Officers
Chair
Mrs. Leticia Maspons Willis
Willis Mechanical Inc., President & Founder Chair

Mrs. Leticia Willis is founder and President of Willis Mechanical, Inc. Willis Mechanical, founded in 2002, deals in commercial, institutional and industrial HVAC and plumbing. Willis Mechanical was the recipient of the GHCC’s award for small business of the year. Mrs. Willis currently serves on multiple Boards including the Gwinnett County Advisory Board for BB&T, Hispanic American Center for Economic Development (HACED) Board and the Emory Center for Ethic Advisory Board. Willis Mechanical is a member of The Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA) and The Mechanical Contractors Association of Georgia (MCAG). Mrs. Willis earned her B.S. in Business and public administration from the University of Texas, Dallas. Mrs. Willis was born and raised in Mexico, and is married with two children.

Chair Elect
Mr. Rene Diaz
Diaz Foods, Chairman and CEO

Experience

The Zaid Group LLC, President & CEO, a Management Company for Diaz Foods, Diaz Produce, Tortilla de Casa, Lime Taqueria and Tequila Bar, EDUA and International Imports. Combined total 2010 forecasted gross sales over $200,000,000. Atlanta Journal Constitution, Accounting Clerk 1980

Education

• Diversity Leadership Academy of Atlanta 2001
• Middle East Travel Seminar 1997
• Regional Leadership Institute (RLI) 1995
• Leadership Atlanta 1994
• Georgia State University, BBA Marketing 1987
• Marist School, Atlanta 1980

Corporate boards

• Diaz Foods, Inc., Chairman, Board of Directors 1980 to present
• The Coca-Cola Hispanic Advisory Council, 2007 to present
• Atlantic Capital Bank,  Founding Board Member, 2006 to present
• The ZAID Group, LLC. Founder and President 2004 to present
• Diaz Produce, LLC. Founding partner, Managing Partner, 2002 to present
• EDUA, LLP. Founder and Managing Partner 1990 to present
• Tortillas De Casa, LLC.  Founding partner,  Managing Partner, 1999 to present

Currebt community boards

• Atlanta Rotary Club Member 2010 to present
• Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Board Member 2010 to present
• Emory University Center for Ethics, Advisory Board, 2009 to present
• GSU Robinson College Advisory Board, 2007 to present
• Centro Foxes Presidential Library, Advisory Board Member, 2007 to present

Vice Chair
Mr. Gabriel Vaca
UPS, Director of Strategic Account Sales, SE Region

Gabriel Vaca is a former chair Board of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Vaca has demonstrated his commitment to the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce by serving as a Board member since April 2004. However, his support does not end there; he also serves as Board member of the Hispanic American Center for Economic Development (HACED) starting December 2007. It is through Mr. Vaca’s efforts the GHCC continues to receive support from The UPS Foundation, contributing to the strengthening and economic wellbeing of our continued work. Mr. Vaca is the Director of Strategic Accounts Sales for UPS international products in the Southeast Region, where he has been involved for over 15 years in developing international trade between the U.S and countries around the world, especially the Latin American markets. He contributes his commitment to helping Hispanic small businesses, based on his personal experience as a small business owner where he received support and business opportunities through the local Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Vaca has a degree in Business Administration, was born in Mexico City and raised in Washington, D.C. He has two children and lives in Roswell, GA

Treasurer
Mr. Gary Sanchez
Atlanta Gas Light, Ragional Manager SE GA

Secretary
Ms. Cristina Franco
International Communications Resource, President and CEO

Parliamentarian
Mr. David Richards
LLC, The Richards Law Firm

David G. Richards is a Member of The Richards Law Firm, L.L.C., in Atlanta, GA. His practice focuses on counseling clients concerning federal and state telecommunications statutes and regulations. He joined The Richards Law Firm, L.L.C., in 2006 after retiring from Cingular Wireless LLC, as Chief Counsel-Federal Regulatory. While there, he was instrumental in obtaining Federal Communications Commission approval of numerous transactions including Cingular's $41 billion acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services and its $1.4 billion purchase of NextWave spectrum. After law school, Mr. Richards spent 10 years at the FCC handling legal and regulatory issues concerning the mass media, wireless, and domestic and international wireline industries. In addition, he has over 23 years experience with wireless companies ranging from a cellular start-up to one of today's largest wireless providers. With those companies, he counseled in-house clients on all aspects of FCC compliance and participated in numerous FCC proceedings, spectrum auctions and appellate matters. Mr. Richards worked at the former BellSouth Corporation for 14 years. There, among other things, he represented BellSouth’s long distance subsidiary in state public service commission proceedings concerning BellSouth’s entry into the long distance market and its wireless interests in numerous matters before the FCC. He holds a J.D. degree from the Notre Dame Law School and a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He is married to Patti M. Richards, the Managing Member of The Richards Law Firm, L.L.C., who has been GHCC’s Treasurer and Parliamentarian and a Member of the Boards of GHCC and HACED. They have six children and six grandchildren.  


Directors

Louis Besses,
Multicultural Marketing Dept., American Family Insurance

 
Ms. Luz Borrero,
Deputy COO, City of Atlanta

Ms. Cornelius is the founding president of The Cornelius Group, Inc., a bilingual community relations and public affairs consulting firm. She was Director of Community Relations for the Governor's Office and the first Commissioner of Human Relations for the State of Georgia. Ms. Cornelius served as community liaison and chief advisor on human relations to Governor Roy Barnes. She was instrumental in the historic creation of the Georgia Commission on Hispanic Affairs. She has worked with the Hispanic community in Georgia since 1998 and served two terms on GHCC Board of Directors as well as the Legislative Committee. Ms. Cornelius earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration from Morris Brown College and currently serves as Chair of the American Red Cross Minority Recruitment Board, National Ambassador for the American Heart/Stroke Association, and active in communities in Georgia.

 
Ms. Roxanna Doritis,
Principal, Tensor Consulting Group, LLC

 


Ms. Cathy Genty,
Managing Associate, New England Financial

 
Mr. Michael Liss,
V.P. Commercial Banking, SunTrust Bank

Education

He received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and earned his Global Executive M.B.A. from the Georgia Institute of Technology. While attending Georgia Tech he studied Latin American Business at the Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires during his Argentina residency, followed by studies in China.

Accolades

Recently he was recognized by the faculty and staff of Georgia Tech Executive Education Programs as an “Outstanding Alumni Ambassador”. Previously he was chosen as the feature for billboards, Business to Business Magazine, the Georgia Tech Dean’s Report, as well as numerous other publications for Georgia Tech’s Global Executive M.B.A. of which he is an alumnus. Further, he was recognized as the top banker in his segment of the bank three years in a row, while winning the Chairman’s Club Trip in 2007.

Boards and Memberships

ORT America-Atlanta Region; Board of Directors Chair of Corporations & Foundations Committee Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Board of Directors Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity, brother & Past President.

Mr. Rick Perez
Turner Broadcasting – Senior Vice President/ General Manager TBS Latin America

Rick Pérez is Senior Vicepresident and General Manager of TNT, TCM, ISAT, SPACE and truTV for Latin America. He is in charge of setting network guidelines, as well as supervising programming, marketing and creative services.

Under his leadership, TNT has become one of the television networks with the greatest pan regional distribution, and has launched four different exclusive feeds for Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela, gaining one of the top three positions in film channel viewership in Latin America.

Rick Pérez is also responsible for the reface of SPACE channel, as well as the repositioning of I-SAT channel, pushing the launch of both networks into new markets. As a result of his administration, TCM network has reached the impressive number of 15 million subscribers in just 4 years of existence.

Pérez joined Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) in October 1990 as Programming Director for TNT Latin America, and was appointed Vicepresident in 1993. As such, he was in charge of all aspects of programming, and supervised original productions and on-line services.

Before working for TBS, Pérez was station manager for K-40, an independent television station in Lubbock, Texas. Previous to that, he did promotion and production work for Fox-KJTV and NBC-KCBD, also in Lubbock.

Pérez got his Masters in Communications and a degree in Telecommunications at the Texas Tech University, where he is currently part of the Steering Committee of the School of Collective Communication. Originally from Cali, Colombia, he speaks fluent Spanish and English.

Rodolfo was born in Lima Peru. He received his undergraduate studies in the University of Lima in Business Administration. Before he came to the United States to study his master’s degree, he was a successful Insurance agency business owner in Lima Peru. He came to the United States in January 1999 and started his MBA in Georgia State University (GSU) majoring in Risk Management and Insurance (RMI). Rodolfo graduated as the 2002 Outstanding Graduate Student from the RMI department of GSU in May 2002.

Right after graduation, Rodolfo facilitated a class to three graduated and two undergraduate students where they created a business plan to start a multi-location insurance agency business targeting the underserved Hispanic community in Georgia and the South East. In March 2003 Rodolfo was hired by Lloyd Insurance group, Inc, a prominent Insurance Agency in Georgia to serve the Hispanic community.