An Advertising Supplement to Crain’s New York Business

Making up almost a third of all New York-

ers, Latinos are steadily rising up the ranks

of businesses across the five boroughs.

For a second year, Crain’s Custom Studio

is proud to acknowledge the work of those

improving the lives of the people around

them and throughout the metro area. We

chose finalists from a competitive group

of candidates and selected winners across

five categories: Executives, Entrepreneurs,

Latinos to Watch, Community Leaders,

and Tech Innovators.

To name a few of the milestones:

a Latina became the first to lead a

Fortune 500 company, Latinos reached

an all-time high of 58 million living in the

United States and unemployment declined

steadily in our community. Nowhere else

has growth been more evident than in

New York City, which the Biz2Credit Best

Small Business Cities in America Study

ranked as the best city for small

businesses to succeed.

IN THE YEAR since Crain’s New York

Business launched its first Hispanic

Executive and Entrepreneur Awards

program honoring the exemplary

work of local leaders throughout our

community, much has happened to

raise the profile of Latinos around

the United States.

By: Shirley Velasquez

Crain’s Custom Contributing Editor

An Advertising Supplement to Crain’s New York Business

WINNER: EXECUTIVE

Carlos DominguezSPRINKLRPresident and COO

Even before Carlos Dominguez joined Sprinklr, a New York-based social software management company, as president and COO, he understood just how disruptive social media had become across all industries. “The existence of a global network that links billions

of individuals through the social web has fundamentally altered the relationship between busi-nesses and consumers,” he wrote in a public post on the company’s blog in early 2015. Customers, he argued, communicated directly with one another across social platforms about a company’s product or services while that company’s internal departments “barely interact[ed].”

So how can organizations mod-ernize and reposition themselves for business in an environment constantly disrupted by technol-ogy? According to Dominguez it’s a matter of breaking down existing silos within a company and building a “transformative in-frastructure” as his team has done at Sprinklr. To do so, not only do managers have to create internal systems of communication, they have to hire talent that matches the company’s mission.

To manage his large team, the Cuba-born executive lives by a

few simple philosophies: “I treat people, no matter who they are, with respect; I keenly listen and get to know them,” said Domin-guez, “If you can get people to do more than they think they can do, those people are loyal to you until the end,” he said.

Under Dominguez’s leadership, Sprinklr obtained 11 new acqui-sitions and expanded in size, growing from 250 employees to approximately 1,450. As for Sprin-klr’s future, Dominguez spends a lot of time thinking about how technology is radically changing the world. Internally, he will contin-ue to ensure that employees gain the right “skillset and toolset” to succeed. Externally, he’s focusing on the marketing sector and how it is evolving to be about person-alization. “When a customer sends you a tweet that they need help,” he said, “that’s the best time to upsell to them. Care is the new marketing. Listening to all of the chatter, you have the ability to really respond.

WINNER: ENTREPRENEUR

Carlos SuarezCASA NELAFounder

When Carlos Suarez left a stable ca-reer in finance for an uncertain life in the food industry, he did so with the singular goal of opening his own restaurant. “It felt strange to trade in the fancy suits and all that silliness in finance for something close to manual labor,” Suarez remembers.

Starting at the very bottom, Suarez did whatever was neces-sary to learn the food business. He answered phones, booked res-ervations, tended the bar, hosted and eventually managed the staff at Blue Fin in Times Square. “I was a kid in the candy store getting to see behind the scenes of a pretty incredible operation.” He even worked for free on his days off.

In 2007, Suarez broke out on his own with Bobo, a French-inspired restaurant located in a rustic town house. In 2012, he launched Rosemary’s, an Italian enoteca and trattoria named after his mother and featuring ingredi-ents from its rooftop garden. Two years later, Suarez opened Claudette, a Provençal-themed restaurant. The trio form the Casa Nela group, Suarez’s current collection of Greenwich Village sister restaurants of European culinary influence. Over the past ten years, “we went from 35 to 235 employees,” says Suarez.

In an industry battered by expensive rents across the five boroughs, the emergence of high-quality street food and surg-ing prices for choice ingredients, this kind of growth is noteworthy. Suarez’s strategy: To offer more appetizers and first-course dishes with fresh and superior ingredi-ents. “They can then expand the experience with different dishes as opposed to simply having an appetizer, an entrée and the check.”

This fall, the restaurateur is adding a fourth eatery, Rosemary’s Pizza, which will feature ingredients from Suarez’s farm in the Hudson Valley. Once again, Suarez will recreate the coziness he enjoyed growing up in London with his English mom and Cuban dad preparing and eating seasonal products together in their kitchen. “From the onset, there has been a desire to make a positive contribution to the local community.”

Here we present you with this year’s Hispanic Executive and Entrepreneur Award winners.

Read about these trailblazers for yourself and be inspired.

We spoke to every finalist and found that what unified them was a pride in their Latino heritage and a strong drive to bring innovation to their respective fields. To that end, we asked each of them how their vision, work ethic and leadership style was paving the way for the next generation of leaders. In responding, all the finalists expressed a deep appreciation for New York City and singled out diversity—in its various forms—as among the chief reasons they were doing business here.

RUNNERS-UP

EXECUTIVE

Robert Chavez

HERMÈS OF PARIS, INC.

President and CEO

ENTREPRENEUR

Daniel Levy

MANHATTAN OFFICE DESIGN

CEO

ENTREPRENEUR

Andrew Herrera

REMEZCLA

Founder and CEO

Dan

ielle

Ad

am

s

EXECUTIVE

Monika Mantilla

ALTURA CAPITAL GROUP

President and CEO

CN018391.indd 1 10/9/17 3:41 PM

An Advertising Supplement to Crain’s New York Business

WINNER: TECH INNOVATOR

Michael MonteroRESY NETWORK, INC.Co-founder and CTO

Back in 1996, when Michael Mon-tero told people that he was start-ing his first tech business geared toward multicultural communities in New York City, he got laughed out of the room. In those days, New York was known primarily as a banking town and building an

early social media platform geared toward non-white communities seemed nonsensical. Undaunted, Montero built the platform saying it was “not only smart business, but the right thing to do.”

Nearly two decades later, a sea-soned Montero struck again in 2014 with his latest company, Resy, a mobile app where users book tough-to-get reservations at pop-ular restaurants. This time around, however, New York had reinvented itself as a hospitable environment for digital companies.

As a result, Montero tapped into one of New York’s best assets: its diverse talent pool and built a “high quality product.” “If we profiled all of the people that use Resy, we are going to find that they’re from all walks of life, backgrounds—religion, gender, ethnicity,” said Montero. “Bringing in that diversity in the workforce allows you to have better eyes and coverage on what the product should do to serve everybody.”

Serving 115 markets across the U.S., Resy offers a curated list of restaurants. “We’ve chosen to go after all the best restaurants in all the cities we’re in,” said Montero. “You are picking a restaurant that is going to be amazing.”

This summer, Resy announced a course-altering partnership with Airbnb that expands its own user base by offering dining choices to the lodging giant’s customers. “We [created] a piece of software that is truly groundbreaking and allows a seamless [interaction] in the Airbnb app directly,” explained Montero. Customers can now book restaurant reservations in 16 cities across the United States through the Airbnb app—based on the Resy-built infrastructure—regard-less of whether they’re booking lodging or not.

“This city is a phenomenal place for startups now. I like to think in a very small way I helped create that environment.”

WINNER: LATINOS TO WATCH

Rebecca Esguerra GarciaCoderDojo NYCCo-founder

Growing up in Long Island, there weren’t many opportunities for Rebecca Esguerra Garcia, a first generation Mexican American, to take tech classes. But by twelve years old, she was consuming

what she could find online and teaching herself how to code. “I didn’t think of it as a career at the time,” she said. “I didn’t know of any role models, especially Latinos or Latinas.”

But an unexpected opportunity to attend an exclusive summer program at MIT on a scholarship enhanced Garcia’s education. And when she returned as a summer instructor years later, she discov-ered a twin passion to coding: teaching “women and minorities” about technology.

Garcia realized her vision at 20 years old when she founded the New York City chapter of Coder-Dojo, an Ireland-based group that believed “anyone age 7 to 17… can learn to code, build a website, cre-ate an app or a game, and explore technology in an informal, creative and social environment.”

Six years later, under Garcia’s direction, the program has grown from serving a few kids and their

parents every month to hosting 1,500 families per year. “What has been impressive is that our budget for each year has always been under $20,000.”

Enrollment for the free classes and workshops are on a first-come, first-served basis. Great effort is made to include underserved fam-ilies, but the program also accepts applicants from wealthier income levels. “Diversity comes from be-ing around people with different backgrounds. It isn’t just numbers or headcount. It’s a mindset.”

The now 26-year-old runs the organization with the help of vol-unteer technology professionals and has developed partnerships with companies where she holds the tech workshops. That way kids experience what a working tech environment looks like from the inside. “I want my students to grow up and spread their wings,” said Garcia. “Technology is a skill everyone should have no matter what career they pursue.”

WINNER: COMMUNITY LEADER

José CalderónHISPANIC FEDERATIONPresident

As President of the Hispanic Fed-eration, a nonprofit organization that provides grants and support to the Latino community, José Calderón oversees its mission to improve the lives of Latinos in New York by tapping into existing institutions and organizations to

drive social change. “If we don’t have these strong institutions, we cannot advance social justice,” he said. “We cannot serve and we certainly can’t champion the needs, aspirations or hopes of our community.”

In a political climate that dimin-ishes the reputation of long- standing institutions, Calderón’s work is crucial. Under his guid-ance, the Federation helps Lati-nos take stock of their lives and improve them in the areas of ed-ucation, immigration, health care, economic development, the envi-ronment and civic engagement. “We launched the Latino College Success Initiative that has served over 1,600 college students today, making sure these kids get into college, stay in college, achieve high degrees, so they can enter the workforce and have success-ful careers,” said Calderón. “We have registered well over 60,000 New Yorkers to vote, and that’s important to strengthening our democracy.” When it comes to

immigration, Calderón is ensuring that the community has access to legal counsel and the “means to become citizens, fully integrat-ed, to ensure they are respected and treated with the dignity they deserve.”

Today, Calderón’s efforts go beyond working in New York City. In the wake of Hurricane Maria’s disastrous effects in Puerto Rico, Calderón led the Federation in joining New York City Mayor, Bill de Blasio, and sent first respond-ers to aid Puerto Rico in disaster relief. “We focused on emergency personnel, folks that could help clear roads, folks that could pro-vide security to the island.”

Next, Calderón wants to see the organization affect policy at a national level through its advoca-cy work. Said Calderón, “We’ve always done this kind of work, but over the last four to five years, we have concentrated on taking that to a whole other level.

COMMUNITY LEADER

Jesus Aguais

AID FOR AIDS INTERNATIONAL

Executive Director and Founder

TECH INNOVATOR

Edrizio De La Cruz

REGALII

Co-founder and CEO

RUNNERS-UP

COMMUNITY LEADER

Jessica González-Rojas

NATIONAL LATINA INSTITUTE FOR REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

Executive Director

LATINOS TO WATCH

Francesca Kennedy

lx STYLE

Founder and CEO

LATINOS TO WATCH

Daniela Soto- Innes

COSME

Chef de Cuisine