Only a handful of Latinas have been CEOs of a Fortune 500 company.
Geisha Williams, Cuban-American, is the former CEO of PG&E.
Cheryl Miller, Puerto Rican, is the former CEO of AutoNation.
Priscilla Almodovar, of Puerto Rican heritage, was recently named CEO of Fannie Mae.
Latinas hold just 1% of board seats on the 2020 Fortune 500.
Among women, Latinas hold the least percentage of board seats at Fortune 500 companies at 3.8% Latina compared to 78.7% white women, 11.8% Black women and 5.7% Asian women, according to a new report by the Latino Corporate Directors Association, which works to increase representation of Latinos and Latinas in Corporate America.
In 2020, Latinos (men and women) held 4.1% of Fortune 500 board seats compared to 82.5% White, 8.7% Black, and 4.6% Asian American. The report also found 65% of 2022 Fortune 1000 companies lack a U.S. Latino on their board of directors, a 4% decrease from 2021.
“A commitment to diversity and inclusion is incomplete without Latinos. 65 percent of Fortune 1000 boards have no Latino directors, even though 2 in 10 Americans are Latino,” said Elizabeth Oliver-Farrow, the LCDA Board Chair and director of the Hispanic Communications Network LLC in the report. “We contribute 25 percent of the country’s GDP and are responsible for 85 percent of new entrants into the workforce. This has to change.”
Here are some of the Fortune 100 companies with Latinos on their boards, Walmart, Apple, CVS Health, AT&T, Microsoft, Chevron, Home Depot, Ford Motor, Verizon Communications, General Motors Comcast and Target.
Here are some of the Fortune 100 companies that do not have Latinos on their boards Amazon, Exxon Mobil, Costco Wholesale, Cigna, Cardinal Health, Marathon Petroleum, Kroger, JPMorgan Chase, Phillips, Dell Technologies, UPS, FedEx and Citigroup.
Not taking into consideration director resignations and departures, it will take more than 8 years to reach 10% of directorships on Fortune 1000.
This is not acceptable when you consider Latino economic power. In 2019, Latino consumers contributed $2.7 trillion to the U.S. GDP. Latino purchasing power is growing 57% faster than non-Latino. And if U.S. Latinos were an independent country, they would account for the 7th largest GDP in the world, greater than Italy, Brazil, or Canada.
“In a country where the U.S. Latino GDP is $2.7 trillion, and, over the past 2 years, has grown at double the rate of the broader U.S. economy, companies need this perspective in their boardrooms,” said Sol Trujillo, LLC/Chairman of the Latino Donor Collaborative in the report. “If companies want to grow and keep pace in this new mainstream economy, every board should immediately begin placing Latino(a)s on their board and in C-Suite positions…because we all know, no one wants to be seen as leaving money on the table.”
There are plenty of Latinos qualified to serve on corporate boards. The Latino Corporate Directors Education Foundation also is training more. They developed the BoardReady Institute, a comprehensive set of programs designed to prepare and position highly qualified Latino senior executives and national leaders for corporate board service.
Latinos have buying power and we should be represented at the highest levels of Corporate America.