The Latino Corporate Directors Association,
A Commitment to Board Diversity
By Gloria Romano-Barrera
Esther Aguilera, CEO of the Latino Corporate
Directors Association (LCDA), was propelled
to a leadership role at 27-years-old.
Working at the U.S. Capitol as the executive director
for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in the early
1990s allowed Aguilera to be a resource for the
Latino community serving as an advocate and
liaison to members of congress and the community.
“As an immigrant from Mexico, at the age of
four, my humble parents and upbringing could not
have prepared me for this and future leadership
roles, but I learned from them the value of diligence
and hard work, as it took long hours to respond to
the many demands,” she shares. “I have always
been driven to make impact and progress, and have
been blessed to assume multiple leadership roles
that have allowed me to work with and learn from
leaders and mentors.”
Today as the CEO of LCDA, she continues
to do that and more. Committed to board diversity,
governance excellence and advancing the next
wave of Latino directors, Aguilera and her team
are focused on targeted advocacy, strategic
partnerships, and engagements to open more
opportunities for Latinos to serve in the boardroom.
The Latino Corporate Directors Association
(LCDA) is the only national association of U.S. Latino
corporate board members that serve on publicly
traded and large private company boards, as well as
C-Suite level and board-qualified executives.
Esther Aguilera, President, the Latino
Corporate Directors Association (LCDA).
Founded by a small group of Latino directors,
with assistance from the Hispanic Association on
Corporate Responsibility (HACR) and an early major
sponsor, Toyota, the LCDA is at the forefront in
advancing positive trends in Latino corporate board
placement.
With the collective efforts of their board,
membership, sponsors, and President & CEO, the
LCDA has received over a million dollars in annual
fundraising, a board-ready institute, placement of
Latino directors and extensive partnerships
with boards, companies, institutional investors,
universities, private equity, search firms and others.
“We have built a community that is committed
to board diversity, governance excellence and
advancing the next wave of Latino directors,”
Aguilera shares. “The LCDA has set an ambitious
plan to increase the number of Latinos on coveted
board seat positions. As a significant resource at the
forefront of advancing trends and moving the
needle on Latino corporate board representation we
are showcasing and promoting the talent pool for
placement on corporate boards.”
Although encouraging trends in the boardroom
for Hispanic executives are visible, data analyzed by
ISS Analytics revealed that Latinos hold 1.7 percent
of the roughly 21,000 director seats of the Russell
3000 Index companies. The analysis found that about
18 percent are women and 3.2 percent are black,
but Latinos lag far behind in representation at 1.7
percent. “LCDA is continuously moving the needle to
positively impact these numbers,” says Aguilera. “We
referred candidates to more than 45 board searches,
up from five in 2017, and influenced the placement
of 14 members and associate members on boards.
Also, for the first time, we saw greater consideration
of Latino and diverse candidates for the boardroom
by executive search firms.”
In 2016, LCDA’s inaugural convening was
hosted by, then President and CEO of Hewlett
Packard Enterprise, Meg Whitman, in Palo Alto,
California. The support that LCDA received set the
tone for future growth, and throughout the years,
LCDA’s annual convening has grown to be one of
the most prominent gatherings of executives at the
highest levels of corporate leadership.
In November 2017, the LCDA’s Latino Corporate
Directors Education Foundation (LCDEF) launched
its BoardReady Institute (BRI) program in
collaboration with Stanford University’s Rock Center
for Corporate Governance and through significant
investment by the KPMG Board Leadership Center.
This comprehensive, two-year program is
designed to identify, prepare, and position highly
credentialed Latino executives and national leaders
for corporate board service.
2017 LCDA convening Board with Juan Ricardo Luciano, Chairman and CEO, Archer
Daniels Midland.
30 www. lat inastyle.com LATINAStyle Vol . 26, No. 1, 2020
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