The Aspen Institute

The Aspen Latino Business & Entrepreneurship Summit brings together high-level Latino and Non-Latino cross-sector leaders at the national and local levels to uplift policies, practices, and programs supporting Latino business owners and entrepreneurs.

Representing total economic output of $2.7 trillion in 2019 and the fastest-growing segment of U.S. small businesses, Latinos are setting the stage to reimagine the U.S. economy with their hiring and buying power, labor force participation, and other key economic indicators. Nevertheless, it remains an urgent priority for U.S. policymakers, innovators, investors, and business, philanthropic and civic leaders to collectively address the myriad systemic inequities that have unjustly capped the potential of the Latinos, especially in the business community. We will also identify actions to help Latino businesses thrive in this changing economy.

The second annual event will feature in-person keynotes and panels hosted at the Park Hyatt, as well as interactive breakout sessions to workshop solutions around key topics.

Interested in attending? Fill out this form!

Program Book

Our Speakers

Agenda

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

8:15 – 9:00 am  Breakfast & Registration 

9:00 – 9:45 am  Welcome and Introduction

9:45 – 10:45 am  Reimagining Access to Capital for Latinos

Latinos are the nation’s fastest-growing entrepreneurial segment; but despite their growth, Latino entrepreneurs disproportionately face more barriers to accessing debt and equity capital across the continuum than their white counterparts. In this session, panelists will explore how to break down the implicit bias that Latino-owned businesses (LOBs) are inherently more risky borrowers. They will also address how financial institutions can innovate capital products to increase financing for Latino entrepreneurs and small businesses.

10:45 – 10:55 pm  Transition Break

10:55 – 11:55 am  Interactive Breakout Sessions 

Launching Latino-Owned Businesses at Scale Through Employee Ownership
Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) and worker cooperatives are becoming viable options for business owners planning their succession strategies while creating opportunities for workers to build generational wealth. As market failures exclude Latino workers from wealth-building opportunities, innovations in employee ownership can fast track Latino and minority communities to become business owners. This panel will highlight successful worker-owned models, the strategies to finance them, and what is needed to accelerate their implementation.

Transformative Capacity Building: Why it Matters
Entrepreneur serving organizations are critical for the sustained growth of minority-owned businesses. However, these community pillars are often understaffed, operating in silos, and have limited funding. In this session, speakers will explore the kind of challenges that entrepreneur-serving organizations face in an environment with limited resources, and surface strategies to alleviate those challenges.

Latino communities and the Digital Economy
The pandemic has accelerated automation and the adoption of smart technologies, making it urgent for Latino workers and entrepreneurs to develop new digital skills. According to a McKinsey report, Latinos workers are most at risk of displacement due to their overrepresentation in low-wage and low-skill sectors. However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to effectively manage the skills-gap conundrum contributing to the mismatch of talent and jobs. In this session, panelists will discuss specific challenges and opportunities different Latino communities face and share effective initiatives to accelerate upskilling and embed digital equity in public and corporate policies.

Exploring a Place-Based Small Business Investment Model to Build Wealth & Equity
This interactive break-out session will explore the personal wealth creation potential of small business ownership and its ability to address the racial wealth gap. Speakers will explore the levers of the Hispanic business ecosystem that contribute to building wealth and equity – including, the intersectional roles of traditional bank loans & credit, CDFIs, grants, private investment, policy, local government, and community non-profits. They will also discuss strategies for taking a local place-based approach to investing in Hispanic small businesses — with the ultimate goal of helping to close the racial wealth gap, particularly in Capital One’s hometown of Richmond, VA.

11:55 – 12:05 pm  Transition (15 minutes)

12:05 – 1:05 pm  Sit Down Lunch (1 hour), Grand Ballroom

Lunch Session: Building Back American Manufacturing in El Paso, Grand Ballroom
In September of 2022, El Paso became a winner of the Build Back Better Regional Challenge receiving $40 million dollars to execute a plan to strengthen the region’s manufacturing industry around the aerospace and defense industry. In this conversation, members of the coalition responsible for this proposal will explain how this plan will strengthen America’s aerospace and defense manufacturing capabilities by integrating smaller manufacturers in West Texas into the aerospace and defense (A&D) supply chain. They will also discuss what this means for the region’s majority Latino community and for American manufacturing as a whole.

12:55 – 1:25 pm  Networking Coffee (25 minutes)

1:25 – 1:30 pm  Angie Garcia Lathrop, Community Affairs Executive, Bank of America

1:30 – 2:15 pm  Principles for Latino Digital Success

The Aspen Latino Digital Inclusion Task Force is a unique brain trust of prominent leaders committed to scaling digital upskilling best practices. In this conversation, Task Force leaders will examine the necessary steps cross-sector leaders must take to advance digital equity, enhance global competitiveness through upskilling and reskilling, and strengthen the Latino talent pipeline.

2:15 – 3:00 pm  Inclusive Procurement: Lessons from the Federal Government and Private Sector 

To unlock the procurement economy, we need a paradigm shift in public and private contracting, away from short-term buying needs – but rather towards leveraging contracting as a tool to promote regional market dynamism, sectoral innovation, and business- and wealth-building. Speakers will discuss innovative models to foster a more deliberate, market-making, and coordinated brokering process to connect minority-owned businesses to procurement opportunities that will drive their growth and enhance the U.S. economy.

3:00 – 3:05 pm  Remarks by the Honorable Joaquin Castro, Congressman Representing the Texas 20th Congressional District

3:05 – 3:50 pm  Tackling Market Inequities: Strategies for Mitigating Latino Displacement

Gentrification is increasingly displacing longtime residents and small business owners, and altering the cultural, economic, political, and demographic make-up of cities, and entire regions. 

Unless concerted and coordinated action is taken, at scale, the nation runs the risk of exacerbating racial disparities on wealth, which are already pronounced. A panel of national and local community leaders will discuss displacement-mitigation strategies and highlight how coordinated collaborations can develop new ecosystem relationships, increase asset building opportunities, and reward innovation.

3:50 – 4:00 pm  Program Closing

4:00 – 5:00 pm  Reception

• Rudy D. Garza, President & Chief Executive Officer, CPS Energy
  
• Martin Claure, CEO and Founder, Aprende Institute