Ana Rodriguez, alumna of the Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business in Dallas, Texas, was recently named as the school’s newest Director of the Latino Leadership Initiative.
The Latino Leadership Initiative at SMU Cox is a fairly young program, founded in 2013 and designed to meet the country’s growing need for corporate leaders. With research showing a demographic gap in talent in executive leadership in the country, the LLI aims to provide opportunities to up-and-coming Latino business leaders that can help close that gap.
Ana Rodriguez, the new director of the Latino Leadership Initiative at SMU Cox.
“I am honored and overjoyed to return to my alma mater as the director of the Latino Leadership Initiative,” Rodriguez commented. “While Latinos make up nearly 18 percent of the total U.S. population, only two percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are of Hispanic origin. I am humbled by the opportunity to build upon the LLI’s proven success and to work with companies to recruit, retain and develop top Latino talent.”
Since her graduation from Cox, Rodriguez has gained more than twenty years of experience in corporate work, nonprofit organizations and higher education. Rodriguez has worked in a variety of leadership positions at the Jindal School of Management at UTD and at UNT Dallas. She has served as executive director for the Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico and has worked in the Global Wealth and Investments division of Bank of America.
Officially taking on the role this past August, Rodriguez is responsible for the strategic and operational functions of the LLI, which include management education programs, community engagement activities, research-based insights and organization development services.
“Ana Rodriguez brings solid experience in establishing mutually beneficial relationships between universities and business organizations,” commented associate dean of Executive Education at Cox, Frank Lloyd. “This will benefit our community, our country, and so SMU.”