Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

Esther Aguilera: "Latinos Are The Most Underrepresented Minorities on U.S. Corporate Boards"


Listen Later

  1. Start of interview [1:25]
  2. Esther's "origin story" [1:50]
  3. Her experience at Occidental College [3:55]
  4. Her transition from CA to Washington DC [4:36]
  5. Introduction of the Latino Corporate Director Association (LCDA), founded in 2016 [6:20]
  6. History of LCDA [7:15] Links with the Hispanic Association of Corporate Responsibility (HACR)
  7. The Mission of LCDA is to 1) develop, 2) support & 3) increase the number of Latinos on Corporate Boards [8:56]
  8. LCDA Pillars [9:06]: 1) Increase supply (Latinos hold less than 3% of Fortune 1000 company board seats) 2) Increase demand, 3) Research and Raising Awareness, 4) Engage with Companies.
  9. The LCDA Board Ready Institute for aspiring directors [12:10]
  10. LCDA Memberships (115 current members: 2/3s corporate directors, 1/3 aspiring directors):
    1. Aspiring Directors (executive membership).
    2. Corporate Directors  (as of 2019, Latino directors held 275 board seats in F1000 companies for a total of only 209 individuals)
  11. CA's Women on Boards Legislation (2018): SB-826 (Gender) [21:16]
    1. LCDA found that out of 511 seats filled by women on California public company boards since SB 826 was enacted, just 17 (3.3%) are Latina, compared to 77.9% white women.
  12. CA's Corporate Boards Diversity Legislation (2020) (pending signature): AB-979 (Minorities)
    1. LCDA found that out of 662 California companies registered on the NYSE, NASDAQ, and AMEX, 35%, or 233 companies have all white boards of directors.
    2. LCDA also found that out of these 662 CA companies, only 13% had at least one Latino on their board.
  13. "What ends up happening is that you're setting up winners and losers: if there is only a focus on gender, Latinos and African-American lose out." [24:50]
  14. LCDA's Latino Voices for Boardroom Equity Initiative in partnership with leading business and civic leaders [28:41] The Latino Voices initiative asserts that diversity without the inclusion of Latinos is not acceptable:
    1. Call to triple Latino representation on public company boards by 2023 (currently Latinos hold only 2.2% of Russell 3000 companies per ISS)
    2. Act to target corporations with no Latino representation (for example, Del Taco, Chipotle and el Pollo Loco)
    3. Track progress through publication of a quarterly scorecard.
  15. "If Latinos were a nation, they would be the 8th largest economy in the world, right behind India. IThey are growing at ~5% (similar to India)"
  16. "Diversity is a business and governance imperative"
  17. LCDA has a national campaign (starting in CA). They have a Latino Board Tracker. [36:40]
  18. Her favorite authors: [38:30]
    1. Maya Angelou (poetry)
    2. Rodolfo Anaya (history)
    3. Martin Luther King (struggle)
  19. Her professional mentors: [40:12]
    1. Bill Richardson (former Governor of New Mexico, US Ambassador to the UN, Energy Secretary and U.S. Congressman)
    2. Xavier Becerra (current Attorney General of the State of CA)
    3. Ed Pastor (former U.S. Congressman for Arizona)
  20. Her favorite quote: [43:46]
    1. Bernard Tyson (former Chair and CEO of Kaiser Permanente): "When Corporate America lets us Into the room, our contributions are going to be massive when we're given a shot and a chance."

Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

You can follow Evan on social media at:

X: @evanepstein

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ 

Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/

__

To support this podcast you can join as a subscriber of the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at https://evanepstein.substack.com/

__

Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Boardroom Governance with Evan EpsteinBy Evan Epstein

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

42 ratings


More shows like Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

View all
Economist Podcasts by The Economist

Economist Podcasts

4,190 Listeners

Exchanges by Goldman Sachs

Exchanges

978 Listeners

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

534 Listeners

WSJ What’s News by The Wall Street Journal

WSJ What’s News

4,362 Listeners

The McKinsey Podcast by McKinsey & Company

The McKinsey Podcast

393 Listeners

WSJ Tech News Briefing by The Wall Street Journal

WSJ Tech News Briefing

1,644 Listeners

a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

a16z Podcast

1,098 Listeners

HBR IdeaCast by Harvard Business Review

HBR IdeaCast

180 Listeners

M&A Science by Kison Patel

M&A Science

135 Listeners

Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry by Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert

Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

799 Listeners

Masters of Scale by WaitWhat

Masters of Scale

3,989 Listeners

Inside the Strategy Room by McKinsey & Company

Inside the Strategy Room

169 Listeners

The Journal. by The Wall Street Journal & Spotify Studios

The Journal.

6,065 Listeners

All Things Sustainable by S&P Global

All Things Sustainable

64 Listeners

The Markets by Goldman Sachs

The Markets

75 Listeners