[music] EDUARDO ARABÚ: The National Hispanic Corporate Council was founded almost 40 years ago in 1985 as an organization for corporate America, by corporate America, to educate its members on the rising Hispanic Latino population.

At that time, it was a much smaller population of what it is today.

Back then, it was around 10 million on a national census, and today it's almost 63 and a half million Latinos per the last census.

And so, companies got together and said, hey, this is a rising consumer base.

How do we tap into this market for a customer perspective, but then also for maybe talent and workforce?

So, this organization had been working together as an education, as a learning organization, to bring awareness about leadership, best practices and resources to help companies better understand our community and leverage that for their business operation.

PATRICIA GÓMEZ: Eduardo, what is your background that brought you to be part and to be the head of such an important organization?

EDUARDO ARABÚ: Yes, I had a very diverse background, first starting out in human resources, talent acquisition, also had opportunities to work in public relations, public policy, as well.

And I think those two were an opportunity administration, public administration into a role that to fuel business one, allows me to be an association executive, but also work with corporate members under Hispanic and Latino strategy.

So, I believe my background as a fellow Latino, born in Venezuela, raised in the United States, allowed me to be bicultural, bilingual, and provide that perspective to corporate America.

PATRICIA GÓMEZ: What are the key strategies that NHCC provides for these companies to acquire a Hispanic/Latino talent and to retain them?

EDUARDO ARABÚ: When we look at Latino talent, we look at it from a talent acquisition, talent development, talent retention, and talent management.

So as the population, as our communities continue to grow, more and more of the available workforce will be Hispanic or Latinos over the next couple of decades.

And so, we try to bring that awareness to companies.

We try to leverage cultural competency so they can understand who we are in the community.

As you may know, Latinos represent many countries, many intersectionality, and many different backgrounds, whether you're first generation immigrant born here or however you self-identify.

And so, bringing some of that cultural competency to corporate America is key, and number one, and then applying it to their strategy.

Where can they find best and brightest Latinos around the country?

How can they grow the talent pool?

How can they best tap into the existing workforce?

How do we elevate current leaders in corporate America to the next world manager, director, vice president, C-suite?

And so, these are the type of conversations that we have with our member company, and we provide that as a resource.

Sometimes you don't know what you don't know, or you may have not worked with certain communities, or you may be missing out certain job fairs or organizations that can be strategic partners that help you attract that talent.

The Latino consumer is the fastest growing demographic in the United States.

To put it in perspective, we're the fifth largest economy in the world, if you group all the Latinos that are here in the United States and named us as our own country.

And so we provide awareness, information, data, demographic that highlights the purchasing power and the Latino consumer buying power opportunities for that.

We also share content.

Again, going back to that cultural competency.

It's important to understand who the Latino consumers are -- mobile, we're younger, we're a larger family -- and things like that that can help make a connection to a particular brand, to a particular company for their product and services.

So when we're looking at workforce or marketplace strategy, you must have a campaign or initiative that specifically targets Hispanics and Latinos as your stakeholders.

Without that, you're at risk of not continuing to reach that market and to grow opportunities in those areas.

Yeah, there are major companies that have been with NHCC since inception or have recognized the value of our market way many, many years ago before it becomes a necessary thing for growth.

So some of those key fortune companies, they are who they are because of their intentional outreach, their intentional campaign for Latino community, and not only from a marketplace and consumer side but also from a workforce.

PATRICIA GÓMEZ: Eduardo, how those NHCC partners with other organizations to reach your goals?

EDUARDO ARABÚ: We have many events and activities where we convene leaders to connect, learn, share and network around best practices and strategy.

So as we have our events and engagement throughout the country, we invite national and regional partners that can collaborate, that have the audience base, that want the knowledge, that want the collaboration and the better way from a national organization like NHCC to support local, regional partners at the ground level.

Some of the companies that have been with us since 1985 really recognize the Hispanic market potential from a customer perspective and a talent, companies like Coca-Cola, companies like McDonald's, but over the years, we have invited folks like Hilton, Marriott, the Boeing Company, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, Comcast NBC, Universal and many, many other fortune-level companies around the country that are coming to us not only to get the knowledge, the awareness, but also the content and the way to engage with their perspective Hispanic and Latino