PowerUp 2.0 Summit @ Hubweek:
Latinx Business Growth as Jet Fuel for the Massachusetts Economy
Thursday, October 3rd, 2019
Mainstage Speaker: 3:00 – 4:00
Summit: 4:00 – 6:00 pm
Closing Reception 6:00 – 8:00 pm
The Pursuit Stage at HubWeek
65 Northern Avenue, Boston, MA.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Join Amplify Latinx for the 2nd Annual PowerUp Business Summit to recognize the economic imperative for Latinx business growth. Latinx-owned businesses are the fastest-growing entrepreneurial segment in the US and Massachusetts, yet only 3% generate over $1 million in annual revenue. We will convene over 200 Latinx business leaders, resource partners, and the broader entrepreneurial community to learn about PowerUp Latinx Biz, a collaborative, Latinx-led initiative focused on activating Massachusetts’ untapped economic potential by increasing visibility, growth and economic opportunity for Latinx businesses. You’ll be inspired by a group of successful Latinx entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders innovating in key industries driving our economy. You will also learn how the entire MA business community can play a role in advancing Latinx business growth and innovation that fuels new jobs and revenue creation to power our economy.
Thursday, October 3rd, 2019
Video produced by EmVision Productions
EMCEE
JORGE QUIROGA
Former News Reporter at WCVB TV 5
@JorgeHQuiroga
Jorge Quiroga is an award-winning reporter for WCVB Channel 5. During his 44.5 year tenure at WCVB, he’s covered every major national and local story of importance to New Englanders from the Blizzard of ’78 to the September 11 attack on America and the Boston Marathon Bombings. Jorge joined WCVB in 1974 as the first producer/host of Aqui, a Hispanic public affairs program he created. After a distinguished career of nearly 45 years at WCVB, Quiroga retired in December, 2018. Jorge has received many prestigious broadcasting awards and honors, most recently a Silver Circle Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (2018), a Lifetime Achievement Award (2015) from El Mundo Newspaper. In conjunction with this honor, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh proclaimed October 9, 2015 to be “Jorge Quiroga Day” in recognition of his distinguished career and service to viewers in the city of Boston.
Prior to joining WCVB, Jorge was an elementary school teacher in the Boston public schools. Earlier, he worked at WBZ-TV in Boston as an actor and writer for Qué Pasa, a program for Boston’s Spanish-speaking children. Jorge was born in Bogotá, Colombia. He received a M.Ed. from Harvard University in 1974 and graduated from Emerson College in 1972 with a B.A.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
NATHALIE MOLINA NIÑO
CEO and founder of BRAVA Investments
@NathalieMolina @BRAVAInvestments
Nathalie Molina Niño is the CEO and founder of BRAVA Investments, which targets high-growth, scalable businesses that can make a catalytic economic impact on women. She is committed to delivering returns to investors while making a catalytic impact on women in the world. A technologist and coder by training, Nathalie is a consummate entrepreneur, and a storyteller at heart. Molina Niño has advised industry leaders in both the for- and non-profit sector ranging from multinationals (Disney, Microsoft, MTV, The Discovery Channel, Mattel), early stage startups (Cranium, Onvia) and non-profits (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Affairs Council, Seattle International Film Festival, Athena). She writes and is quoted widely in the media, from NY Times best selling books like Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Workweek to diverse media outlets ranging from Fox News, MSNBC and Forbes, to Time Magazine, The Washington Post and CNN Money.
Nathalie launched her first tech startup at the age of 20 and graduated with honors from Columbia University. Later Molina Niño was involved in launching and growing a multinational business with Lionbridge (NASDAQ: LIOX) into a $100M operation in 30+ countries. At Lionbridge she helped lead the growth of its largest business from approx $5M in 2003 to nearly $100M in 2009, including the inception of the strategic relationship with Microsoft Bing.
Prior to launching Brava, as interim CEO of SELF MADE, Nathalie led the launch of SELF MADE, the company, mobile app, learning platform and NY Times Best Selling book by Telemundo’s former Entertainment president, Nely Galan. In 2015, Nathalie stepped in as interim Chief Revenue Officer of PowerToFly, a startup aimed at closing the gender gap in tech. In 2012, Molina Niño co-founded [email protected] at the Athena Center for Leadership studies of Barnard College, with the mission of leveling the playing field for women entrepreneurs, where she remains a founding advisor. Keith Ferrazzi called her a “super-connector” in his updated best-selling classic, Never Eat Alone. Nathalie is the “fuel core of a network that makes it easy for her to tap the resources to get stuff done, and done quickly.”
MARTA TELLADO
President and CEO of Consumer Report
@MLTellado and @ConsumerReports
As the President and CEO of Consumer Reports, Marta L. Tellado leads America’s foremost consumer organization—an independent nonprofit that works side by side with consumers to advance truth, transparency, and fairness in the marketplace. She is known as a transformational leader with a talent for innovation, a passion for public service, and a distinguished portfolio of accomplishments in mission-driven organizations.
Since joining CR in the fall of 2014, Tellado has transformed one of America’s most trusted brands and iconic social enterprises, uniting its rigorous research, consumer insights, award-winning journalism, and policy expertise to drive social impact. Under her leadership, CR has evolved from a subscription organization to a 6-million strong membership organization, pioneered the testing of products and apps for privacy and digital security, won the 2018 Webby People’s Voice Award for best magazine website, and launched its first-ever TV shows on NBC and Telemundo—the former of which received a 2018 Parents’ Choice Award. In 2018, Folio Magazine named Tellado one of the year’s ‘Top Women in Media,’ and CR has consistently been recognized with leading industry awards for its journalism, editorial design, and video content in recent years.
Marta came to CR following 25 years of experience that included executive roles in public service, philanthropy, and mission-driven nonprofit management. At the Ford Foundation, she was Vice President for Global Communications and an officer of the board. While there, she led strategic communications and advocacy on a range of issues in the U.S. and around the world, including economic fairness, free and fair access to an open internet, and civil rights. Prior to that, she served as Executive Director of the Domestic Policy Group at the Aspen Institute and as Vice President of the Partnership for Public Service, where she launched the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government and the Service to America awards. She began her career in the consumer advocacy movement working alongside Ralph Nader, and spent many years in public service as a senior advisor to Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey—the state where she was raised following her family’s journey from her birthplace of Havana, Cuba.
Marta attended Fairleigh Dickinson University, and holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. She currently serves as a trustee on the boards of International Consumer Research & Testing, Consumers International, The Washington Center, and Fairleigh Dickinson University.
OPENING SPEAKERS
JUAN CARLOS MORALES
Managing Partner at Surfside Capital Advisors
@surfcapadvisors
Juan Carlos Morales is founder and managing director of Surfside Capital Advisors LLC (SCA), a business finance advisory firm with offices in Boston and Zurich. SCA helps businesses design and execute high-conviction growth strategies by combining disciplined planning with “trajectory changing events” such as capital raising, buy/sell transactions, restructurings and other transformation initiatives.
Previously, Mr. Morales served as a Fortune 500 financial services executive, where he served as global chief financial officer for investment management firms with over $4 trillion in assets under management. In that capacity, he was the key financial architect behind the firms’ growth and profitability agenda and led global teams through numerous transformation initiatives including acquisitions, divestitures and restructurings. He was recognized by the Boston
Business Journal as ‘CFO of the Year” in 2009. Mr. Morales began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers after graduating cum laude from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is a first time passer of the National Uniform CPA examination.
In 2016 he was appointed by Governor Baker to serve on the Board of Directors of MassDevelopment (MassDev). MassDev is the state of Massachusetts’s economic development agency, stimulating business and driving growth by originating over $4 billion in capital transactions every year. Mr. Morales other Board responsibilities have included Nuveen Investments, Eastern Bank, Boston Medical Center, Big Sisters Association, The Partnership Inc., and Wheelock College. He is the co-founder of The Latino Legacy Fund at The Boston Foundation and the Boston Chapter of the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA).
LOURDES GERMÁN
Director, The Civic Innovation Project
Faculty, Boston College Carrol School of Management
Lourdes began her career as an attorney representing government entities in the US at the law firm Palmer & Dodge (now Locke Lord, LLP). Following that work, Lourdes helped co-created the public finance business division at Fidelity Investments, as a Vice President of Municipal Finance. At Fidelity, Lourdes managed the growth of the company’s public finance division in the US, established and managed Fidelity’s first New York office for public finance, and helped developed Fidelity’s national education program to educate investors with respect to the municipal market. Following Fidelity, Lourdes’ professional experiences include serving as General Counsel and Vice President of Research of the investment management company, Breckinridge Capital Advisors, serving as Director of International & Institute-wide Initiatives at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and holding leadership and consultancy roles in other organizations in the private, academic, and non-profit sector.
Currently, Lourdes serves on the faculty of the Boston College Carroll School of Management. Lourdes also serves as director of the Civic Innovation Project (CIP), a global thought leadership initiative focused on using technology to advance city-to-city learning that she founded and launched in 2015 via a Public Sector Leaders Forum in partnership with the Microsoft Corporation. The CIP has been recognized with a State of Boston Innovation Award in 2015 and was recognized by Gov CIO Outlook Magazine in 2017 as one of the Top Ten emerging innovative technology platforms in America focused on government citizen engagement.
In addition, Lourdes serves as Governor Baker’s appointed Chair of the Massachusetts State Finance and Governance Board, serves as a senior advisor to the CEO of the Lincoln Institute, has served as an appointee of the Mayor of Boston to the board that has oversight with respect to the City of Boston’s audit and finance matters, serves on the board of the Rappaport Center for Law and Policy, and serves on the board of United Way. Lourdes is also a published co-author of, Finance for City Leaders, a book published by the United Nations Press in 2016.
ENTREPRENEURS
JOSIANE MARTINEZ
Founder and CEO of Archipelago Strategies Group
@JosianeMartinez @DiscoverASG
Josiane is one of the region’s leading marketing experts, with a focus on healthcare and marketing to change behaviors. A native of Puerto Rico, she founded Archipelago Strategies Group six years ago with one staff person and a single client.
Josiane has since grown ASG into a 12-person operation, doing business with major organizations like the Massachusetts Health Connector, MassHealth, the Department of Mental Health, and New England’s largest hospital systems. ASG’s latest marketing and education campaign with Health Connector generated record results, including an all-time record enrollment in the organization’s 13-year history of the agency.
ASG’s secret sauce is focusing on diversity, which helps clients engage with multicultural communities, LGBTQ residents, and Millennial and Generation Z audiences.
Prior to founding ASG, Josiane served as executive director of the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants helping the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable residents to access services and supports. She earned her MBA in Marketing from Simmons University.
DANIEL PEREZ
President and CEO, DPV Transportation Worldwide
@DPVTransport
Daniel Perez is a self-funded and self-taught entrepreneur. He moved to the U.S. at age 11 and at 17 started DPV Transportation Worldwide, a luxury ground transportation services business in East Boston. His entrepreneurial journey began while he was in college studying Electrical Engineering at Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology. Daniel discovered that many athletic teams needed reliable transportation to get to and from their destinations. He rounded up $5,000 and purchased his first van to serve the teams in 2005. After landing additional contracts with other college teams, he added a few minibuses, SUV’s and sedans to his fleet.
Through grit and determination, even in the face of increasing competition from ride-hailing services, he has grown the company into a $5-million-per-year business. His success has also meant more jobs for the local community with 75 employees. Daniel is deeply committed to providing his clients with world-class service unparalleled in luxury. You’ll find him putting faith, energy, and passion into everything he does. Daniel has an Associates Degree, Engineering in Electrical Technology, Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology ( 2008); Executive Education Program, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth University, 2017
Prior to PlaceMe, Clara was Boston General Manager at RentHop, a Y-Combinator company in the real estate tech space. Before that, she was a co-founder and CMO with GoTrotter, another real estate tech start-up in the relocation space.
An active member of the Boston start-up community, Clara serves as advisor, board leader, and growth consultant and focuses on strengthening start-ups with solid value propositions. She works mainly on strategy and performance improvement in the real estate tech space.
Clara is also a first-cohort Fellow of Latinos for Education, a nonprofit who prepares Latino Leaders to serve on Education Boards nationwide. She currently serves as Board Member at Breakthrough Greater Boston.
She received an MBA from Hult International Business School, where she won two innovation awards in the consulting and entrepreneurship clubs.
JOSE G. PEREZ
Chief Operating Officer, DPV Transportation Worldwide
@DPVTransport
Jose Perez, is a successful entrepreneur, leader, administrator, negotiator, consultant and strategist. Currently, he serves as the Chief Operating Officer for DPV Transportation Worldwide. Under his leadership, DPV has opened three additional offices, recruited over 150 additional employees, landed numerous multi-million transportation contracts, provided strategic guidance for a success plan, acquired over 25 million in new assets and implemented systems and procedures to support and promote minority expenditure.
Jose was born in 1991 in Medellin Colombia. At the age of eight, he and his family migrated to Boston, MA. He has worked in many fields particular as an entrepreneur and strategic leader. In 2007, he worked in the City of Boston with the Centers for Youth and Families. In 2012, he opened Bar Sabaneta & Lounge, which two years later was sold. He then joined the Department of Revenue as an Identity Theft and Fraud Examiner, and contributed to the overall success capture of $4 billion dollars in fraudulent returns. In 2015, he joined DPV Transportation Worldwide as a business consultant. During his employment, he has been promoted to Human Resources Manager, Operations Manager, Director of Operations and currently Chief Operating Officer. In 2017, he founded Roads Consulting Group, a company driven to facilitate the success of small business and empower growth. Currently he lives in Boston, MA and continues to devote his free time in helping others achieve their goals.
Jose has a Bachelor’s of Science degree (Criminal Justice) from Bay State College (2013), a Master’s degree in Business Administration (M.B.A) from Cambridge College (2015), and a Ph.D. in Humanities from Salve Regina University (2019), where he concentrated on the human aspect of today’s technological world.
MARCOS ARAUJO
Founder and CEO, Esportudo
Marcos Araujo is out to capture the online market for Latin American sports fans with his website, Esportudo. Since its 2016 launch, the outlet has grown from 2,000 visits to 2,000,000, as of September 2017. The site aggregates sports news across Latin America, allowing users to create custom profiles to efficiently follow their favorite teams and athletes. He also leads a team of 75 content writers. The idea for Esportudo has roots in Araujo’s love for Brazilian soccer, and the gap he noticed between U.S. sports coverage and that of Brazil.
Prior to the site’s launch, he gained experience reaching out to Latin American markets during his time with HubSpot – a Boston-based inbound marketing firm – where he and two coworkers opened the company up to the Latin American market. A salesman at the time, he developed Esportudo on the HubSpot platform and, in 2015, he started running the website full time. The model was inspired by Bleacher Report, one of Araujo’s favorite sports sites.
Born to Brazilian immigrants, Araujo grew up in Marlborough. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Operations from UMass Amherst in 2012. Araujo, who now lives in Boston, helps other startups at the Northeastern University IDEA accelerator.
FIRESIDE CHAT
ADRIAN MENDOZA
Founder and General Partner of Mendoza Ventures
@apptientUX @MendozaVentures
Adrian is Mexican-American, born and raised in Los Angeles. He came to Boston in 1998 to study Architecture at Harvard University for his Master’s, and has spent the last 20 years leading technology and creative teams in the Boston tech ecosystem. He is a published author, speaker, board member, and mentor.
After having two VC-funded startups in the technology space, Adrian started Mendoza Ventures to address the growing funding gap and VC involvement in the pre-seed investment stage. He launched his firm in 2016 with investments in early stage AI, Fintech, and Cybersecurity companies. Mendoza Ventures consists of the most diverse group of general partners in a VC firm as well as being the only VC firm in the Northeast founded by a latino. The firm is currently raising its second fund and focuses on diverse teams in its portfolio.
SOL CARBONNEL
Assistant Vice President, Regional and Community Outreach at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Sol Carbonell is part of the Boston Fed community development leadership team. She oversees the Strategic Engagements Team, which focuses on promoting the economic strength of low-income communities by understanding and documenting how individuals, families and businesses experience the economy, and leveraging the research and convening power of the Fed to inform policy and practice. The team’s highest priorities include furthering the Fed’s maximum employment mandate by identifying and promoting practices that help increase the quality of jobs available to low-wage workers in New England, understanding and addressing the root causes of racial wealth inequality and promoting a more inclusive economy. She also serves on the leadership team for the Fed System’s Investing in America’s Workforce efforts.
Carbonell holds a Master in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and certificates of the MIT Sloane School of Management. She has completed a number of fellowships and served as an advisor to national and regional organizations, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and the Association of Latinos for America. She is a member of the Board of Overseers at the Boston Museum of Science and was recently appointed to the Board of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. She has received numerous awards for her community contributions, including recognitions by Congress, InBusiness Magazine and the Boston Business Journal.
CLOSING SPEAKERS
TBD
GOALS
Identify &
Connect
Identify and map growth oriented Latinx owned businesses in Massachusetts
Build Relationships
Facilitate connections among Latinx entrepreneurs through curated networking opportunities and an online digital platform
Access Existing Resources
Foster relationship building and access to existing business resources, such as capital, education, mentors, accelerators, and growth opportunities
Policy
Agenda
Advance a policy agenda focused on driving economic opportunity and growth for Latinx businesses
BENEFITS
We invite Latinx businesses, resource partners and sponsors to join us. You’ll be inspired by successful Latinx entrepreneurs and business leaders innovating in key industries driving our economy, learn how the broader MA business community can play a role in advancing Latinx business growth, and why doing so matters to our shared future.
CONNECTIVITY CHALLENGE
- In Boston, Latinx-owned businesses average less than $100,000 in annual sales, compared to $644,000 in annual sales for all privately-owned firms
- Latinx business often operate in silos and lack connections to capital, management expertise, business networks, human capital, and partners necessary for growth
- Existing resources and programs for entrepreneurs are not inclusive or adept at connecting to the growing Latinx demographic