Some of you may know that I had the privilege of playing college basketball for Gregg Popovich, the current head coach of the San Antonio Spurs and the greatest pro basketball coach of his generation. I played at Pomona College in Southern California and Popovich was the head coach – his first job as a…
If you saw the FX series about the shocking murder of fashion icon, Gianni Versace, you probably didn’t notice something that I doubt has ever occurred before in film or television. The cast of the acclaimed series (it earned 86% positive ratings according to Rotten Tomatoes), starred three Hispanic actors who all played Italian characters…
Some of you may know that I have been spending most weekends with Sol Trujillo planning and prepping for L’ATTITUDE, a seminal event that will bring together the largest collection of Latino movers and shakers ever assembled. Robert Rodriguez, Zoe Saldana, Oscar Muñoz, CEO of United Airlines, Governor Bill Richardson, Guillermo Diaz, CIO of Cisco,…
I have been watching the CNN series, American Dynasties about the Kennedys (it’s great). The last episode was about the civil rights struggle and how the Kennedys deployed the National Guard to Alabama to make way for the first Black students to enroll in the University of Alabama. Ironic, considering how the National Guard is…
My buddy Leo Pareja introduced me to the notion that if you aren’t paying for a product, you ARE the product. In other words, when you use a “free” service online or otherwise, your information is most likely where the company is making their money. This became painfully clear earlier in the week when it…
Ramiro Gomez, an artist and the teenage child of Mexican immigrants, is the subject of a short documentary produced for the Atlantic’s American Dreams series. Gomez paints murals of domestic laborers, like his parents, in and around Beverly Hills and other affluent neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Gomez says that people see the beauty of palatial homes and…
Daniel Lubetzky is the founder of Kind, LLC and his company recently sold a stake to the global candy firm Mars, Inc. In 2003, unhappy with unhealthy or unappetizing snacking choices, and concerned with the rising obesity and diabetes epidemic in America, Daniel launched KIND Snacks with the value proposition to “do the kind thing…
Several weeks ago, I mentioned that I had joined the board of the Latino Donor Collaborative – an organization started by Sol Trujillo that is focused on improving the narrative about Latinos in America. The board of the LDC looks like a “who’s who” of Latino executives and entrepreneurs including Linda Alvarado, the co-owner of…
The rumor this week in the mortgage market was that the mega-retailer Amazon had hired a mortgage executive to lead the company’s new venture into mortgage banking. Amazon knows more about consumers than any other company and they are experts in streamlining processes. One would have to believe that if Amazon wants to be in…
This year March Madness feels less fun for those of us who closely follow college basketball. The FBI investigations, the drama with UCLA in China, and the ongoing debate about whether college players should get paid has taken some of the fun out of the season. The issues are not mutually exclusive, rather they are…