October 14, 2021

Jaime Raul Zepeda EWMBA 19 - Serving the Community Through Civic Leadership

34 minutes

As part Hispanic Heritage Month celebration, we're featuring Jaime Raul Zepeda, a graduate of EWMBA 2019. Through grit and hard work, he moved alone to America at 17, took classes during the day, and mopped floors in the evening. His family in Mexico developed his passion for business and civic leadership. His dad runs a small business, while his mom actively serves the community by feeding the prisoners, giving free haircuts to the homeless, and teaching adults to read and write. Jaime continues helping others by mentoring first-generation college students, youth starting their careers, and social impact entrepreneurs.

Jaime served as VP of Partnership and Programs in Great Place to Work and Customer Success Regional Manager at LinkedIn. He currently helps fresh graduates land career opportunities as SVP of Customer and People Success at Hive Diversity, a virtual recruitment platform.

Listen to this episode to know what inspired Jaime to serve the community as he runs for State Senate in California's 10th District.

Episode Quotes:

Your family has a small business in Mexico, why did you choose a very uncomfortable life as a teenager in America?

[00:02:26] "My dad set this example for me to just always dream, always chase what you want. Hustle for what you're looking for, like work hard. And my mom, very same way, same things. But she also added this layer of always serving the community."

On the role of the community as he pursued education and career independently

[00:05:45] "I'd relied a lot on the people that were there once I got there. I relied on the family. I was going to high school during the day because I was on my own. I had a full-time job after that. So, I had a very different experience. But teachers at high school knew about that. Eventually, they knew that I was my own guardian. They would just come in and say, you know, 'Do you need some help, Jaime? I know that you got a lot. You can do that homework tomorrow.'

And it was just awesome because it was like those little moments that just taught me to appreciate the community that I had around me at all times. And I still bring that to this day. I still believe educators are amazing nation builders. My wife is an educator, and I think they're amazing, but I had some community that helped me out."

Having a lot of experience in business, what led you to enter politics?

[00:24:54] "Politics and business have always just been super fascinating for me because in politics, if you do it really well, and if you do it for the right intentions, it is to empower people. It is to move the levers of government through laws, policies, and movements so that more people get more power. To get elected is not to get power, but to give power, as I always think about it.

Business is very similar in many ways too. If business is done really well, it is to create a sustainable positive agent of change in society. And that's largely why I've only worked at organizations where I believe in what they do. Not just because it's a good paycheck, but because I believe they're actually doing good to society and are able to sustain that because of the business model they have."

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