Latinos Are Practically Absent From Corporate Leadership

Despite the whole $1 trillion buying power, despite being 1 in 6 Americans, Latinos are largely absent from roles of corporate leadership. Several studies and a report from Poder360 found that Latinos are neither present in any significant numbers in corporate leadership roles in Fortune 500 and Fortune 1,000 companies. Poder360 reported:

New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez found similar results in a survey filled out last year by 219 of the Fortune 500 companies. The study found 3.2 percent of all directors and only 2.9 percent of executive team members were Hispanic.

Arias, a senior partner at Korn/Ferry International in Dallas, notes that even if the focus is widened to include the top 1,000 companies and the nearly 10,500 directors who serve on their boards, U.S.-born Hispanics only make up about 1.5 percent of the total. Put another way, about 130 of those companies have at least one Hispanic board member, or 13 percent. That’s down from 19 percent in 2007. So called C (as in corporate) suite diversity numbers are much smaller. Zweigenhaft, whose book was written with University of California, Santa Cruz research professor G. William Domhoff, says there have been only 15 Hispanic CEOs at Fortune 500 companies since 1981 – the year Roberto Goizueta rose to the top of Coca-Cola. Currently, there are six, the same as a decade ago.

And what does that mean in absolute numbers? Well, according to the piece, in 2008 that meant that 11 Latinos headed corporations. So, we’re talking teeny weeny numbers here. Why is this important? There are lots of reasons, but I would venture to say that better products, business practices and hiring practices would probably be affected. How can this be changed? Same old, same old: education and opportunity.