Although the Hispanic population grows steadily larger, both in absolute terms and as a proportion of the American population, Hispanic representation in the boardrooms at the nation's biggest companies is not keeping pace, according to a survey by HispanTelligence.
Each year, Hispanic Business magazine compiles its Boardroom Elite, a listing of Hispanics serving as directors of companies appearing in the Fortune 500. This year there are 70 members on 100 seats, compared to 67 people on 96 seats in January 2006 and 69 on 95 seats in 2005.
Some notable departures include both Hispanics (Maria Elena Lagomasino and J. Pedro Reinhard) from the Coca-Cola Company board, Hector Ortino leaving his seats at New York Life and Parker Hannifin, and former U.S. Energy and Transportation secretary Federico Pena exiting Principal Financial Group in May.
Some people are missing just because their company isn't on the Fortune 500 anymore. Enrique Falla had sat on Guidant's board, for example, but that medical device maker was purchased by Boston Scientific. And Beatriz Rivera, long a fixture at Albertsons, is off now that a private equity firm took the supermarket chain private.
One member, William D. Perez, left one high-profile position but landed on his feet elsewhere. The former S.C. Johnson chief took a widely heralded CEO and board position at Nike last year, left that position after a falling out with Nike's founder, and later in the year was picked up as CEO and director at Wrigley.
Mr. Perez is also one of six on the list who are "inside" directors, i.e. they are officers of the company and ex officio board members. Others include Cristobal I. Conde, CEO of SunGard Data Systems; Paul J. Diaz, CEO of Kindred Healthcare; Richard A. Gonzalez, COO of Abbott Labs; Amtonio M. Perez, CEO of Eastman Kodak; and Hector de Jesus Ruiz, CEO of AMD.
Kodak, by the way, also has the most Hispanics on its board of any Fortune 500 company, with three, including its CEO.
A handful of people on our list sit on four Fortune 500 boards, including Linda G. Alvarado, Armando Codina, Enrique Hernandez Jr., and Roland A. Hernandez.
The following list includes all the Hispanics sitting on the boards of Fortune 500 companies, along with the companies. This is not an exhaustive list of all companies on whose boards they sit, although in some cases we've included non-Fortune 500 companies that are either high profile or up and coming.
2007 BOARDROOM ELITE
Donna M. Alvarado
Currently: Former federal official is founder and president of business consulting firm Aguila International
Boards: CSX Corp. , Corrections Corp. of America
Linda G. Alvarado
Currently: Founder, president and CEO of Denver-based Alvarado Construction
Boards: The Pepsi Bottling Group; 3M; Pitney Bowes Inc.; Qwest Communications International Inc. ; Lennox International
Aida Alvarez
