSI Builders Inc., (est. 2018) in Portland, Oregon, is a dedicated, talented, third-generation commercial contractor with extensive experience spanning Finance, architectural design, construction management, and private development. Alex understands and possesses the tools needed to analyze and optimize all aspects of construction projects from beginning to end. With over 24 years of direct experience including: jobsite supervision, estimating, project development and project management, he leads by example and has assembled a strong and very successful team of experienced professionals.

The strength of GSI Builders lies in its proven performance and deep knowledge of commercial construction principles and practices. Backed by a team of highly accomplished professionals dedicated to meeting the unique demands of every project, GSI Builders stands united in its mission and looks forward to continued growth and opportunity in the years ahead.

Having founded and started multiple small businesses, his primary passion leads him to assist others with opportunities to grow their own businesses in the commercial construction industry. “We grow together while creating opportunities for each other.” As a certified Minority General Contractor in the State of Oregon and a family history of Leadership in the Latino community in the Portland-Metro area, he has strong roots and ties to communities of color and continues to support the Latino Community both locally and nationally.

Alex’s education and training at Oregon State University and Portland State University focusing on Economics and International Finance, prepared him for his professional career.

Andrea Zapata is the Vice President of Advertising Data, Measurement, and Partnerships at T-Mobile Advertising Solutions, where she spearheads data services, measurement, and insights products.

Zapata previously served as EVP of Ad Sales Research, Measurement, and Insights at Warner Bros. Discovery, where she oversaw research across Warner Bros. Discovery’s linear and digital brands, marketplace intelligence, and outcome-focused research for advertisers. Before that, she was the Head of Research, Data, and Insights at WarnerMedia.

Her career also includes significant roles such as Vice President of West Coast Sales at Vevo, where she enhanced the value of premium music videos, and leadership positions at Effectv and Hulu. At Hulu, she was instrumental in building the research practice from scratch and refining the company’s go-to-market sales narrative.

Andrea is a sought-after speaker and panelist at major advertising industry events, including the Cannes Lions festival, SXSW, IAB MIXX, and TV of Tomorrow Show. She attended the Ohio State University. Recognized for her exceptional contributions to the industry, Andrea was named a 2022 Top Women in Media Data Demystifier by Ad Exchanger and listed as one of CableFax’s 2023 Most Powerful Women in Cable.

Beatriz Acevedo is one of the most influential Latina entrepreneurs, a global keynote speaker, and a leading voice in the future of culture and financial innovation. She is the CEO and Co-founder of SUMA Wealth, an innovative fintech platform powered by culturally intelligent AI and designed to serve the fastest-growing and most influential young demographic in the U.S.

Beatriz has raised over $60 million for ventures that fuse innovation with purpose and scale. A trailblazer in media, she launched one of the first culture-first digital platforms, before the term “creator economy” even existed, producing over 1,000 hours of original content and earning 3 Emmys and an MTV Award. Her career is defined by being early to what’s next, from digital media to the current revolution in AI.

Her thought leadership has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Fortune, Business Insider, the Wall Street Journal, and NPR’s How I Built This. She is a regular contributor to CNN, the Los Angeles Times, and LinkedIn News. As a speaker, she has delivered keynotes at the White House, SXSW, Cannes Lions, and for global institutions including Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley.

Beatriz serves on the boards of the LA28 Olympic Committee, Beneficial State Bank, and the Latino Community Foundation, and has advised organizations including the Small Business Administration, Delta Airlines, and the Annenberg Foundation’s PledgeLA. Her unique bicultural lens, entrepreneurial track record, and deep ties across industries make her a trusted advisor to those shaping the future.

She is also the president of The Acevedo Foundation, originally founded by her father in Mexico and now focused on advancing education, representation, and capital access for emerging entrepreneurs and leaders in the U.S.

She is building what’s next at the intersection of technology, capital, and culture.

Daniel Fernandez is a dedicated advocate for equitable access to capital and economic empowerment, particularly within communities of color, Latino, and African American populations. Raised in the vibrant cultural landscape of the Bay Area, Daniel’s formative years were shaped by the resilience and ingenuity of his community, where informal and entrepreneurial endeavors played pivotal roles in sustaining livelihoods.

Drawing upon his cultural roots and a career trajectory in finance, Daniel embarked on a mission to bridge the gap in financial resources for underserved populations across the nation. With an unwavering commitment to social impact, he has spearheaded innovative programs and products aimed at democratizing access to responsible capital. Through his efforts, Daniel has facilitated the deployment of over $100 million in alternative micro-capital, collaborating with various banks and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs).

Now serving as CEO of TMC Community Capital, Daniel leads the organization in its mission to revolutionize the community lending industry. His leadership marks a pivotal moment in the organization’s journey, as he navigates towards creating a transformative framework that fosters systemic change and economic mobility. Daniel’s vision transcends traditional lending models, championing inclusivity and equity as core principles.

At the heart of Daniel’s approach is a steadfast commitment to innovative solutions and social justice. He envisions a future where every individual, irrespective of background or circumstance, has the opportunity to realize their version of success. Grounded in this ethos, Daniel is dedicated to dismantling barriers, amplifying voices, and fostering an ecosystem where prosperity is within reach for all.

David Arenas is the Managing Director of Investments and Development at ALL Construction Group, and President of David Arenas and Associates, Inc. David is a Co-Founder and Member of the Board Directors of the Hispanic Construction Council. With a distinguished career spanning finance, investments, real estate development, technology, operations, construction project management, corporate board governance, and executive leadership, David is a seasoned executive known for his strategic insights and transformative leadership.

David has a rich history of advising clients ranging from Fortune 100 corporations to high-growth startups, providing invaluable expertise in addressing critical strategic, investment, governance, and leadership challenges. His unique perspective, shaped by executive roles in technology investment banking, board advisory services, distribution, and the infrastructure-construction sectors, enables him to effectively engage with leaders and clients, driving organizations through their next stages of growth and development.

Previously, David served as Managing Principal at James Drury Partners, where he led the firm’s Hispanic board services practice. Before that, he founded and led his own firm, David Arenas and Associates, providing strategic, financial, and managerial advisory services. His career also includes significant executive positions at N.B. Handy, Spencer Stuart, SG Cowen, and JP Morgan.

David holds an MBA and a master’s degree in engineering management, both from Northwestern University. He is an executive member of the Latino Corporate Directors Association, a former Board Member of the Illinois Capital Development Board, and an advisor and mentor to the Hispanic IT Executive Council (HITEC) and mHUB’s Climate and Clean Energy Technology Accelerator.

James Williams is an Army brat born in Nuremberg, Germany and raised in Las Cruces, NM where he started his career as a teller in 2008. He has been with Wells Fargo for 16 years and supported the Consumer Bank as a Service Manager and Interim Branch Manager in California prior to his VP, Senior Program Manager role with the Wells Fargo At Work Program in Colorado. He is a graduate of Colorado State University where he earned his BS in Project Management. Throughout his time with Wells Fargo, he has developed strong analytical, communication, and leadership skills, as well as a deep understanding of the banking industry and the needs of consumers and businesses.

During his time in Colorado, he held various leadership roles with his local Wells Fargo Employee Impact Teams including Chairman of Communication, Finance, and Events. His collaboration with the American Cancer Society, Boulder County, United Way, and Habitat for Humanity provided the opportunity for him to develop and lead various volunteer events over the years. In 2022 he was offered a role within the Commercial Bank and decided to settle in Yukon, OK with his fiancé Garrett and their three dogs after living in Colorado since 2013.

Currently, James serves as the Vice President of Commercial Banking Business Development supporting both the states of Oklahoma and Arkansas. In his role, he partners across business lines to connect companies to the capital, products, services, and resources necessary to help them scale and succeed financially. He enjoys building close relationships with business owners and key

John Armstrong is a Managing Director in the Engineering & Construction practice of BMO Bank with responsibility for client coverage in the sector. He has over 25 years broad experience in all aspects of the E&C sector including bank market financing, capital markets origination, strategic alternatives, financial and credit analysis, surety and insurance, financial reporting, management accounting and controls, as well as E&C industry strategic and tactical analysis.

In addition, John has deep expertise in general  banking operations including cash management, liquidity and investment management, foreign exchange, risk management, private wealth management, ownership transition and corporate finance advisory services.

Prior to joining BMO in 2005, John was previously employed with Bank of America, Reliance / Travelers Insurance Company and PHH Corporation. Mr. Armstrong holds a B.A. in Economics from McDaniel College and a M.B.A. from Duke University.

Luis Gonzalez currently oversees Small Business Growth Philanthropy Strategy and Operations for Wells Fargo Bank.

Mr. Gonzalez joined Wells Fargo in 2014 overseeing corporate communications and public relations efforts in Southern California. He brings over 24 years of experience working in community relations, corporate philanthropy and community-based initiatives. His efforts have aided in the implementation of various programs focused on small business growth, education, health and human services, civic projects and economic development for communities.

Prior to his current role, Mr. Gonzalez managed Social Impact and Sustainability initiatives for Wells Fargo Bank in Los Angeles County and Southern California. His work included community development initiatives and oversight of grant-funding efforts on behalf of Wells Fargo Bank and the Wells Fargo Foundation.

His previous efforts have included work with the national settlement house movement and collaboration with United Neighborhood Centers of America on developing multiple critical services for communities. In addition, his work has supported community engagement for International delegations through the US State Department and advocacy work with various local, regional and national organizations including, the Congressional Black Caucus 21st Century Council, National Council of La Raza (UnidosUS), Head Start, the US Latino American Chamber of Commerce and many others on key community and economic issues.

Mr. Gonzalez is a United States Marine Corps veteran who served in military operations in the Middle East and understands the needs of our diverse global community. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications with an Emphasis in Media Management from San Diego State University a Masters in Management from National University and is a graduate of the San Diego Public Leadership Institute. He has served on various boards focused on community and economic development including the Grid Alternatives Greater Los Angeles Board, the Southern California Grant Makers Corporate Leadership Council, and the Los Angeles Small Business Ecosystem Advisory Council. 

Mr. Hoyas is the Chief Executive Officer of The Hoyas Insurance Group, a leading insurance brokerage firm based in Cleveland, Ohio. The firm specializes in Commercial Business Insurance, as well as Life, Property, and Casualty products. Under his leadership, the organization has built a reputation for delivering tailored insurance solutions that meet the unique and evolving needs of business clients.

In addition to his work in insurance, Mr. Hoyas has expanded his business portfolio over the past 15 years into the Real Estate and Construction industries. He currently leads GAHA Holdings, Inc., a property management company, and Alto FSI Ltd., an insulation and firestopping company focused on healthcare and industrial construction projects.

Mr. Hoyas began his professional career in 1992 with The Allstate Insurance Company as a Computer Operations Manager Trainee. He progressed rapidly within the company, ultimately serving as the State Territory Manager for Michigan, where he achieved a ranking in the top 10% nationwide for sales performance.

In 2003, Mr. Hoyas returned to Columbus, Ohio, to join Nationwide Insurance Company as a Regional Sales and Operations Consultant. Over the next five years, he earned two fast-track promotions, ultimately becoming the State Sales Director for Ohio and West Virginia. During this time, he led the region to a 1,000% increase in revenue and more than doubled the size of his team.

In 2008, driven by his entrepreneurial spirit, Mr. Hoyas left his high-six-figure corporate position to purchase a small insurance agency in Twinsburg, Ohio. Through focused leadership, strategic restructuring, and a commitment to excellence, he grew the agency from $1.2 million to $8 million in revenue over 10 years. His efforts included creating a high-performing team and segmenting the agency into specialized units for sales and service, resulting in 150% growth.Mr. Hoyas is also a tremendous advocate for the success of small and minority-owned businesses, especially in the construction sector. His passion for creating equitable opportunities led him to co-found the Hispanic Construction Council, an organization dedicated to addressing the challenges faced by Hispanic contractors and the broader workforce. He is also the former President of the Hispanic Contractors Association of Cleveland, where he worked to promote representation, access to resources, and community growth within the industry.

Mar Diteos Rendón is the CEO of Accessity, a nonprofit lender expanding inclusive economic opportunity through access to capital and community support. With nearly 20 years of experience in strategy, finance, and social impact, Mar leads efforts to serve entrepreneurs across Southern California. Formerly the organization’s COO, she brings a strong track record of scaling operations, driving innovation, and championing equity. Her leadership reflects a deep commitment to building a more inclusive and thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Kevin Kellogg is Market President for the Pacific Northwest, which includes Oregon, Washington and California. Kevin is focused on community revitalization through the creation of high-quality mixed-income housing and mixed-use redevelopment. He has extensive experience in finance and development, architecture and urban design, construction management, community engagement, and establishing and maintaining co-development partnerships. Prior to joining Gorman, Kevin was director of Real Estate at Hacienda CDC, a latino based nonprofit, and held posts at the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico and the Housing Authority of Maricopa County, Arizona. Kevin served in several positions at the College of Design at Arizona State University, including teaching studio courses and leading funded, public-private research projects focused on urban sustainability, equitable development, transportation and housing policy. He holds a Masters of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Architecture from
Arizona State University.

Luis Martinez helps business owners and senior leaders protect what matters most—balance sheets, assets, and people. At Lockton, he specializes in Property & Casualty insurance and surety, with a focus on Construction & Design, Real Estate, and Private Equity in the U.S. and Latin America. He partners with clients to design strategic risk management programs that not only protect but also create financial opportunities for growth.

Miguel A. Caraballo is a U.S. Air Force veteran, entrepreneur, and business leader with over 25 years of experience in the HVAC industry. As the Owner of Caraballo Heating and Air Conditioning, Miguel has built a trusted company known for delivering high-quality heating and cooling solutions backed by a commitment to customer satisfaction and technical excellence. He is also a Partner at Alto FSI, where his strong mechanical background contributes valuable expertise that supports strategic growth and innovation across the firm’s diverse ventures. Miguel is passionate about creating meaningful career opportunities—not just jobs—and firmly believes in the importance of continuous education and developing the future workforce to meet the evolving demands of the construction industry. Drawing on his military discipline and extensive experience, he leads with integrity and purpose, dedicating himself to workforce development, mentorship, and building stronger communities through business leadership.

Nilson Goes serves as CEO of IEC Engineering & Construction (IEC), a role in which he strategically directs the company’s mission and market expansion across the Federal, Utility, and Commercial sectors. Under his leadership, IEC has built a strong presence in the construction management and EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) services industries on a national scale. Headquartered in Kansas City, IEC maintains additional offices in Southern California, Central Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina.

Born and partially raised in Brazil, Nilson brings a global perspective to his leadership at IEC, enriched by his fluency in Portuguese and Spanish. This multicultural background has enhanced his ability to navigate the diverse landscape of industries and clients IEC serves. His expertise in both language and culture has been pivotal in strengthening IEC’s client relationships and fostering growth in various markets while maintaining a commitment to representing and the Hispanic business community.

Nilson’s holds a bachelor’s degree from the Neely School of Business at Texas Christian University, where he developed a strong foundation in business management. Furthering his education, he earned a Master of Business Administration from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, where he honed his skills in leadership, strategy, and finance. He has also completed executive education programs for minority business owners at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

In addition to his leadership at IEC, Nilson is deeply committed to his community in Kansas City. He has served on the boards of several prominent organizations, including the Greater Kansas City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Wonderscope Children’s Museum, and the Martin City Improvement District, among others. Nilson is a member of YPO – Young President’s Organization, an international professional and personal development organization and serves on the board of directors for the Kansas City Chapter. Through these roles, Nilson has contributed to the growth and development of local businesses, cultural institutions, and community infrastructure, showcasing his dedication to both professional and civic engagement.

Nilson’s leadership is marked by a commitment to fostering growth, both within IEC and in the broader communities and industries the company serves. His strategic vision and passion for building relationships have been key drivers in IEC’s success as a nationally recognized construction management and EPC firm.

Pancho began his career in the restaurant industry as a McDonald’s Franchisee in 1993 in Tabasco, Mexico, where he owned and operated five restaurants over eight years. In 2002, Pancho joined McDonald’s Corporation as Vice President of Operations for McDonald’s Mexico, with preparation in Venezuela, Brazil, and Southern California. In 2004, he was promoted to Senior Vice President of Operations, overseeing the Central America Region. Two years later, he became Managing Director for McDonald’s Mexico, also working with Arcos Dorados. In 2009, Pancho transitioned to the U.S. business as Vice President for the Indianapolis Region, and later, Vice President of Operations and Franchising for the Greater Chicago Region (Nov. 2009–Jan. 2013). In February 2013, he became Vice President and General Manager of the Michigan Region, leading the region through a difficult economic downturn and implementing the Michigan Vision 2020 plan, including capital allocation to revitalize the Detroit market. His success in navigating these challenges led him to serve as Vice President and General Manager for the Houston Region until August 2018. Before joining Lopez Dorada as CEO in June 2022, Pancho served as Vice President of the Americas for Inspire Brands, overseeing all brands including Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and Sonic across 16 countries. Pancho has earned numerous accolades throughout his career, including the prestigious Golden Arch Award and the Outstanding Plan Execution Award from McDonald’s USA. Known as a proven thought leader, he is deeply committed to achieving results through collaboration. A graduate of Seneca College in Toronto, Pancho has completed leadership certifications in Finance and Executive Management through the Instituto Tecnologico De Estudios Superiores De Monterrey (ITESM), Strategic Planning at the University of Chicago, and Brand Mastery at Kellogg School of Management. He is also a graduate of McDonald’s LAMP Program in association with Thunderbird University (Global Management 2004-2005). Pancho is Chairman Emeritus of the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (HHCC) and serves as a Board Member for the Latino Donor Collaborative (LDC) and the Greater Oklahoma City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Recently, he was appointed to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Economic Advisory Council, which covers Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico.

Sheena Fain is a seasoned professional who brings a wealth of experience to her role as Community and Citizenship Manager at Turner Construction. With a strong background in HR leadership and community engagement, Sheena is committed to ensuring equitable and sustainable impact in the communities where Turner operates. She excels at fostering strategic relationships and promoting community engagement through servant leadership and transformative practices. 

Before joining Turner, Sheena made significant contributions as the City of Akron’s first Contract Compliance & Supplier Diversity Officer under the administration of Mayor Horrigan. In this role, she refined her skills in development and community engagement, advocating for initiatives that promoted economic mobility in underserved business communities and social equity. 

Sheena holds an MBA from the University of Phoenix and a BA in Management. She has also received various certifications, including one in Entrepreneurship from Cornell University. Her academic background, coupled with her passion for community empowerment, has positioned her as a vital asset to any team. 

Her commitment to community, transformative leadership, and ability to solve complex issues has made her an influential force in driving positive change. In her past roles, Sheena has consistently demonstrated her dedication to creating opportunities for underserved populations and fostering a culture of inclusivity, making her an invaluable contributor to her organization and the communities she serves.  

Outside of her professional endeavors, Sheena is actively involved in various nonprofit initiatives, further showcasing her dedication to social impact and community development. 

Born and raised in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, Yan Rodriguez is a dedicated nonprofit professional with a strong commitment to workforce development and community empowerment. He holds a bachelor’s degree in international studies and political science, with a minor in Pre-Law, from the University of Dayton (2012–2016).

Since relocating to Cleveland, Ohio, Yan has focused his career on creating pathways to economic opportunity within underserved communities. He currently serves as the Latino Construction Program Instructor and Coordinator at The Spanish American Committee, where he leads a workforce development initiative aimed at preparing members of the Latino community in Northeast Ohio for careers in the construction and skilled trades industries.

In this role, Yan facilitates training, builds connections with unions and residential construction employers, and works to bridge talent pipelines, helping participants gain meaningful employment while supporting the growth of a diverse, skilled workforce. His work is rooted in a mission to foster economic mobility and create lasting change through equitable access to career opportunities.

Rod Cruz is a transformational marketing and go-to-market leader who drives measurable growth and innovation across telecom, healthcare, and enterprise technology. As Vice President of Segment Marketing at T-Mobile for Business, he leads integrated strategies for the SEGA customer segments—overseeing demand generation, field marketing, base engagement, offers, and performance management. His data-driven, customer-centric approach ensures tight alignment with sales, products, and finance to accelerate business outcomes.

Rod’s leadership has delivered results at scale. At RingCentral, he launched the Revenue Growth Initiatives Office, deploying an AI-driven Propensity to Buy model that influenced more than $500M in revenue. At McKesson, he built the Vendor Management Office and technology PMO, leading 650+ enterprise-wide initiatives. Earlier in his career, Rod spent over a decade at AT&T, where he shaped the healthcare vertical strategy, introduced groundbreaking B2B solutions, and advanced complex enterprise go-to-market programs.

He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University and Master’s Certificates in Telecommunications Management and Project Management. A former Board Member of the IoT Community and active member of the American Marketing Association, Rod is recognized as both a strategist and a builder. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time on his yoga mat, playing chess and following college football.

Julian Cañete is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce (CHCC) and its Foundation. The CHCC is a leading advocate for small businesses throughout California, representing over 130 Hispanic and diverse chambers of commerce and business associations. Collectively, the CHCC represents 1.8 million diverse small businesses across the state, promoting economic growth and fostering sustainable prosperity that benefits California’s economy and communities.

Julian previously served as the Vice President for Public Policy and Strategic Partnerships at the California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce. He resumed his role as President and CEO of the CHCC in August 2017, first serving in this capacity from 1999 to 2006 and again from 2009 to 2013.

In addition to his leadership roles, Julian is actively involved in several organizations. He serves on the boards of multiple entities, including the Northeast Community Federal Credit Union, the California Department of General Services Small Business Council, and the CalTrans Small Business Council. He has also been a member of the California Association of Micro-Enterprise Organizations (CAMEO), a member of the SBDC Northern California Network Advisory Board, and Vice Chair of the CalVet Fund Foundation. Julian was a founding member of the California Utilities Diversity Council and has held the position of Chairman for T-Mobile’s California External Council.

Roberto is an entrepreneur, speaker, and educator with a wealth of experience in digital marketing, entrepreneurship, AI and technology. He’s passionate about helping businesses grow and succeed in the digital age running over 500 marketing and entrepreneurial workshops since 2017. He runs Braven Agency, a digital marketing agency, and SMRTS, a business intelligence AI software company.

He is also Google’s California Coach, teaching small businesses how to leverage Google technology to scale. In 2020, he was appointed by the Mayor of Los Angeles as the City’s Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR), where he created and launched LA Optimized, an SMB program designed to digitize businesses to sell online during and post-pandemic. In January of 2024, Roberto launched Braven Creative Studios AI, an AI creative solution that has run AI training for Google, USC, and Amazon after securing certification from Google AI and ChatGPT. In 2024, he was selected by LA Times B2B Magazine as a DEIA Awardee.

Roberto has collaborated with prominent organizations such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon and academic institutions including Stanford, UCLA, and USC. Roberto’s expertise extends beyond the corporate sector, as he has actively engaged with governments, cities, and nonprofit entities to bridge the digital divide through programming including Delete the Divide, LA Optimized, and Digital Communities Program.

Roberto is also a visiting professor at CSULB School of Business, where he teaches digital marketing and social media analytics. Before entering the entrepreneurial space, he worked for Janssen Pharmaceuticals, the Canadian Foreign Service, and the U.S. State Department. He is driven by his passion for helping others and making a positive impact on the world by raising funds for immigrant communities in Latin America.

Ana Ossa is T-Mobile for Business’s Senior Director of Product Management. Ana is responsible for leading the Advanced Networks organization, delivering a broad portfolio of 5G ANS, IoT, and Government products. Ana’s extensive experience throughout her career includes developing innovative solutions at Telecom companies such as Charter, Verizon, Jabil, and Alcatel-Lucent. Her contributions have been pivotal in transforming business units, increasing revenue and margins, and launching new product lines. Ana holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a master’s degree from Stevens Institute of Technology. Beyond her professional endeavors, she is a dedicated advocate for diversity in STEM, serving as a Board Member for a non-profit organization committed to closing the diversity gap. Ana spent 20 years swimming competitively in her native country of Colombia and through college in the USA. In her spare time nowadays she loves to travel, and endeavors to visit a new country every year.

José Villa is the founder and President/Chief Strategy Officer of Sensis, an integrated cross-cultural marketing agency. He founded Sensis in 1998 as one of the first digital agencies focused on the multicultural market. Under José’s leadership, Sensis has grown into an award-winning full-service agency and the largest 100% minority-owned advertising agency in the country.

José focuses his work on helping organizations win in the New Mainstream Economy where demographic change, culture, and technology converge to drive growth. He has pioneered a cross-cultural approach to marketing and co-authored multiple studies including the Hispanic Millennial Project, We Are Gen Z, the Boomer Cultures Report, and the New Hispanic Immigrant Report. His work blends research-driven strategy, digital transformation, and brand growth across financial services, healthcare, government, and education sectors.

José leads Sensis’ operations and directly oversees Research and Strategic Planning at Sensis. His insights appear in Axios, PRWeek, AdAge, Digiday, and MediaPost, and he is a regular industry speaker; his client experience includes the U.S. Army, University of Texas, Voya Financial, AltaMed, Match Group, and the CDC. José holds an Economics degree from Harvard University and an MBA in Marketing from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Vicent Llopis is Vice President, Executive Creative Director at Acento. Over the past 20 years, he has led creative teams on four continents, developing award-winning campaigns in multiple languages and categories. With a strong focus on creating experiences that cross channel boundaries, he embraces digital and social-first approaches to engage audiences and move their emotions. 

In addition to his global creative leadership, Vincent is an early adopter and advocate of creative AI, exploring its potential to transform ideation, storytelling, and design workflows. He integrates AI-driven tools into the creative process to enhance innovation, accelerate production, and unlock new forms of brand expression.

Glenn Oyoung is a veteran marketing leader and the Director of the Marketing Division and Chief Marketing Officer at Covered California, where he oversees brand, advertising, research, and member communications to connect Californians with comprehensive, affordable coverage through equity‑focused campaigns that serve millions statewide. Previously, he directed national brand advertising for Kaiser Permanente across Northern and Southern California and managed an integrated agency team; led marketing and transportation electrification programs at Burbank Water & Power; served as a senior project manager at CorePoint 1 Management Consulting; and co‑founded STAGE3 AGENCY, a digital media firm for automotive clients. He has also led strategic marketing and customer experience initiatives for Southern California Edison and the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power. Glenn holds an MBA in Marketing & Entrepreneurship from UCLA Anderson and a Master of Jurisprudence in Energy and Environmental Law and Policy from Texas A&M University School of Law.

Ileana Musa is the Head of Sales for Morgan Stanley Private Bank. In her role she leads a large-scale sales organization of Private Bankers, Lenders and Product Specialists who partner strategically with Financial Advisors to advise clients on both sides of the balance sheet. Most recently she lent her talent to co-heading Morgan Stanley’s International Wealth Management business. Ileana is a member of Morgan Stanley’s Wealth Management Committee, Wealth Management Operating Committee, Latin America Management Committee, and the U.S. Banks Management Committee. Ileana co-chairs the Enterprise Latino Employee Network and serves as a trustee on the Morgan Stanley Foundation Board.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Ileana was the Global Client Segment and Strategy Executive for Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. In this capacity, she focused on helping international financial advisors ensure the delivery of a consistent, goals-based wealth management experience for international high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients. Prior to this role, Ileana was head of International Credit and Banking within Bank of America’s Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM) Banking group. In this role, she led the teams that supported and delivered integrated liquidity, cash management and lending solutions and services to financial advisors and high net worth clients in Latin America, Asia, and Europe.

Ileana held several leadership roles in the domestic, international, and affluent banking platforms at Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, where she lent her talent to growing their cross-border wealth management businesses.

Ileana is a Trustee and Vice-Chair of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino Board of Trustees and sits on the Girl Scouts National Board (GSUSA) and the corporate advisory board of the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA).

Ileana is the recipient of the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA). She was named to the 100 Latinas by Latino Leaders in 2023 for the second year in a row and was the recipient of the 2022 Latino Leaders Maestro Award in the Category of Professional Achievement.

Ileana Musa is employed by Morgan Stanley Private Bank, National Association, Member FDIC

Michael serves as a Financial Advisor based out of Beverly Hills, CA and he focuses on employee engagement, financial wellness and retirement plan design. He holds the Morgan Stanley designations of Corporate Retirement Director and Financial Wellness Director, which demonstrate knowledge and experience working with businesses and their employees to promote retirement readiness.

Michael began his career in financial services in 2009. Before joining Morgan Stanley in 2021, he was a senior retirement plan consultant with UBS Financial Services. Michael has earned several industry credentials, including Chartered Retirement Plan Specialist, Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and Certified 401(k) Professional. Michael holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Mexico, where he graduated with honors in English and Marketing.

Alongside his workplace duties, he serves as a volunteer officer for the Professionals in Human Resources Association-West Los Angeles Chapter and as Board Chair for Students Run Los Angeles, a nonprofit focused on youth development. In both positions, he demonstrates a commitment to supporting the community and helping improve the financial lives of others.

Rodrigo Suarez-Navarro is a Financial Advisor at The Cotto Wealth Management Group at Morgan Stanley, based in Purchase, New York. Within his team’s wealth advisory practice, Rodrigo works with publicly traded companies, philanthropic organizations, and high net worth individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit to help them manage their financial well-being.

Rodrigo joined The Cotto Wealth Management Group in 2017 and has assisted in several roles since. He evaluates the various asset allocation techniques when creating client portfolios that are specifically tailored to each client. In addition to portfolio management, he interprets the needs and goals of clients to create comprehensive financial plans. He also oversees the maintenance of client accounts and operational support for institutional clients within the team.

Rodrigo graduated from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College with a degree in Finance and Political Science, and holds his Series 7 and Series 66 financial securities licenses. He is a co-founder and former member of the Emerging Leaders Board at Latino U, and a co-founder and member of the Young Professionals Alzheimer’s Council in the Hudson Valley. As a first-generation immigrant from Bolivia, he is passionate about helping other Hispanics who share a similar path. Rodrigo resides in Westchester, New York and enjoys spending time with family and friends, trying new cuisines, working out, skiing, biking and playing soccer.

Rodney Bolden, Executive Director, is the Head of Industry Engagement for Morgan Stanley at Work. In this role, Rodney works with a variety of industry organizations to develop and present thought leadership research on current trends in workplace financial benefits. Additionally, Rodney is the host of the award-winning Morgan Stanley at Work Invested at Work Podcast. He has also served as the Chairperson for the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s Access & Opportunity Advisory Council. Rodney’s speaking engagements include the World Economic Forum, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Global Equity Organization, National Association of Stock Plan Professionals (NASPP) and many others. He has also been published in MarketWatch, BenefitsPro, and AARP. Rodney is an Equity Compensation Associate (ECA), Qualified Plan Financial Consultant (QPFC), and Accredited Financial Counselor®.

Since joining the bank in 2006, Carlos has worked across multiple lines of business, and brings deep client management, project management, process design and optimization, and operations acumen, as well as deep talent management experience. In his most recent role as Sales Performance & Support Executive, he led sales performance and strategy as well as leading the sales support organization for the Northeast commercial banking region for 8 years. 

Today, Carlos sits in Hartford, CT as the Hispanic-Latino Business Segment Executive working with the bank’s eight lines of business to bring solutions to businesses owners and help drive revenue growth and grow market share. 

Carlos has a Bachelors degree in Spanish Literature from the University of California at Santa Barbara and currently sits on the Board of the Hartford Public Library and is Executive Sponsor of HOLA CT. Originally from Los Angeles, California, Carlos enjoys being a father of two boys and one girl (13, 10, 7).

Arturo Cázares has extensive C-level executive leadership experience at various technology companies. He has led business units with multibillion-dollar annual revenue responsibility and thousands of employees at large public technology companies. He has also led the global go-to-market teams at various startups driving revenue growth and scaling the companies to successful acquisitions. Cázares is based in Silicon Valley, has lived and worked in Europe twice, and is originally from Mexico. In addition to the U.S. and Europe, he has extensive experience building and leading teams across Asia and Latin America. 

Arturo Cázares is the CEO of Latino Business Action Network (LBAN), a Silicon Valley based non-profit that partners with Stanford to empower Latino entrepreneurship across the country. With his leadership, LBAN has become a thought leader in Latino entrepreneurship. LBANs foundational research uncovers the facts on millions of Latino entrepreneurs across the U.S., and LBANs ecosystem includes over 1,000 Latino business owners nationally that graduated from its Business Scaling program at Stanford, giving LBAN a uniquely broad and deep understanding of the challenges Latino entrepreneurs face and the great opportunity they represent for the U.S. 

Prior to LBAN, Cázares was a C-level executive with extensive experience scaling businesses, from building and leading teams at start-ups to leading multi-billion-dollar revenue organizations with thousands of employees worldwide. Cázares has lived and worked in Europe twice and has extensive experience in Asia and Latin America. 

Cázares was a child immigrant to the U.S. His family is from rural Mexico; they migrated to the central valley of California, where Cázares was raised. He has an Electrical Engineering degree from Stanford and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He lives in Silicon Valley with his family.

Mei-Lon’s business has always been inseparable from the notions of diversity and inclusion. Growing up as a woman of color, she became familiar with the frustrations of exclusion and homogeneity. She transitioned from being a minority in her interest areas (math and science), to more of the same in her major (biology), to recognizing herself as the only woman in a boardroom: something she “has always been used to in her professional career.” None of these adversities ever held Mei-Lon back. She recognizes the power of an unapologetically confident woman, especially when underestimated. That’s why in her career she has ceaselessly worked as a champion of diversity and inclusion. In fact, her professional endeavors have always had diversity and inclusion prominent within their stitching. She is part of Women in Retail, as well as other women’s entrepreneur groups where she learns from and inspires other women. She volunteers her time speaking at events meant to empower young girls and women alike to embrace their differences and be leaders in their various industries. Her and her sister, Toni, have volunteered at over 300 middle schools as partners with the nonprofit Girls Inc., getting invited because the schools wanted their students to see someone “like them” making a difference and finding success. Finally, Mei-Lon co-founded her current business, Chica Beauty, with her sister, Toni, because they wanted to revolutionize the beauty industry with a brand that screams diversity and inclusion – something that they found was missing in the beauty industry’s current environment. As a Latina CEO, founder and business-woman, Mei-Lon feels proud to represent the change she wishes to see in the world. 

The foundation of Mei-Lon’s current business, Chica Beauty, is the mission of empowering women to be their authentic selves through simplicity, real beauty and giving back to the community. Her team is made up of individuals of different ethnicities, genders, backgrounds and generations. While she grew up primarily in Texas, Mei-Lon was born in East LA, and part of what inspires her to be a champion of diversity and inclusion is this history. She loves Los Angeles for being a melting pot of thousands of different communities, all while individuality is promoted and honored. She is proud to live in Los Angeles now and to have a business here, where her values are matched on every corner.

Upon graduating from Loyola Marymount University, Toni Jimenez has proven her dedication to changing the world around her to help not only her own Latin community and Latina sisters, but those outside of it as well. At the young age of 23, Toni started her first business: ChicaGirl Magazine. Founded in 2007, ChicaGirl was the first digital magazine of its kind. Moreover, in traditional Toni Jimenez fashion, the entire operation was dedicated to women empowerment and philanthropy. Toni and the ChicaGirl team raised over $300,000 in scholarships dedicated to helping girls receive a college education. Toni’s current business is Chica Beauty, which she co-founded with her sister, Mei-Lon. 

The two started Chica Beauty with ChicaGirl’s mission in mind; creating a beauty brand with a mission to empower girls to be confident in their most authentic selves and giving back fiscally to the community with their Chica Gives program, which partners with nonprofits like Girls Inc. and donates to them with every purchase made from Chica Beauty! Not to mention the Chica Beauty team, who come from different countries, were raised with different cultures and background, are proud of their different ethnicities, and bring knowledge from different generations starting as young as current high school students and ranging all the way to Toni and Mei-Lon’s grandmother, who inspired many aspects of the brand and acted as an honest critic to the brand and its products. 

The inclusivity of Chica Beauty means a lot to Toni as a founder. It is important to her that her businesses represent a demographic often overlooked, especially in the beauty industry. The way she sees it, being a Latina founder alone can create a positive impact for younger generations to see that their potential to own and create a business is tangible…therefore creating an inclusive environment and showing the importance of diversity. Toni has volunteered her time speaking at over 300 middle schools and various other speaking engagements to show girls and women that they too can do it. She remembers feeling overwhelmingly happy when schools would invite her, saying that they would like their students to see that someone “like them” was able to make a difference and be successful. It is Toni’s mission to lead by example and show the world that being a minority is a strength, and that the most important aspect of business-ownership is ensuring that your business reflects your values in all of its many facets, through and through. 

Toni says about her and her sister founding Chica Beauty: “As Women we are also stepping up and creating awareness that women-owned businesses can be successful as leaders whose mission is about empowering and giving back to our community while providing quality products to our consumers. As women and sisters entering the beauty industry we are also creating a new sense of environment that is inclusive. We are breaking the mold by providing new possibilities for our team and customers. We encourage all women to feel beautiful in their own skin and that in it of itself is creating inclusion and bringing women together. We want women to feel confident and beautiful in their own skin and create a community where diversity is welcomed with open arms.”

Albert Diaz is a global business leader and entrepreneur recognized for driving organizational change, rapid growth, and sustainable scale. Over the course of his career, he has held senior executive roles at Microsoft, Intel, and Symantec, where he transformed underperforming businesses into profitable, high-growth organizations. At Microsoft, Al led Azure Infrastructure Solutions within Microsoft’s Customer and Partner Solutions organization, driving global sales strategy and execution and reinvigorating one of Azure’s largest businesses. At Intel, he served in multiple Vice President and General Manager roles, including several leadership positions within Intel’s Data Center Group as well as leading Technical and Sales Enablement for Data Center Sales—fixing, building, and transforming organizations to contribute to the company’s growth. Earlier, at Symantec, he built a $100M appliance business from the ground up, cementing a reputation as a builder of high-performing teams and revenue-generating engines. In 2024, Al acquired West Coast Batteries, LLC, where he is applying the lessons of corporate leadership to private ownership. Based in Corona, California, the company serves businesses, fleets, and consumers nationwide with performance-focused sourcing, logistics, and lifecycle battery solutions. Al holds advanced degrees in Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Sociology. He and his wife, Jennifer, live in Portland, Oregon with their two sons, Javier and Rafael.

Roberto is a board member in cybersecurity, AI, Blockchain, IoT, middleware, API security, microservices, DevOps, software, SaaS, cloud and healthcare companies. Roberto has been an executive at five public companies and in a board position of 14 that have been acquired. He has experience with Fortune 100 companies on digital transformation initiatives using mobile, SaaS, and cloud hybrid products. He has deep expertise in marketing, product management, product marketing, alliances, channels, and sales. In late 2023, Inc 5000 published their fast-growing list with 4 of Roberto’s companies listed.

Jeff Valdez is a serial entrepreneur, who has been producing, writing and directing TV and film for over 25 years with the likes of Nickelodeon, Disney, Showtime, NBC and HBO Max. He has been credited with pioneering a new category in American television, the English Language Latino Market. He also created and was the CEO/Chairman of Si TV, the first ever English- language Latino TV channel in America (now called Fuse). Jeff co-created The Brothers Garcia to further push his agenda of not having stereotypical caricatures of Latinos on screen. In 2018, Jeff founded New Cadence Productions with partner Sol Trujillo. The company is responsible for producing the reboot The Garcias, as well as Comedy Chingonas, an all-Latina comedy special, and both the 1st and 2nd Annual HA Comedy Specials, which all premiered on HBO Max. Jeff is an expert in addressing the multitude of opportunities in this New Mainstream. Jeff has been listed as “One of the Top 50 People Who Matter” by CNN as well as one of the “Top 50 Marketers in America” by Ad Age.

Ray began his banking career in 1994 and joined Bank of America in 1999. He has experience in various roles including, Credit Underwriting, Relationship Management, Business Development and as a Market Executive. 

In Sept. 2024, Ray became the West Coast MSA Credit Executive. In his current position, Ray leads a credit team providing strategic advisory debt solutions to business  owners and C-suite executives. 

Ray is the Co‐Chair of the Los Angeles Hispanic Latino Business Council and Co Executive Sponsor of HOLA Southern CA Chapter. He graduated from Loyola  Marymount University in Los Angeles, with a bachelor’s degree in business  administration and earned a Graduate Certificate from the Pacific Coast Banking School  at The University of Washington. He resides in Altadena with his wife and two  daughters. 

Dr. Diana Pacheco is a design thinker, social innovation strategist, and community-engaged researcher with a passion for creating learning experiences that open doors for people. Her background spans curriculum development, educational product design, immersive 3D technology, and the integration of AI tools into learning environments.She focuses on connecting pedagogy with AI, developing frameworks that ensure technology is used intentionally and meaningfully. Her work translates theory into practical approaches that educators and students can apply directly, while building programs that inspire confidence, creativity, and agency and remain grounded in real-world needs. As Chief Development Officer at Conectado, Dr. Pacheco explores innovative ways to integrate AI into learning environments, ensuring its use is both pedagogically sound and accessible.