Ronald Lezama - Chairman of the Board

Ronald Lezama is the chairman of the board of directors of the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC), who was elected at the annual meeting of the board in July 2011. He is currently employed at Oracle Corporation, providing business advice to large Corporations in North America.  He was Director of  Strategic Alliances for the Governance, Risk and Compliance Practice of LogicalApps, and previously the Director of Business Development for the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Minneapolis, was responsible for developing executive relationships, and designing business solutions to solve complex business problems.   Mr. Lezama received undergraduate degrees from the State University of New York and New Mexico State University, and his MBA from Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.

Mr. Lezama has extensive experience in the high-technology environment and has held executive positions at the vice-president level at several Silicon Valley startup companies. He was Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Pacific Western Bank, the 11^th-largest bank in California. And has held executive positions at Hewlett Packard and Accenture, where he developed high-performance organizations that developed and executed sales and marketing strategies. Mr. Lezama is currently on the board of the Storefront Group, a non-profit organization that provides social and mental health services to children and families at risk in the southern and western areas of Minneapolis.  He is also a facilitator for the Minneapolis YWCA’s racism and diversity “Time to Talk” program.  Previously he held a board position with the National Society of Hispanic MBA’s, responsible for Corporate Relations. Mr. Lezama moved to Minneapolis sixteen years ago from San Jose, California and lives in Plymouth with his wife and two children.

Juan Linares - Vice Chairman of the Board

Juan is a Visionary Program Administrator, and Community Organizer with significant management experience in non-profit organizations. Background includes developing, enhancing, and managing immigrant community programs intended to reduce poverty, strengthen intergroup relations, improve racial equality, and increase access to available resources.
Juan is currently employed at ESNDC, and has worked for the Norwest area foundation, and Catholic charities among others.

 

Elvira Flores - Secretary

Elvira attended LEDC/NDC micro entrepreneur training and started her own Business with assistance from LEDC. Elvira has attended several of LEDC workshops and has worked on forming a cooperative/association of Janitorial services businesses to work together of joint marketing and procurement opportunities.

Leo López - Treasurer

Leo has been an LEDC board member for the last 3 years; he is currently serving also at the Latino scholarship, and the finances committee. Leo Lopez was born in Chiapas Mexico, and came to America at the age of 13. He has been a banker for 13 years. The last four years he has been Assistant Vice President at Guaranty Bank. For the last 6 years he has dealt with small businesses and their financial needs.

Lorenzo Ariza - Board Member

Lorenzo has served on the LEDC board for 3 years, and has been chairman of the finance committee for the past two years. Previously a cook at a restaurant, when he learned about LEDC, Lorenzo received technical assistance from the organization to create his onw business.Today Lorenzo owns 2 restaurants, and credits LEDC for having supported him in order to successfully open, and operate such restaurants.

 

María Mejía de Boyle - Board Member

Maria Isabel Mejia de Boyle is originally from Toluca, Mexico. As a Human Resources Consultant for J&B Group, Maria provides HR services and trainings to all associates. Before joining J&B Group, Maria functioned as a human resources generalist/training consultant, at Employers Association Inc., where she developed, and delivered trainings in Leadership, diversity, safety, and harassment.

 

Enrique García - Board Member

Enrique is owner of ‘Cafetería La Loma” and one of the original tenant members of the cooperative Mercado Central, and has served as its board chair for the last 3 years. Enrique and his wife Noelia started La Loma 10 years ago with a micro loan from one of LEDC organizational partners, and now his business has sales of over 2 million dollars per year; and they have approximately 60 employees.
La Loma tamales are now sold at Market chains such as Cub foods, Kowalskys, and other businesses throughout the state of Minnesota. La Loma is a member of the Founding circle of the Latino scholarship fund, and it was also the recipient of the socially responsible business of the year 2005.

Jennifer Godinez - Board Member

The associate director of Minnesota Minority Education Partnership, Inc. (MMEP) and executive director of Minnesota College Access Network (MCAN), an initiative of MMEP. Prior to joining MMEP she served as executive director of La Escuelita, a non-profit with after school; summer programs focused solely on academic enrichment; leadership development for Latino immigrant and non-immigrant youth enrolled in grades 6-12 in Minneapolis schools. She has in-depth experience in youth development, college access program development, and education policy development. In 2004, Godinez was appointed to serve as a commissioner on the Minnesota Out-of-School Time Commission. Jennifer serves on the advisory council for the dean of the College of Education, and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. Godinez also co-chaired the College Access Working Group on the Minnesota P-16 Education Council in 2006. Board member experience for various educational entities includes: El Colegio Charter School, the Latino Scholarship Fund of Minnesota, Latino Economic Development Center, and Achieve! Minneapolis. In 2005, Godinez was named one of “25 on the Rise,” by the Minnesota Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. She has also been honored by the Twin Cities Business Journal Top Minority Executives in 2009. For her public policy work, she has appeared on award-winning media sources such as the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer show, Minnesota Public Radio, and her community profile was featured in the Star Tribune. In 2008, as a German Marshall Memorial Fellow, she represented the United States with a cohort that traveled to Europe. met with public policy and community leaders from around the world.

Godinez graduated from Drake University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. She also earned a Master of Public Administration in Public Policy with concentrations in education policy, and nonprofit management from the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, and was trained in anthropology, and Spanish-language training at the School for International Training in Oaxaca, México.

Carlos Landreau - Board Member

Having more than 17 years of experience as owner and manager of “Landreau insurance agency”, establishing markets and developing global distribution channels. Specific experience includes: P&L responsibilities, Strategic Planning, Industry consulting, Budget planning and management, Direct and distributor sales development, Staff recruitment, training, and supervision. Analysis of import laws, and policies for Latin America. New market development, and market research, Established pricing policies, Sales, and product training, Process improvement, procedural development, Forecasting and product rationalization.

Idalia Leuze - Board Member

Idalia “Charly” Leuze, is a Bilingual/Bicultural Qualified Mental Health Practitioner with more than 12 years experience in children’s mental health issues, mental health promotion services, cultural competency public policy development, and community organizing.  Leuze is presently the Director for the West Central Integration Collaborative which is a consortium of seven school districts.The mission of the West  Central Integration Collaborative is to enhance the quality of life for all community residents by developing multicultural, culturally competent school, community projects that promote inclusiveness, healthy youth development, and economic growth. 

           

Charly is also a long time resident of the Willmar community, has been a leader in motivating both Anglo, and minority leaders to work together for the betterment of the community. Charly is a Blandin Graduate, and a Rotarian.

 

Rose Lindsay - Board Member

Rose is a Business Partner of Latino Communications Network (LCN Media). She graduated with BA from the University of Minnesota, and earned her MBA from the University of St. Thomas in 2010.  She is the Associate Director of the nonprofit organization Emergency, Community, and Health Outreach (ECHO Minnesota) a shareholder, and consultant for theLatino Communications Network (LCN Media).  Rose helped launched LCN Media in 2000, was the original publisher of Vida y Sabor magazine, and its corresponding website.  While working at LCN, Rose helped grow the company from $60,000 to $1 million in annual sales.  Rose went on to work in corporate media including managing the Twin Cities Food, and Wine Experience; the largest consumer food, and wine show in the upper Midwest, a fundraiser for Minnesota Public Radio.

 

Rene Madrid - Board Member

Rene is the branch manager of US Bank lake street location, and was branch manager at the Midtown global market US bank branch, where he had significant contact with many Latino business owners. He is from El Salvador, as a business banker he has witnessed the huge growth the Latino business community has experienced over the last 10 years.

Salvador Miranda - Board Member

Salvador Miranda was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. His grandparents came from Zacatecas, Mexico, in the early 1900s. In 1972, he attended the University of MN, majoring in Chicano Studies, and later went to law school on a federal scholarship. This education was only possible due to the public policy called affirmative action, and quota strategy. Miranda was the second Chicano from St. Paul to attend that law school. He was there with the first Chicanos from St. Paul, and Minneapolis.

 

In 1981, Miranda was studying for the bar exam when a community organizer approached him, and asked if he wanted to be a lawyer or be an organizer, working to build power to live out his values, be an organizer of leaders who also want to live out their values. Miranda said yes, and has been doing this work since. Miranda is a founding board member of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless in 1983. In the  thirty years of organizing Miranda has organized in faith communities with Joint Ministry Project, Interfaith Action, ISAIAH, and, on a national level, the Gamaliel Foundation. For the last twenty five years, Miranda has been a trainer on the basics of Community Organizing, Basic Skills, and Community Power Analysis Skills, Issues, and Actions, and has been recognized for his "most notable" session on Running Effective Meetings.

 

Since 2000, Miranda has been the Associate Director with the Organizing Apprenticeship Project. In 2004. Miranda attended the Applied Research Center Racial Justice Training Institute. Since then, the work of OAP is to advance racial justice in Minnesota, through research & policy, strategic convenings, and training leaders and organizations.  From that training, OAP consulted with ARC in training Minnesota organizers about race equity in addition to OAP moving a race equity agenda with the Minnesota Legislature Report Card on Race Equity.

 

Miranda has been working with Applied Research Center in this initiative to deepen the effectives of the field of community organizing to address the racial disparities in public education, criminal justice, health, and economic development. This work is done with racial justice training curriculum, convening, and linking research data with action, a legislative report card identifying racial equity bills, and legislators support or lack thereof. Since adding racial justice training curriculum to the apprentice training, more than100 community organizers, including LEDC's staff, have been trained by Miranda, and other OAP trainers to do their organizing with a race conscious agenda. Linking research on racial disparities with an analysis of the racial impact of policies, and practices; then calling for a change in those policies, and practices to produce racial equity outcomes. OAP led a series of equity convenings in the field which culminated in the 2012 Equity Agenda for Minnesota.

 

Thomas Pantalion - Board Member

Thomas A. (“Tom”) Pantalion was born in San Antonio, TX in 1958, and grew up on the East side of St. Paul, MN.  Tom attended grade school at Sacred Heart-St. Johns, and high school at Cretin.  Tom obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota in 1985, and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1988. Tom is an attorney.  He began his career in 1988 with the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney.  He worked in the Minnesota Attorney General’s office as an Assistant Attorney General from 1995 to 1997.  Tom joined U.S. Bank’s legal department in 1997, where he is currently employed as an Associate General Counsel, and Vice President.  Tom manages a team of lawyers, and paralegals that provide legal support to the division at U.S. Bank that handles troubled corporate, and commercial loans.  His duties include providing legal real estate, and lending advice relating to problem loans secured by commercial real estate.

 

Ernesto Palestino - Board Member

Ernesto was born in Mexico City. He first came to MN as a Musician for a Mexican Rock Band in the early 80’s. He has started various business ventures but one he started in the late 90’s named Az-Techs has been his main focus and source of income. Az-Techs is one of the few high tech oriented Latino businesses in MN that are concerned, and committed to incorporate the Latino community into the high tech field. Ernesto has served on LEDC board in the past (2004), and is always looking for ways make a contribution to his community.

 

Rafael Quintero - Board Member Rafael has a Master of Arts degree in Organization Management from Concordia University, St. Paul. He is the Accounting Program Chair at the MN School of Business, Brooklyn Center campus.  He has a wife and two young sons.