Civil Rights Leader

SINCE 2018, Sindy Marisol Benavides has served as chief executive officer of the League of United Latino American Citizens, the nation's oldest and largest Hispanic civil rights organizations with more than a 132,000 members across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

In this leadership role, despite the "abnormal" environment created by the coronavirus epidemic, Benavides, a Honduran-American, has been fully engaged in revising the narrative that has left too many Latinos outside the American mainstream and treated as if they don't belong here.

"We are creating the change now, going from invisible to being very visible and being very clear in our actions and our words," Benavides said.

In moving forward, LULAC is committed to the struggle for greater Latina and Latino representation in the highest echelons of education, business and elected office.

As for her position at a top rung of Latino nonprofit world, Benavides relies on a sense of leadership based on consensus building and listening to others, a commitment to giving derived from her family background and a recognition of the strength and ability within the Latino community.

Moreover, Benavides has experienced first hand the struggles and hardships many Latinos face as members of the nation's largest minority group.

As a one-year-old, Sindy Benavides crossed the border into the United States in the arms of her mother, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, accompanied by her father and three-year-old border.

The Benavides family first settled in Los Angeles and endured hard times. She remembers picking up cans in the streets of the California city and later cleaning houses with her mother in Virginia to help her family subsist.

Whatever the situation, Benavides held onto her vision of the United States as a land of opportunity and drew upon the values imparted by "pioneering parents" and a clear understanding that she came from a community that is "very strong, resilient and determined," she said.

Initially, Benavides found herself moving swiftly through the political ranks as a volunteer. "I have always been involved, she said, and willing to take on whatever task was needed, even serving as a greeter. Moreover, Benavides "had a lot to say" about her Latino community.

What Benavides had to offer was observed by leaders in Virginia's Democratic organization and at the age of 22, she was chosen Latino director in Tim Kaine's gubernatorial campaign in Virginia. The following year she became a senior member of the governor's cabinet. "I was always the youngest in the room," she recalled.

Benavides would take her youthful determination and skills on to the Democratic National Committee and then shift into her current vocation.

"It felt like a natural pathway to go into state government, to then go into the non-profit world to continue to serve," Benavides said.

"I did not even know what public service was," Benavides said, but credits her parents and grandparents for preparing her for this career. "I always knew that we served others. I grew up in a house where my parents kitchen door was always open, even to strangers. Anyone could walk in through that door to be fed, hear stories and stay for the night," she recalled.

Moreover, if when Honduras was hit by a devastating hurricane or someone passed away, her parents would provide whatever help they could, Benavides said.

Her grandmother, who had nine children, also always served others. "For fun times she would make Rosaries for her local community and if someone knocked on her door she would make sure to provide food, even if it was the little she had," Benavides recalled.

Now the parent of two children herself, Benavides is very much influenced by her mother and the "courage she had to leave everything behind and come to a country she did not know."

CIVIC LEADERSHIP IN TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY

Bill Sarno

Benavides never considered herself a leader. "I always was that person working behind the scenes for the governor or for the DNC," the LULAC CEO said. "It was always about getting things done, and I did not care who got credit."

What was important, however, is trying to understand all sides, to a seek consensus and to let others talk, said Benavides. "Part of being leader is opening up the pathway and the door for others to lead and serve," she said.

Benavides takes pride that during her tenure, which includes the "abnormal" pandemic period, LULAC's membership has doubled and its visibility has grown.

Much of this increased attention comes from the grassroots work of thousands of members, who she describes as the "power of LULAC," to help Latinos experiencing food insecurity, housing insecurity and financial insecurity.

LULAC has been hosting drives in cities such as Dallas, Miami, and Los Angeles. "We do all that work," Benavides said.

In addition, LULAC gained national recognition when it intervened last year to demand action by the military when Latina soldier Vanessa Guillén disappeared and later was found murdered at Fort Hood. "We helped create that awareness, the momentum nationally about what was happening," Benavides said.

During this campaign LULAC unexpectedly found it had opened a Pandora's Box, Benavides recalled. "So many women were using our hashtag IamVanessaGuillen to tell us about sexual assaults, the culture of the military and what they had experienced," she said.

The coronavirus pandemic brought new challenges. When LULAC asked the Centers for Disease Control for information in Spanish about COVID 19, it was told "we don't have it and don't know when we will," Benavides asserts.

So LULAC took on the task of disseminating information about COVID-19 in Spanish. Not only was their need to explain precautions such as wearing a mask and about vaccinations, the Washington, D.C.-based organization had to counter misinformation. "We want to make sure our community understands what they are getting from Facebook and other social media and question the source, Benavides said.

As for the present, Benavides said, "We have never been so busy." This activities resonates with the course charted when LULAC was formed in 1929. This mission ranges "from education, to health to housing, to civil rights, to economic empowerment, to political empowerment. You name it we do it," she said.

For example, she cites the recent demise of the pay equity bill in the Senate. It is not tolerable, she said that women are still discriminated against when it comes to pay equity.

LULAC also is working to stop "hate for profit" and online disinformation that targets people of color, Muslims, the LGBTQ community," Benavides said.

What needs to be emphasized, she said, is "how resilient we are, how intelligent and smart and how proud we are to be Americans. So many in our community are working in terms of their identity, understanding their identity as a Latino, a Latinx in the United States."

Since May 1, Benavides has been the vice president of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a conglomerate of activist organizations.

"Coming together will be important," Benavides said. "This includes making sure all national organizations are thinking of that big picture plan as well as what we can do collectively to create that impact for our communities across the United States, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

"Part of it is really looking at big picture and making sure we are shifting from being tactical to having strategies, not only having the immediate, long term, short term plans, but also the contingency plan in terms of having the policies whether it be immigration reform, or whether it is infrastructure, health care reform, or education, Benavides said.

In addition, Benavides said, "it is important that we begin the hard work of making sure that corporations who market to the Latino community, profit from the Latino community but don't have any Latinos on the corporate board understand that it is unacceptable, that diversity, equity and inclusion, includes Latinos."

"There is clearly lots of work to be done," the HonduranAmerican said. "It starts with us today."

In 30 years, Latinos will comprise about one third of the U.S. population, or 130 million people, Benavides said. "Yes, America we are part of your destiny."

SPOTIFY’S NEWEST MEMBER,

Elizabeth Nieto

Bill Sarno Courtesy Carlos Cuevas

Whether it be a new country or a different work environment, Elizabeth Nieto has demonstrated an ability to successfully adapt and succeed, and even be an agent of change, whether it be gender equality or sustainability in the corporate setting.

A NATIVE OF Argentina, Nieto became Global Head of Equity and Impact at Spotify in March, and already is enthusiastic about the Swedish-founded audio streaming company and its corporate culture.

As someone coming from the financial world, Nieto said, she has found it both refreshing and surprising that Spotify bandmates as they call their employees are "playful and not taking themselves very seriously," which is one of the company’s values.

At the same time, Nieto is very serious about playing a role at a global company that serves hundreds of million listeners worldwide.

Several of Nieto's responsibilities at Spotify are familiar and segue with her background in human resources and talent management. This involves leading the 15-year-old audio streaming trend setter's diversity, inclusion and belonging programs.

However, there are also two new areas of responsibility, social impact and sustainability, that have aroused her enthusiasm. "We are bringing the three portfolios together," Nieto said, "creating synergies, as we understand that they are part of who we are as a brand and for our employees, we want to be leaders in inclusion, social impact and sustainability.

Nieto likes that Spotify has merged the three portfolios, especially "we need to understand what sustainability means for our business, we know that climate change has a high impact on some populations that are already marginalized. Through our platform and with our employees, we want to have a positive impact on the world and support creators from all backgrounds."

Moreover, Nieto said, "What we find is that our employees want to do this work and want to work for a company that aligns with their values and want to see we support some of the topics that they believe are important to bettering the world."

Nieto advocates that a good opportunity for the business can be a good opportunity for the people who work there. The company benefits when employees feel they have purpose. "It is important for employers to provide inspiration to our listeners, and to do it year after year, you have to believe in the power of audio," she said. "In the case of Spotify, we talk a lot about being a talent first organization. Our mission is simple: we want to unlock the potential of human creativity, giving millions

of creators the opportunity to live off their art, while giving billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by this art," the company's Global Head of Equity and Impact stated.

Spotify wants to ensure its nearly 7,000 employees have success within the organization no matter their background, she said.

In meeting with people at Spotify, Nieto is impressed by employees' passion for music and the spoken word. For this workforce, listening is everything. "This is what they wake up every morning to do," she said.

For Nieto, the ability to acclimate to new conditions is at least partially derived from her background. She describes herself and her family as immigrants. She was born, raised and educated in Argentina. Her grandparents came from Romania, her father from Spain and her adult daughter already has developed her professional career in Dubai. "We don't stay in one place for more than one generation," she said with a smile, citing war, economics, education and career opportunities as the primary reasons for immigrating.

Nieto education includes a master's degree in educational sciences from the University of Buenos Aires. "I thought I would work in early education and I ended up in corporate education," she said, the best serendipity decision I made.

As the first member of her family to graduate from a university or work in corporations, Nieto said she didn't know that these kinds of jobs existed.

Moreover as a Latina, she has had to rise above a part of her culture that counters the idea of women being ambitious. "That has been the biggest piece of learning, accepting that it is okay to be ambitious. While still wanting others to rise with you. The other myth is that you have it all “all I know is that I have committed to both my career and my family.

Soon after she entered the workforce, Nieto's career path brought her to the United States where for more than 30 years she has earned leadership posts in human resources at some of the giants of the financial services sector and more recently in an executive role at Amazon.

At the beginning of her career, and what Nieto said led into the area of diversity and inclusion, was her focus on solving for gender inequality and her understanding that there were marginalized communities that were not having access to either education or work opportunities." "We were really looking at gender as the driver in understanding why women were either leaving the workforce or they were not being promoted at the same pace as their male colleagues," Nieto said. "They were not leaving the workforce to stay at home, they were leaving the workforce to be an entrepreneur, work for a purpose driven, kinder culture or to do other work in philanthropy. I knew we needed to fix the culture of these companies, by evolving the systems that created obstacles for the women to succeed."

She focused on studying the systems that existed that were precluding or were supporting one population and not others. She noted that other professionals who came from human resources or talent management, as well as from employment and labor law, were thinking about "the systems that in their estimations needed to change to have a more diverse labor force," she said. "I am kind of the second generation of diversity and inclusion leaders, and clearly the last year and a half has shown the need for people who understand how systemic injustice happens and then how it gets replicated in processes that may land differently based on your previous experiences, your background, your identity.

What specifically does she mean by second generation?

"Twenty five or 30 years ago, the first generation of chief diversity officers brought their own experiences in human resources and talent management to the conversation for a more diverse and inclusive workplace. Today we are incorporating behavioral sciences and we use data to inform the design of strategies to improve our diversity, inclusion and belonging. Our ultimate goal is to create a more equitable work environment, explained Nieto.

One of the areas she finds inspiring about Spotify is how the high tech company has removed what were inhibiting "gateways" to publishing and music, and has created platforms and tools to bring creative people a way, internally and externally, to bring their voice to the public. At the same time, Spotify is opening access to listeners to connect via new offerings like Greenroom.

Moreover, Spotify has been working to inform users about vaccinations globally and voting in the U.S. Nieto said the streaming service noticed that in 2020 people were coming to its platform looking for information about the U.S. election and this led the company to include in its Play Your Part hub, targeted to the new generation of voters to pursue civic engagement. In its second generation, Play Your Part informed listeners about climate change and actions to take to address it.

Looking to the future, she tells young people to be open to jobs that do not even exist today. "There will be jobs created by new technologies that do not exist now and certainly when I was growing up."

WRITE AND SHARE #ConnectLL

Bill Sarno Carlos Cuevas Rivera received life-changing help from people in education during her formative years. Miriam arrived in Chicago as a youngster, the daughter of parents who had worked on THE PIONEER THROUGHOUT LIFE farms in New York State where she was born and in Florida. The family came to the Illinois city to become factory workers and to provide a stable educational relationship for Miriam Rivera has tapped into her extensive business, legal Miriam's older sister who in the past had to seasonally migrate between schools. Miriam impressed her teachers as a bright and tech savvy to co-found and serve as chief executive officer and managing director at Ulu child, one with a future, possibly as an attorney because of her ability to argue issues in class. In middle school, the Spanish speaking, free lunch student was placed in the gifted Ventures, an early seed-stage venture fund company which has program and was encouraged to seek a scholarship to a private high school, which she received. achieved a leading investment Rivera said she was blessed to get a lot of role in the start-up rich Silicon Valley. scholarships during journey that took her to prestigious Stanford University, her first time in California, where she received a bachMuch of Ulu's success stems from its emphasis on helping businesses in underserved elor's degree in sociology and graduated from the university's top rung business and law schools. Early in her education process Rivera had markets and its focus on diverse leadership and data driven developed a strong tech background which included three years of computer science at the private high school. When she was college decision-making. sophomore, she was chosen to participate in a The Palo Alto, California company has helped numerous Chicago city sponsored computer program where she learned about the first generation of personal computers and about software. business teams with diverse ethnic, racial and gender leadership to start up, to grow An inkling of her entrepreneurial future surfaced during her junior year when she and another student developed as a business case a way to transform a typing pool into a comand in some cases to become billion dollar enterprises.phoenix. puterized job listing. While in college her commitment to learning and building human and social capital started to pick up momentum. MIRIAM RIVERA is the daughter of migrant farm workers In her early days at Stanford, a placement from Puerto Rico. She is a big exponent of what she sees as office took Miriam under its wings and, made an important part in building human capital, specifically the her go through every one of its classes and investment people make in themselves and in their careers, learn how to write a resume, how to interwhich also includes even taking risks. view, how to videotape an interview and how

She also appreciates the value of social capital through cre- to network. ating relationships with people who can help pave the way to After completing her under-graduate deopportunities. gree, Rivera entered the nonprofit sector

Rivera said she was mentored by an attorney she met where she helped women re-entering the at a tech company who now works at Ulu. "When that workplace to participate in a California equal type of person gets to work with you and sees that you opportunity program. are hungry, curious and learning all the time they end up Soon, Rivera realized she had to find better being supporters, sometimes mentors, sometimes cham- paying work to support herself and her aging pions." she advised. mother.

"WHEN YOU SEE THOSE OPPORTUNITIES JUMP ON FOR THE RIDE, GET INVOLVED."

THE MEANING BEHIND “ULU”

• What “ulu” means varies by culture as much as Ulu Venture's clients. According to the company's website in Hawaiian it means breadfruit and figuratively means to grow; to inspire; to be possessed as if by a spirit or god. In Hindi and Sanskrit, "ulu" is the word for the owl. This is fitting for a venture capital firm, the website explains, because the owl is associated with Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth. In the Inuit language, "ulu" is the carving knife given to brides on their wedding day and is passed down through generations and is believed to carry ancestral knowledge. In Turkish, "ulu" means great, sublime or supreme.

Rivera would apply the skills gained at the placement center when it came to making a decision whether she would attend law or business school. After interviewing dozens of people about the value of each vocation, she decided to do both. ”I told of myself I was good with words and documents," Rivera recalled. "I much rather work with words than writing Excel spreadsheets," she said, but eventually did both.

Today, Rivera enjoys working with Ulu clients and practicing law in a business context, whether it be working out contracts or helping companies partner with bigger brands.

Early in her business career Rivera would take jobs where there was a lot of learning opportunities and maybe not a lot of pay.

In one case, she took a pay cut to join a start-up company. She would attend meetings and be able to understand and work with much more senior business people. "I wanted see what was happening in 'that back room,” she recalled.

Rivera's career included stops at several companies and in various markets. She worked in enterprise software before she went to Google, where she spent five years as a vice president and corporate attorney

Having these early exposures to different industries, Rivera said, influenced her ability to understand business, law and technology and being able to build on that.

Among the factors driving Ulu, Rivera said, was that women have been exceeding male educational attainment for a long time at both undergraduate and masters level. "Yet, 2 percent of venture capital is invested in teams lead by women, 12 percent when you have a woman in a company as a founder,” she said.

Looking forward to the next ten years, Rivera, "who has been around since before the internet became a big business," sees Block Chain and "fintech" companies as the "next biggest thing" with some diverse investments and underserved markets within this sector. "We are just at the beginning of that wave of technology," she said, suggesting that this will be "a very interesting and fruitful area" for young people to consider and to study. "When you see those opportunities," she said, "jump on for the ride, get involved."

Rivera also has some strong suggestions about the future of the growing Latino population. "This is obviously a very diverse population," she said, "and we need to make our voices heard at a more uniform level."

The Ulu CEO observed, "I think we don't have an impact as big as the presence in this company. When we sometimes struggle to speak with a unified voice, we have less impact than groups that are smaller than we are."

Latinos should put individual country differences aside and concentrate on objectives that are important and beneficial to Latinos as a whole, Rivera said.

A major focus of Latino advocacy should be STEM education, according to Rivera. She learned about computer sciences at a private high school in the 1970s and 1980s, and "yet it is not required in most public schools where most of kids are getting educated," she said.

Among the other big impact items that Rivera said Latinos should pursue are access to college, participation on boards and representation in all walks of life.

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