The observation of Hispanic Heritage Month started in 1968 originally as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15. September 15 is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September18, respectively–and this month also celebrates Columbus Day or Día de la Raza, which is October 12.
In 2021 NPR published an article titled, “Yes, We're Calling It Hispanic Heritage Month And We Know It Makes Some Of You Cringe,” and after reading it we felt the same. Stories are powerful because of the intentional use of language and information—especially when discussing or highlighting the diverse individuals of a community. With that said, we intentionally titled this list with inclusive language that reflects the diversity of the Latinx/Latine/Latino/Latina/Hispanic individuals building in Tech and Venture.
This year we are proud to share BAM’s second Latinx/Latine/Latinos/Latinas/Latins/Hispanics in Tech and Venture Capital list. According to a recent SLEI report, Latinx-owned businesses received less than 1% of the $487 billion invested across a sample of the top 500 largest venture capital and private equity deals in 2020.
These numbers indicate that there is still work to do in raising awareness that ensures equal and fair growth opportunities for Latinx/Latine/Latino/Latina/Latin/Hispanic founders and businesses. This starts with recognizing the individuals who are building in the tech space.
We are grateful for the outlets and publications that continue to highlight Latinx/Latine/Latino/Latina/Latin/Hispanic people in Tech and VC including Bloomberg Linea, Latinas’ in Tech, HITEC, Techqueria and many more.
Don't see your favorite Latinx/Latine/Latino/Latina/Hispanic leaders in Tech and Venture? Explore last year's list: 101 Latinx Leaders in Tech 2021.
Brittany Chavez is the Founder and CEO of Shop Latinx, the first online marketplace for Latinx vendors. SLX is the leading Latinx marketplace and distribution channel for brands targeting millennial and gen-z Latinas, it’s the first-ever online marketplace for Latinx businesses. Shop Latinx closed its pre-seed round, raising $1 million. Investors include Precursor Ventures, Backstage Capital, Debut Capital, 2PM, Humble Ventures, Hispanics in Philanthropy, Silicon Hills Capital and Techstars. Chavez created the marketplace in 2016 after realizing there was no specific group amplifying the work of Latinx small business owners. Dubbed the next Etsy, the platform now showcases more than 900 Latinx brands and entrepreneurs waiting to be discovered. Chavez advises other entrepreneurs to get comfortable being uncomfortable, as the process requires lots of learning and growth.
Noramay is an engineer, venture capitalist, community leader, and is currently a Founding Partner at Supply Change Capital, an early stage venture capital fund focused on the rise of the rest in food. She is also a lead investor in Portfolia's Rising America Fund investing in Latinx, Black and LGBTQ Founders, an advisory board member of the Homeboy Industries Ventures and Jobs Fund, and a founding board member of Latinx VC, an organization increasing the Latino ecosystem of funders and Founders. Noramay was also appointed to the board of the Housing Authority Commission of Los Angeles, and in 2020, she was named one of 50 renowned women in robotics and one of the top 100 influential Latinas in the United States. Noramay is a Kauffman Fellow and holds a MBA, a Master’s in Engineering Systems and a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering – all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
3. Ba Minuzzi
Ba Minuzzi is the Founder & CEO of UMANA, where she is redefining wealth through purpose-driven efforts primarily focused on creating wealth aligned with one’s values. As of today, UMANA's current AUM is over $370M. Ba is the 1st Latina to be Founder and sole GP (decision-maker) of a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, where she raised $29M for her debut fund, a record for a venture fund raised by a woman of color. Ba co-leads UMANA Venture Studio (UVS). UVS exists to provide some of the most influential voices of our generation the resources to be loud, responsible and authentic.
Carlos J Garcia Ottati is known as “The First Mexican Unicorn.” He is the Co-Founder of Kavak.com. After two fraudulent personal experiences in buying and selling cars and a deep-dive used car industry research, identified that Latin America and other countries had serious problems: vulnerable transactions because of the risk of fraud and limited car access because of few financing options. Committed to improving this industry, Carlos García, Loreanne García, and Roger Laughlin created a business model guaranteeing secure and transparent transactions: Kavak. He has experience building and leading organizations from the ground up across various markets in LATAM, coupled with management consulting, marketing & sales, and complex project management background in 10+ countries within LATAM and Europe.
5. Lolita Taub
Lolita Taub is a General Partner at Ganas Venture, a fund that invests in pre-seed and seed Web 2 and Web 3 community-driven startups in the US and Latin America.s where she invests in pre-seed and seed community-driven companies in the US and Latin America. For the previous 15+ years, she has worked as an angel investor, Scout at Lightspeed Venture Partners, and VC at Backstage Capital and The Community Fund. Within the Silicon Valley ecosystem, she’s $70M+ in sales and invested in 90+ startups. Forbes and Inc Magazine have featured her as a woman promoting investment in underestimated founders and funders.
Carolina Huaranca Mendoza is an advisor at Kapor Capital, a seed stage fund based in Oakland, California. Previously, she was a principal at Kapor Capital for more than 3.5 years. Carolina is a generalist investor specializing in education, the future of work, the future of cities, SMEs, and GovTech.
Maria Teresa Arnal is the former Head of Latam at payments giant Stripe. She is also the president of the board of the Mexican chapter of the World Internet Project and a Scholar of the Mexican Academy of Communications. She is a co-founder and member of the Academic Council of the Instituto Superior para el Desarrollo de Internet in Mexico. The institute promotes digital transformation at its sites in Madrid, Barcelona, Mexico City, and Silicon Valley. In 2011, Arnal was named one of the 50 most influential people in technology in Latam by the Hispanic Executive Technology Council. As of Summer 2022, she will step down from her role as the president of the Mexican Fintech Association but will continue to share her passion for entrepreneurship with LATAM start-ups through her work with Endeavor, a leading global community for high-impact entrepreneurs.
8. Luis von Ahn
Luis von Ahn is the 44-year-old ‘genius’ behind $2.79 billion language app Duolingo. Luis von Ahn was born and raised in Guatemala, where he saw firsthand that high-quality educational opportunities were limited to those with money. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Duke University in 2000, von Ahn earned a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University in 2005. His doctoral thesis introduced “human computation” (better known today as crowdsourcing), which became the foundation for his earlier work on CAPTCHA, reCAPTCHA and Games With A Purpose.
9. Manny Medina
Manny Medina is the CEO of Outreach, the #1 Sales Engagement Platform. A sales engagement platform that accelerates growth by optimizing all customer interactions across email, voice and social, and leverages machine learning to guide reps to take the right actions. Manny previously led GroupTalent, Microsoft’s Windows phone business development team in Latin America and Canada. Medina joined Amazon’s AWS team as an early employee, and helped Microsoft drive the mobile division from launch to $50 million in annual revenue. Prior to that, he engineered Amazon's compensation system for Amazon Associates and Web-Services which accounts for 15% of Amazon's traffic. He also led the Microsoft mobile division from launch to $50M in annual revenue.
10. Mario Ruiz
Mario Ruiz is a Co-Founder and Partner at Infinity Ventures. The venture recently raised $158 million and plans to invest in 25 companies in pre-seed to Series A rounds. Prior to co-founding Infinity Ventures, Mario was a venture investor at PayPal Ventures and Dorm Room Fund, and a growth equity investor at Napier Park Global Capital. Mario is the former co-chair of the Junior Leadership Board for the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), which helps further the mission of the SEO Scholars educational program while also developing professionals into future non-profit board leaders. He is an alumnus of SEO’s Career and Alternative Investments Fellowship Programs and freelances for The Kauffman Fellowship, a two-year educational, networking, and leadership development program for venture capitalists.
11. Katia Beauchamp
Katia Beauchamp is the CEO of Victoria Beckham Beauty and co-founder and CEO at Birchbox. When she founded Birchbox in 2010, she changed the way the beauty industry interacted with consumers. With Birchbox, subscribers pay a small fee to receive monthly boxes of beauty samples of the industry’s latest products. The company now has more than 2.5 million active customers, 500 beauty and grooming brand partners, and operations in four countries. She has been honored with accolades including Advertising Age Women to Watch, CEW Achievers Award, Fortune 40 Under 40, Inc. 30 Under 30, Marie Claire’s New Guard, WWD Digital Innovator of the Year, and YMA Fashion’s Entrepreneur of the Year, among others.
12. Marta Decatrel
Marta Decatrel serves as the Executive Director of Technology at Morgan Stanley, an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in New York, New York. In an industry where the ratio from men to women still isn’t where she wants it to be, her willingness and passion for developing interest in technology in not only Latinas, but all women, has brought her many opportunities and success for over 25 years.
13. Samara Mejia Hernandez
Samara Mejia Hernandez is a Co-Founder of Chingona Ventures. They recently closed a new fund with $52 million in capital commitments. Samara is actively involved in the Chicago tech community and passionate about helping underrepresented groups get into STEM education, venture capital and entrepreneurship. She co-founded the Latinx Founders Collective organization to bring together Latinx founders, investors, and community leaders to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Samara is an active member of Latinx VCs, a San-Francisco based group of experienced venture investors coming together to connect, engage, and foster the Latinx VC ecosystem.
14. David Cancel
David Cancel is the Co-Founder, CEO and Executive Chairman of Drift, the world's leading conversational marketing and sales platform that helps businesses connect with the customers who are ready to buy. After just two years in the market, the company has become one of the fastest growing SaaS companies of all-time and was named to the Forbes Cloud 100, LinkedIn Top 50 Startups, and Entrepreneur's Top Company Cultures. Cancel is also a mentor at Rough Draft Ventures, a student team that helps university students in their journey from creating ‘rough drafts’ to startup companies by investing at the earliest stage.
Lisa Morales-Hellebo is the Co-Founder of The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation, an organization that is changing how supply chain professionals learn about, collaborate, and adopt supply chain innovation around the world. She is also a co-founder and general partner of REFASHIOND Ventures, an NYC-based, early-stage supply chain technology venture fund that invests in startups refashioning global supply chains. Lisa is an active advocate for organizations that help minorities gain access to opportunities for funding, championship, and growth.
Beatriz Acevedo's latest Fin-tech is Suma Wealth, where she is the CEO amd Founder. Suma empowers Latinos via in-culture financial content, fintech products, and experiences to gain control of their economic power and build wealth. Formerly she was the Co-Founder and President of Mitu, a tech-driven media brand that lends a voice to the millennial Latinx community through relatable content. Under her leadership, Mitu raised $50M in funding, led by some of the most successful venture capital groups in California.
17. Ana Arriola
Ana Arriola is a Latinx woman of trans and non-binary experience. She is currently the Director of Product Design, AI & Insights, Cloud + AI at Microsoft. Previously, she led teams at Microsoft, Apple, Playstation, Samsung, and Adobe. Ana focuses on human-centered product design and product management, with every experience crafted as it should be - Human. Simple. Authentic. Ana was also included in our 101 LGBTQIA+ in Tech, Business & Storytelling.
Carolina Barcenas is the Senior Vice President of Research at Visa, where she collaborates closely with Visa’s product and business teams to create new capabilities that harness the latest research breakthroughs. She has worked in industry and academia and has more than 20 years of experience designing predictive analytical solutions in fintech. Prior to joining Visa, Ms. Barcenas spent seven years at PayPal where she was responsible for risk management for small and medium-sized e-commerce sellers. Ms. Barcenas holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology as a Fulbright Scholar.
19. Maria Ferreras
Maria Ferreras is the Global Head of Partnerships at Netflix where she oversees all of the company’s partnerships. She previously served as the Vice President, Business Development for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Netflix. Prior to joining Netflix in 2017, she worked at Google for 10 years as Director of Partnerships for YouTube for Southern Europe and Emerging Markets. She has 20+ years of experience and is fluent in several languages including English, Spanish, Italian and French.
20. Daniel Undurraga
Daniel is the Chilean Co-Founder and CTO of Cornershop, a grocery-delivery app that was recently acquired by Uber for $225 million. He previously sold his other company, Needish, to Groupon in 2010. Daniel is a lifelong entrepreneur with his share of failed projects, but ever since he and his business partner Oskar Hjertonsson found their niche in Latin American e-commerce, they’ve become an example for the whole ecosystem.
21. Francisco Ramos
Francisco is the Vice President of Latin American Content at Netflix where he is responsible for all original series, films and licensed content for the Latin American region. Francisco started his career in Spain, working for Grupo Zeta, a media corporation;, and at Antena 3 Television, where he was head of acquisitions and programming. Later, he moved to Aurum Producciones, the Spanish distributor for New Line, Morgan Creek, Spyglass, and Miramax films. Francisco received his degree in law from National Autonomous University of Mexico.
22. Paula Bellizia
Paula is the President of Global Payments at EBANX, a payments fintech company with a global presence, where she leads their global teams of Sales, Marketing, Operations and Expansion, currently located across the Americas, Asia and Europe. Paula has 29+ years of experience and was previously the VP of Marketing for Latin America at Google. Prior to Google, she held high-level executive positions at companies such as Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook.
23. David Vélez
David is the Founder and CEO at Nubank, a Brazilian-based digital bank that offers credit cards, checking accounts and life insurance. Before founding Nubank in 2013, David was a Partner at Sequoia Capital responsible for all Latin American investments, and also worked in investment banking at Morgan Stanley and private equity at General Atlantic. David got his MBA from Stanford and is currently on the 2022 Forbes’ World’s Billionaires List.
24. Rafael Reif
Rafael is a Venezuelan-American electrical engineer, writer and most notably has served as the President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the last 10 years. Reif previously served as the Institute's Provost and as the head of MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and as the director of the MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories. Reif is on the boards of the World Economic Forum, the Carnegie Endowment, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Broad Institute among others.
25. Ileana Rivera
Ileana is currently the Chief of Staff for Cisco’s Chief Digital Officer, where she leads the business operations, portfolio and change management functions for the Workforce Experience (WFX) organization. Since Ileana’s career at Cisco began in 2008, she has served as senior IT director, director of integrated customer services as well as director of client engagement. Before that, Ileana also served in IT roles at other San Francisco-based companies including Taos and Stryker. She received her bachelors in industrial engineering, masters in information systems, and is on the board of the Hispanic IT Executive Council.
26. Lili Gangas
Lili is the Chief Technology Community Officer at Kapor Center which aims to make the tech ecosystem and entrepreneurship more diverse, inclusive, and impactful through its work in education programs, community building, evangelism, investing and more. Lili has a full plate and is also currently a Communications Equity and Diversity Council Working Group Member (part of the Federal Communications Commission), the co-founder of LTX Connect, member of Chief (a private network built to drive more women into positions of power and keep them there), and board member of LA Collab Org (a collective group of entertainment industry leaders professionals and allies seeking to double Latino Representation in Hollywood by 2030).
27. Sergio Claudio
Sergio is the Vice President of Brand Experience at Zuora, an enterprise software company that creates and provides software for businesses to launch and manage their subscription-based services, where he is responsible for brand, creative, content, communications, corporate events and digital experience. Before that, Sergio was both senior director of enterprise and commercial experience and global head of brand, creative and digital experience at Adobe, chief innovation and strategy officer at RockOrange, digital creative director at Zimmerman Advertising, and creative director at NPR among others.
28. Irma Olguin Jr.
Irma is the Co-Founder and CEO of Bitwise Industries where she designs the overall strategy and vision for the company, oversees the company’s operations teams, as well as technology-focused training program, Geekwise Academy, and software development firm, Shift3 Technologies. Previously, Irma was the co-founder of Hashtag Fresno, and served as IT Manager for West Hills Financial and Nature’s Joy. She received her bachelors in computer science and engineering from the University of Toledo.
29. Jordi Muñoz
Jordi is the Mexican Co-Founder and President of 3D Robotics, an UAV and UAS company. Since he was 13 years old Jordi has had a passion for aircrafts and electronics which led him to pursue designing and building drones. He received his bachelors in computer engineering from the Center for Higher and Technical Education in Baja California, Mexico and currently lives in San Diego, California with his family.
30. Aubrey Blanche
Aubrey is the Founder and CEO of The Mathpath, a name combining ‘math nerd’ and ‘empath.’ In addition to her role at The Mathpath, Aubrey is the Senior Director of Equitable Design, Product & People at Culture Amp, and a startup investor and advisor. She is the inventor of the balanced teams approach to building proportional representation and a culture of belonging in the workplace. She is an advisor and/ investor to a variety of companies seeking to build a more just world, including OnRamp, Seed&Spark, Stark, Joonko, and Pivot Diversity. Her work has been featured in Wired, the Wall Street Journal, the Australian Financial Review, USA Today, Re/Code, First Round Review, and more.
31. Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi
Henrique and Pedro are the Co-Founders and co-CEOs of Brex, a San Francisco-based fintech firm known for its corporate credit card tailored to the needs of startups, and they have been featured in Forbes, CNBC, TIME, and TechCrunch. Brex announced their $300 million in funding in January 2022 giving it a $12.3 billion valuation. The Co-Founders and friends met through a Twitter conversation while they were still high school students in Brazil. and They are now billionaires.
32. Juan Carlos
Juan Carlos is a self-proclaimed intergalactic defender and Co-Founder of Swim, a social networking app designed as a community space where Generation Z can connect, hang out, and explore life. Swim was, initially launched around college campuses which was featured in Forbes earlier this year. Hailing from Mexico, JC is also a Harvard Business School grad, serial entrepreneur, and CEO of Innovation Lab Silicon Valley. His previous jobs include brand expert at Proctor & Gamble, Founder of the innovation agency Zealmark, chairman at Harvard Business School Community Partners and teacher at Stanford University.
33. Marie-Anne
Marie-Anne is Juan Carlos’s fellow Co-Founder and customer success manager at Swim. A production engineer by trade with a masters in business management, Venezuelan-born Marie-Anne had the technical expertise to bring Swim to life with their engineering team from Latin American and Europe, further encouraging Latinos to have greater accessibility and presence in the tech space. Fun fact: Marie-Anne is married to Joaquin Paz, the third and final Co-Founder of Swim!
34. Alicia Abella
Alicia is the Managing Director of telecom, media and entertainment industry solutions for Google Cloud, leading the North America and LATAM regions. Before that, Alicia served as the chair of the Consumer Technology Association's technical advisory council, was the vice president of integrated systems engineering and realization at AT&T (where she worked for 24+ years!), and earned her bachelors in computer science and PhD in computer science from NYU and Columbia University, respectively.
35. Cindy Alvarez
Cindy is the Director of UX for PowerPoint at Microsoft where she runs user experience and product design for Yammer; she is also a published author. Prior to her current role, Cindy was the Director of Customer Research for GitHub and Principal Group Product Manager in the Cloud & AI group. Cindy is passionate about diversity and inclusion and supports women, Black and Latinx people, and girls in tech. Cindy earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from Harvard University and has worked in interaction design, customer research, and product management for both startups and Fortune 500 companies.
36. Erika Araujo
Erika is an experienced medicinal chemist working to discover new oncology medicines for patients in need. She is currently a Senior Research Investigator at Arvinas, a biopharmaceutical company, where she is helping improve the lives of patients suffering from debilitating diseases through the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapies that degrade disease-causing proteins.
37. Alfredo Ayala
Alfredo, or Fred, is the managing director of Ayala Corporation where he is the CEO for both LiveIt Investments and Ayala Education, Inc., that are holding companies for Ayala Corporation’s outsourcing and education investments, respectively. Fred is also a director of Affinity Express and HCX Technology Partners.Previously he was the chairman of Integreon, director of IQ BackOffice, CEO of eTelecare, Chairman of SPi, and Vice Chairman of Stream Global Services. Fred is actively involved with the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF) working to build a strong, resilient and disaster-ready Philippines. Fred holds an MBA from Harvard and a BA in Development Studies and Economics from Brown University, where he serves on the advisory board of the Watson Institute of International & Public Affairs.
Silvia is the Founder and CEO of Courageous Girls, a foundation whose mission is to provide the healing and empowering of sexually abused girls through physical endurance, creative, somatic, and mindfulness techniques. An accomplished mountaineer who became the first Peruvian woman to summit Mount Everest, and the first openly lesbian woman to complete the Seven Summits, Silvia is also an NYT-featured author. She was previously the principal of global enterprise technology & financial systems at PayPal and held an executive position at eBay. Vasquez-Lavado was recognized by Fortune magazine as one of the Corporate Heroes of 2015, and CNET named her one of the 20 most influential Latinos in Silicon Valley.
39. Ana Margarita Albir Sarmiento
Ana is the CEO of ADL Digital Lab and is passionate about entrepreneurship, having founded five companies, including ADL and Carroya, the second largest mobility platform in Colombia. She was previously the VP of digital strategy at Grupo Aval where she supported over 19 companies in their digital transformation efforts, and lead the evaluation and implementation of new ventures. Ana received her bachelor's in physics from MIT and her MBA from Stanford.
Laércio has 35+ years of tech experience and was the President of Cisco Brazil, where he encouraged innovation and digitalization in the country, before his promotion to president of Cisco Latin America in 2021 leading sales in the region and helping customers digitize faster to achieve social and economic impact. Laercio Albuquerque worked at CA Technologies for 20 years. He also worked at BCN, Duratex and Pirelli. He has a Systems Analysis and Business Administration degree and an Executive MBA.
41. Mauricio Amaro
Mauricio is the IT Corporate Director and CIO of Grupo Avante Textil in Mexico where he established IT strategic guidelines as well as cybersecurity strategy. Before that, he worked at Toshiba Business as deputy director of IT and at Walmart as a systems specialist manager. Mauricio was recognized as one of the 2022 HITEC 50, which is awarded to the top 50 most influential technology leaders industry in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and Latin America, as well as a Top IoT Though
42. Roman Baudrit
Roman has 25+ years of IT experience and currently serves as Vice President of LATAM sales for Thales Group. His mission is to help customers improve their security posture to cope with the new and future cyber security challenges affecting their business. Roman previously worked for both HP Enterprise Security and Vormetric as VP of sales for LATAM, and he was recognized as one of the HITEC 50 in 2022.
Salvador is a technology and systems professional from Mexico with over 40 years of experience and is currently the corporate CIO and CTO for Alsea, the largest restaurant operator in Latin America of global leading brands in the fast food, cafeteria and casual dining segments. Before Alsea, Salvador worked for Manpower Group as their CIO for LATAM as well as a senior IT consultant for IBM Mexico. Salvador has been recognized on the HITEC 50 list and by Information Week Mexico as CIO of the year in 2014.
44. Rafael Ribeiro
Rafael is the Head of Operations and new business at Bossanova Investments in Brazil where he manages the startup fundraising and analysis teams, handles investor relations, and invests in startups that boost Brazil’s economy. He is also the founder of two companies in the startup market, Weblinia and Monster Joy. After Rafael sold those companies, he decided to start investing in startups and even became executive director of the Brazilian Startups Association where he established StartupBase, the first open database for the ecosystem; FALCOM, the first event for training community leaders; and Startup ON, an event responsible for boosting businesses and communities regionally.
Laura Moreno Lucas is a Partner at L’ATTITUDE Ventures (LAT VC) and Founder of Pandocap, a financial services company built around her experience in the capital markets. She is a finance executive and Latina entrepreneur. Previously Laura worked at Nasdaq as Managing Director for New Listings & Capital Markets. Laura also founded Ladada, one of the first startup fashion subscription services that featured emerging new designers. Laura is an advisor to 500 Startups, Fulcrum Ventures, California Lutheran University, and the board of Pangea Legal. She is also a published co-author of ”Hispanic Stars Rising.”
46. Kennie Blanco
Kennie Blanco is a General Partner at L’ATTITUDE Ventures (LAT VC). Kennie is a former portfolio manager at BlackRock and recently worked in private markets, in venture and buyout stages. He is also the former president of Bay Area Latinos in Finance.
47. Sol Trujillo
Sol Trujillo is chairman at Trujillo Group Investments, LLC, co-founder at L'ATTITUDE, and co-founder of the Latino Donor Collaborative. Sol has three decades of experience on three continents in the telecommunications and media industries. Most recently he was named chairman of Agua Media. They produce podcasts for the U.S. Latino+™ community by offering a wider angle view of conversations, storytelling, and interviews through the lens of New Mainstream Latinas and Latinos.
Rogelio De los Santos, Founding Managing Partner of Dalus Capital is a founder-&-funder of venture-stage disruptive companies and is also recognized for building high-impact initiatives. Since 2013, he founded and chairs INCmty, the Latin American entrepreneurship festival that aims to provide entrepreneurs with access to different types of resources.
Francisco Alvarez-Demalde, Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Riverwood Capital, a technology business building and investing firm. Riverwood manages +$3 billion and makes private equity investments in high-growth businesses, primarily in global technology, technology-enabled, and related growth industries. Prior to establishing Riverwood, Mr. Alvarez-Demalde was an investment executive at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and Eton Park, where he focused on private equity investments in the technology industry and other sectors. Previously, he was with Goldman Sachs & Co. Mr. Alvarez-Demalde has invested and been actively involved in the development, operations, and growth of several successful businesses across North America, Latin America, and other geographies.
50. Mariana Dias
Mariana Dias, CEO and Co-founder of Gupy, a fast-growing employability platform, leading HR’s digital transformation in Brazil. Gupy provides an end-to-end solution to digitalize, simplify and enhance the effectiveness and assertiveness of the recruitment, admission, and learning processes for companies and a friendly and fair experience for candidates and employees.
51. Pabel Martinez
Pabel Martinez is redefining professionalism with Plurawl. Pabel launched PLURAWL to create an inclusive community that’s changing the narratives in the Latinx Community. Previously he was the global account director at TikTok. He is an Afro-Latino (Dominican) living & working in NYC who often found himself repressing parts of his identity inside & outside of work in an effort to feel more included and less judged.
52. Ceci Fischer
Ceci Fischer co-founded the Chicago chapter of Latinas in Tech, a non-profit organization with the aim to connect, support, and empower Latina women working in tech, where she is also a program manager. She is producing and hosting the Chicago Techies Podcast, a podcast focused on highlighting the voices of Chicago techies and their experiences.
53. Kim Rivera
Kim Rivera is the chief legal and business officer at OneTrust. For the fourth year in a row, OneTrust has been named on the Forbes Cloud 100 list. Previously she was with HP Inc. for half a decade as the President of Strategy and Business Management and Chief Legal Officer.
Andrea (Herreria) Schuppe is the recruiter & Latinx ERG Lead at Netflix. Recruiters like Andrea are so important to the movement because they guide the change in workplace representation, inclusion, and diversity.
55. Evelyn Miralles
Evelyn Miralles is a former NASA chief principal engineer and associate vice president at the University of Houston–Clear Lake. She built a distinguished 26-year career at NASA’s Virtual Reality Laboratory at Johnson Space Center, receiving multiple awards including “BBC World 100 Inspirational Women.” Her virtual reality technologies have been used for the operation and training of Astronauts for every space shuttle and International Space Station mission since 2000. She is currently the business associate at Aegis Aerospace.
Guillermo Diaz Jr. is the chairman of the Hispanic IT Executive Council (HITEC). Previously, he was the CEO of Kloudspot, an AI and IoT analytics platform that continuously identifies, predicts, and takes action in real-time to maximize opportunities for businesses. In his prior role as a chief information officer at Cisco, Diaz was responsible for information technology organization, strategy, and services. Diaz is passionate about inclusion and diversity, evidenced by his sustained work in his organizations, across Cisco, and broadly in the community.
57. Álvaro Celis
Álvaro Celis is the Vice President of global ISV commercial solutions at Microsoft, where he is responsible for leading the global sales and marketing teams that secure device sales built by global and local partners. He is a key leader in transforming Microsoft around cloud computing, mobility, big data, privacy, retail trends, OEM, and online channels. Celis has been at Microsoft for 28 years and is part of the company’s HOLA initiative, which seeks to create leadership and opportunities for Latinx individuals in the U.S. technology industry. In 2022, he was named on the HITEC 100 list.
58. Lilian Rincón
Lilian Rincón is a Senior Director of Project Management at Google. She has over 20 years of consumer internet experience and 15 years of management experience. In her role, Lilian is responsible for category-leading products in artificial intelligence, communications, search, advertising, and mobile. She has been recognized as one of the top 15 most powerful women at Google by Insider in 2019, top women in tech by Refinery29 in 2018, top powerful women by Marie Claire in 2017, and top 20 Latinos in Tech by CNET in 2016.
59. Marcelo Claure
Marcelo Claure is the Chairman & CEO of Claure Capital. Previously, Marcelo was the CEO of SoftBank Group International and COO of SoftBank Group Corporation. Claure previously served as Sprint's CEO and is credited with having "led a turnaround" at Sprint. Prior to joining Sprint, in 1997, Claure founded the wireless services company Brightstar, which ranked as the largest Hispanic-owned business in the United States for six years. Claure is also involved in philanthropy and founded One Laptop Per Child and the 1Million Project Foundation, both of which provide computer access to students.
Ignacio Contreras is the senior director at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., where he leads a product marketing team of 20+ people responsible for 5G wireless solutions. He joined Qualcomm in 2009 to support the expansion of 3G and 4G businesses. Prior to his current role, Contreras managed media and analyst communications in support of automotive and Internet of Things (IoT) businesses. Before joining the workforce, he earned a BS in Industrial Engineering and a Master of Engineering Sciences at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
61. Diana Trujillo
Diana Trujillo is an aerospace engineer, who is currently technical group supervisor for sequence planning and execution and a tactical mission lead for the Mars Perseverance rover. She moved to the U.S. from Colombia without knowing any English and looked to fulfill her childhood dream of working for NASA, paying her way through college by cleaning houses. Diana was a part of the Mars 2020 mission, has worked for the Goddard Space Flight Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and she is now a NASA-JPL engineer.
62. Luis Martinez
Luis Martinez is the founder and CEO of We Tha Plug, an organization advocating for tech and innovation entrepreneurship in Pan African, Latinx, and other underrepresented communities. We Tha Plug helps founders access early-stage startup fundamental education, resources, community, mentorship, programming, and funding opportunities. Luis is an Afro-Latino from Honduras and was raised in Brooklyn, New York. Over the past 12 years, Luis has used his M.B.A. in Organizational Leadership to work in the government civilian sector and as a consultant delivering keynote presentations, workshops, and workforce development training. In 2022 he was named to The LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program.
63. Miriam Rivera
Miriam Rivera is the co-founder and managing director of Ulu Ventures, a seed-stage venture firm focused on enterprise IT in the Stanford and Silicon Valley communities. Prior to Ulu Ventures, Miriam was Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Google, which she joined in 2001 as the second attorney. She helped Google scale from $85 million to $10 billion in 5 years. She is currently a board member of Kauffman Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the United States focused on advancing opportunities in education and entrepreneurship for Americans. Miriam is dedicated to increasing diversity in both the entrepreneurial and investment communities.
64. Roberto Medrano
Roberto Medrano is the chairman, board member, and Interim COO of Lief Labs, Lief can ship your products directly to FBA warehouses across the U.S. & to Amazon’s specific standards. Prior to Lief Labs Roberto was an executive in the technology fields of cybersecurity, AI, Blockchain, IoT, middleware, API security, microservices, DevOps, software, SaaS, cloud, SOA/API management, and enterprise architecture. He 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, on-premises, or cloud hybrid products. Roberto was selected as a participant in President Clinton's White House Security Summit on cybersecurity.
65. Iris Mejias
Iris Mejias is a principal partner at PwC, where she’s worked for over twenty years. She started her career in Silicon Valley and has served a wide range of clients, from Fortune 500 companies to smaller emerging growth companies. Her breadth of experience garners her ability to provide insights around risk and controls, revenue and business process automation, and cloud technology risks. Iris leads a local Latino Inclusion Network “LIN” which includes over 200 LatinX professionals across the West Coast.
Juan Carlos Gutierrez is the head of solutions architecture and customer success for Latin America and the Caribbean at Amazon Web Services. Previously, he was the CEO and managing partner at rational7, leading Data, AI, IoT and Cloud initiatives globally. Gutierrez also serves as a Member of Board of Directors for the Hispanic Information Technology Executive Council (HITEC), a leading organization of Hispanic IT executives from around the world.
Victor Gureghian Baez is the vice president of Global Cloud Channel Sales at Ingram Micro Cloud, the world’s largest cloud ecosystem. The premium cloud service provider tallies over 200 cloud-based services and 33% of the world’s top telecoms providers within its ecosystem. Over the past 20+ years, Baez’s experience has spanned across leadership roles in sales, marketing, operations, and general management in the United States, APAC, Europe and Latin America.
68. Isis Rodriguez
Isis Rodriguez is the marketing lead at Erudit AI. Erudit AI helps executives and team leaders understand if employees are suffering from burnout or mental wellness issues and acts on frictions in the workplace before they have a chance to escalate. Rodríguez is committed to “helping companies make the workplace a more human place with the help of AI technology” and calls herself a “challenge-driven” marketing professional. On the side she uses her marketing, e-commerce, SEO content strategy, and email marketing background to freelance.
Courtney McColgan is the founder and CEO of Runa, an HR startup based in Mexico City. The cloud-based HR and payroll software solution is built specifically to support small to medium-sized businesses across Latin America. Previously, she worked as the chief marketing officer of Cabify, a ridesharing platform founded in 2011 in Madrid with operations across Latin America, Spain, and Portugal. McColgan is also a contributor for Mexico Business News.
Ester Borges Santos is a teacher and coordinator at Minas Programam, an organization that challenges gender stereotypes in the technology space. She’s also a researcher at Brazilian web governance and freedom of speech think-tank InternetLab, an independent research center in law and technology. Borges and her Minas Programam colleagues recently received coverage in Forbes for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic to set up virtual study groups on gender, race and technology.
71. Sergio Granada
Sergio Granada is the Sap Commerce Director at Perficient, the leading global digital consultancy transforming how the world’s largest enterprises and biggest brands connect with customers and grow their businesses. Previously he was the chief technology officer at Talos Digital, an award-winning software development, digital experience and e-commerce solutions firm that partners with agencies and other businesses to provide consulting and development on their software products. The company has worked with leading companies from the Fortune 500 including Pepsi, Shell, and Cisco Systems. Prior, Granada was a partner at JuanRegala.com and a senior developer at Spectrum Data Technologies.
72. Javier Andres Cardona Mora
Javier Andres Cardona Mora is the co-founder and CEO of 1DOC3, an AI-assisted telemedicine platform that provides affordable access to doctors in seconds. The company recently partnered with Nequi, a financial services app from Bancolombia, to further streamline telemedicine services and payment options for Colombian patients. Mora has worked for Spanish telecoms giant Telefónica and Aldeamo, a digital marketing company.
73. Victor Cortés
Victor Cortés is the co-founder & CEO at Verso an online store and office for freelancers, creatives and creators . Previously he was the director of content marketing at Tribal Credit, a company providing access to modern financial tools for startups and SMEs across Latin America. Formerly, Cortés was the editor and CEO of Contxto, a startup news organization covering technology, startups and venture capital in Latin America. Victor has an extensive background in startups and finance, having worked as an investment analyst at Redwood Ventures in Mexico. Victor is also the host of the Tracción podcast.
74. Dolmarie Mendez
Dolmarie Mendez is the CEO and co-founder of Abartys Health, a health tech company focused on centralizing healthcare data and improving healthcare processes for insurers, providers and patients. She is a certified healthcare reform specialist, self-insurance certified specialist, corporate wellness specialist and United States healthcare policy compliance officer. Under her leadership, Abartys Health was recognized as the winner of Parallel18’s Demo Day Investor’s Choice in 2017, SXSW Release It Competition in 2017, and the Rise of the Rest Competition 2018. Mendez was named one of Caribbean Business’ 40 Under 40 in 2015 and Caribbean Business Women Who Lead in 2016.
75. Alfredo Yepez
Alfredo Yepez is the Senior Vice President & Latin America Managing Director for Hewlett Packard Enterprise where he oversees development through execution of regional strategy for the legacy computing giant. He is an accomplished technology sales and operations leader with three decades of management experience at HP. Yepez holds numerous awards from the Hispanic Information Technology Executive Council, including being among the most influential Hispanic leaders in information technology in 2019.
76. Cuco Vega
Cuco Vega is the co-founder and COO and CPO of Bexi, a smart platform for UX and UI design for companies that don’t have the resources to employ full-time design staff. With years of experience in design and engineering, Vega has built his career working for startups and design studios like TellTale Games, Cibo, Edelman and Organic as well as Silicon Valley companies such as Bio-Rad and Citrix. As a Mexican-American, he has been a proactive promotor of collaboration between Mexico’s main tech hub, Guadalajara and Silicon Valley.
77. Laura Mendoza
Laura Mendoza is the co-founder and CEO of Unima, a biotechnology firm in Mexico focused on the development of fast and low-cost diagnostic devices. Under the motto of “Diagnostics for everyone, anywhere”, its goal is to increase access to healthcare in underprivileged areas. Before helming Unima, Mendoza was in charge of operations planning at pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, where she helped launch a new line of products for the company.
78. Sebastian Vidal
Sebastian Vidal is the Head Of Operations at Raincoat, a disastor insurance start up that recently receivced $4.5 million in seed funding. Previously he was the Chief Innovation Officer at Puerto Rico’s Science, Technology and Research Trust, a public-private trust looking to transform the island into a technology hub. Vidal has a storied background in technology and startups. Having worked his way to become the Executive Director of Start-Up Chile, Latin America’s most iconic startup accelerator, in 2015 Vidal was recruited by the government of Puerto Rico to lead the island’s government backed tech accelerator, Parallel18.
79. Victor Delgado
Victor Delgado is the Strategic Partner Manager at Google. Prior to Google Vctor was the director of Samsung’s global B2B alliances. His team develops new business opportunities and drives strategic partnerships to deliver the most innovative end-to-end mobility solutions. Delgado was the individual to reveal the Galaxy Z Fold2 folding phone to the world. He currently resides in South Korea.
80. Nina Vaca
Nina Vaca is the chairman and CEO of Pinnacle Group, a workforce solutions powerhouse that has been included in the Inc. 500/5000 list of fastest-growing companies 13 times and was named fastest-growing women-led company by the Women Presidents’ Organization in both 2015 and 2018. Nina has received numerous awards and recognition for her business success, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and the Goldman Sachs Most Intriguing Entrepreneur award. In 2014, Nina was appointed by the White House as an inaugural member of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) program. In 2016, she was inducted into the Minority Business Hall of Fame.
Jose Alvaro Avalos is the VP of Internet of Things Group and GM of the Visual Retail and Digital Signage Organization at Intel where he founded the digital signage business. He has over 30 years of experience with the company and is responsible for initiatives that have fueled the growth of this industry segment. He has represented Intel at SEMATECH, the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Digital Signage Association, and Mexico’s IT industry Association, among others. Avalos serves on the board of the Digital Place Based Advertising Association.
Mariely Bandas-Franzetti is the digital services vice president at Dell where she leads a global team responsible for the systems enabling Dell to efficiently and effectively serve customers. Her team’s portfolio of software platforms includes customer relationship management, remote support, field services, supply chain, managed services and configuration services solutions. Mariely is passionate about mentorship and giving back to her community through programs she sponsors, including the Empowering Women Leaders and Empowering Diverse Leaders. She also serves on the leadership board of Dell’s Hispanic Employee Resource Group, Latino Connection.
Jimena Almendares is a Product Executive at Facebook. She has 19 years of experience leading teams at public companies and startups, from serving as the Vice President of Global Expansion at Intuit to the Chief Product Officer at OkCupid where she helped lead them through IPO. She has worked in 16 countries and led teams across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. Jimena received an MBA from MIT, and an MA and a BA from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. She has been awarded the 2020 Fast Company Queer 50, 2019 Silicon Valley Business Journal Latino Leadership Award and the 2019 Expansión/CNN Magazine Mexico 30 Under 40.
84. Jesse Martínez
Jesse Martínez is the Founder of Latino Startup Alliance, an organization with goals to encourage the inspiration and cultivation of Latino led startup technology ventures by providing a strong support network of fellow Latino entrepreneurs, investors, innovators and business owners. Jesse is a 4x Founder and an honored member of the Top 50 US Latinx Tech Leaders group, a source of knowledge-sharing and a connector to some of the most successful Founders, VCs and influential leaders in the world. Jesse is also a venture partner at VamosVentures, a newly closed Latinx $50M seed fund for Latinx/diverse tech entrepreneurs.
85. Virgen Barnet
Virgen Barnet is a Co-Founder and creative director of Come Through, a full-service creative agency and collective centered around collaborating with and uplifting BIPOC creators. Virgen’s professional background is in graphic and website design, and her passion is creative direction and curating memorable experiences for creative communities both on and off the interwebs. She’s an advocate for STEM and tech learning opportunities for young women of color.
Raúl Lomeli-Azoubel is the Co-Founder, Chairman and chief community officer at Welcome Technologies, a venture-funded mobile tech platform helping immigrant communities connect to opportunity, products and services they need to succeed in a new country. The platform is currently focused on the U.S. Hispanic community, the largest immigrant community in the world. Prior to launching Welcome Tech, Raúl was the vice president of diverse growth segments at Wells Fargo. He is the proud son of migrant farm workers and labored the fields in the San Joaquin Valley the summers of his youth through his first year of college.
Maria (Lopez) Twena is the Chief Marketing Officer at Adsmovil. Previously she was the EVP of Brand & Marketing at Welcome Tech. She is an award-winning marketing executive with 25+ years of marketing experience across brand, agency and media groups. Maria is at the forefront of digital emergence with deep expertise in social media channels and with multicultural cohorts, including Latinx. She received her Master’s from the University of New Orleans with a thesis on marketing to the Latinx population.
Marisa S. Viveros is the Vice President of Strategy & Offerings at IBM. Her leadership and innovation traits displayed since early childhood describe Marisa's approach to all aspects of her work. Throughout her career, she has developed a great ability to act with a sense of urgency to identify gaps, and translate some of the toughest challenges of emerging information technologies into opportunities for IBM. Marisa holds a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Universidad of Concepción in Chile and a Master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Northridge.
89. Bernardo Tavares
Bernardo Tavares is a VP and Group CIO at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health where he’s responsible for strategy, planning and execution of the group's business technology direction. Bernardo brings 20+ years of experience in unifying business and technology to create competitive advantage for global organizations. With work experience in North America, Europe and Latin America, he’s well seasoned in leading global teams in consumer goods and technology companies.
90. Tony Sanchez
Tony Sanchez is the managing director and chief cloud architect at Morgan Stanley. Sanchez has been at Morgan Stanley for the last nine years and was previously a director at Instinet, an institutional, agency-model broker providing research, trading, and data analytics solutions for institutional investors and securities traders. Tony has been recognized as one of HITEC’s most influential leaders in technology. He has a Bachelor’s in psychology from Binghamton University.
91. Ester Pena
Ester Pena of Travelers is an accomplished technologist and values-driven business leader, with deep experience building and leading innovative products and technology organizations. They currently serve as the vice president of software engineering at Travelers, leading a technical organization building the customer-centric digital insurer of the future, and as a board member of Resilient Coders, a charitable organization working for equity in technology by enabling underserved youth with tech skills and job placement.
Leonardo Dionicio is the vice president of the technology foundation at Sun Life where he is responsible for driving innovation to advance Sun Life's U.S. technology footprint by supporting the company's technology products and digital assets. He also leads application maintenance and security as well as business continuity and disaster recovery for Sun Life. Leonardo joined Sun Life after working at Travelers for 21 years, where he oversaw global networks and infrastructure security.
93. Rudy Valdez
Rudy Valdez is the Chief Operating Officer at Doceboa, a software as a service company that specializes in learning management system. He is a senior cloud technology leader with 30 years of experience leading business and technology development and growing successful teams. Valdez is a big picture thinker who is passionate about building a diverse pipeline of cloud talent to drive innovation. He also currently leads Amazon’s Solutions Architecture and Training & Certification organizations as VP, working with customers and partners to leverage the AWS Cloud to re-invent and grow their businesses.
Vinicius (Vinny) Silva is a managing director at Accenture and has over 22 years of experience helping clients to achieve outstanding business results through digital transformation. Vinny has unique experience in multiple industries such as: consumer goods, life sciences, electronics, industrial equipment and automotive. Lastly, he aspires to help the world to be a better place to live and work by contributing energy for inclusion and diversity initiatives within and outside of his company.
95. Elias Torres
Elias Torres is the Co-Founder and CTO at Drift, a conversational marketing platform that combines chat, email, video, and automation to remove the friction from business buying. After just three years in the market, the company has become one of the fastest growing SaaS companies of all-time and was named to the Forbes Cloud 100, LinkedIn Top 50 Startups, Entrepreneur's Top Company Cultures, Boston Business Journal's Best Places to Work, and SaaS Company of the Year by the NEVCA. He is part of the Henry Crown Fellowship under the Aspen Global Leadership Network umbrella where successful entrepreneurial leaders focused on values and on creating a more sustainable society.
96. Rachel ten Brink
Rachel ten Brink is General Partner and Co-Founder of Red Bike Capital, a Latinx and woman-led Venture Capital fund based in New York that invests in early stage, high-growth startups . She is an early stage investor and advisor to several consumer-tech companies. Previously, Rachel was a partner at Five Four Ventures, a VC and Start-up Studio in New York and San Francisco, and the Co-Founder and CMO of Scentbird, a Y-Combinator backed fragrance subscription service that raised $28M in venture funding. A native of Costa Rica, Rachel holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and graduated magna cum laude from Babson College with a B.S. in International Business.
97. Jimena Zubiria
Jimena Zubiria is the vice president of people and communications at TheVentureCity, a leading accelerator that aims to help global-minded tech companies manage each phase of their growth journey. Zubiria worked in various roles at Google prior to joining TheVentureCity. She describes herself as an “experienced leader of tech-focused teams with a passion for building high-performing company cultures, skill development programs, and preparing workforces for jobs of the future.”
98. Gretel Perera and Rocio Medina
Gretel Perera and Rocio Medina dreamed of a group where Latinas could connect, learn, and support each other professionally. They co-founded Latinas in Technology (LiT): a non-profit organization of 2,000 Latina women, and growing, from over 12 countries who work in over 30 top tech companies. The organization focuses on 3 key pillars: professional development, recruiting and mentorship, with goals to create a tech industry where Latinas are well-represented throughout all levels of the ecosystem by empowering them to be innovators and leaders.
99. Ana Corrales
Ana Corrales is the chief operating officer for Google’s consumer hardware business and oversees the Google Store. In addition, Corrales serves on the board of directors for Watermark, an organization of women executives centered on the tech industry of Silicon Valley. She has been recognized by Forbes as one of the 50 Most Powerful Latinas in Business, as one of the Most Influential Women in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Business Times,and as a Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology by the National Diversity Council.
100. Christina Cuarón
Christina Cuarón is the Chief Operating Officer of technology infrastructure at Bank of America. She has over 20 years of experience in business operations, strategy, change initiatives, risk and compliance, governance, quality assurance, and financial management in a global banking institution. Cuarón is also part of the Hispanic IT Executive Council, a premier global executive leadership organization of senior business and technology executives.
101. Max Cuellar
Max Cuellar is the chief data officer at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Max has been at HP for the past seven years, and in his most recent role, he is responsible for SaaS data architecture, data strategy, cloud services and data/insight culture. He has extensive international experience, both in business and personally, having been born in Mexico and educated in both Mexico and the U.S. Cuellar is also a board member at Sage Publishing, a global academic publisher of books, journals, and a growing suite of library products and services.
Thank you to sites that historically and continuously highlight Latinx/Latine/Latino/Latina/Latin/Hispanic people in Tech and VC including Bloomberg Linea, Latinas’ in Tech, HITEC, Techqueria and many more.