Hispanic Enterprise - February/March 2008 - (Page 16)

BRIEFCASE TRENDSETTER By Millie Acebal Rousseau A CAPITAL IDEA Carmen Ortiz-McGhee works to provide minority-owned businesses better access to growth capital. ven before she entered the job market, Carmen OrtizMcGhee knew well the potential of the Hispanic business community. In her ﬁrst job as a jack of all trades at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, she got to see it ﬁrst-hand. She was gratiﬁed to witness the wide range of industries in which Hispanics were making their mark. But she also realized the Hispanic entrepreneurs’ chance of realizing their true potential was booby-trapped by the lack of access to equity funding, lack of training on how to leverage capital markets, and lack of support networks. Helping correct that equation became Ortiz-McGhee’s mission. With a widening network of inﬂuential connections, she served for a time as interim executive director of the New America Alliance, a non-proﬁt dedicated to developing economic, political and human capital. “It was an amazing experience,” says Ortiz-McGhee, who says the job allowed her to work with “the crème de la crème of the Latino business community. They didn’t forget where they came from and wanted to change the community from the top down.” It was a perfect ﬁt that only got better when in 2003 New America Alliance partnered with The Marathon Club, founded the year before by the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC). “The Marathon Club was established to bring the best and the brightest minds together to create an environment of enhanced wealth creation for people of color,” Ortiz-McGhee explains. 16 E The Marathon Club focuses on increasing the availability of private equity capital for enterprises that have signiﬁcant minority ownership and management participation. In support of this, The Marathon Club provides education, professional development and networking opportunities. “The TMC mission is a beautiful thing,” says Ortiz-McGhee, who became president in November 2007. Through regular rounds of networking forums, “We create a robust environment” that brings together businesses, capital, and experienced operating executives that help to power up minority-owned businesses. The goal is to assist businesses by promoting the creation of more minority-owned private equity funds and ensuring a deep pool of operating expertise. That’s where the Executive Leadership Council comes in, an aggregate of top executives from Fortune 500 companies— “an unheard of level of intellectual capital,” OrtizMcGhee says.Their assistance is key in turning the so-called Emerging Domestic Markets, or EDMs, from a promise of gold into a goldmine itself. EDMs are minority and inner-city markets that are generally woefully underserved despite an amazing growth potential. With assistance from the Marathon Club, the deals don’t stop, from technology, retail, manufacturing and business services to broadcasting, education, and healthcare.There are opportunities of all kinds. And while much has been done to build Hispanic success stories, but there’s a long way to go, Ortiz-McGhee says. “It’s not a sprint,” she says. “It’s a marathon.” DOSSIER Name: Carmen Ortiz-McGhee Position: President, Comapny: The Marathon Club www.themarathonclub.org Partners: National Association of Investment Companies, New America Alliance, Executive Leadership Council. Education: University of Virginia, Bachelor of Arts in Psychology Descent: Puerto Rican Family: Husband: Frank McGhee; children: Jordan Tatiana, 10; Frank Carmelo, 8; Luc LeMoyne, 6. Quote: “In the next 50 years the success of our economy— not just the African-American and Hispanic economy but the American economy—will depend largely on us, because the country will have a majority of minorities.” HISPANIC ENTERPRISE February/March 2008 http://www.themarathonclub.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Hispanic Enterprise - February/March 2008

Hispanic Enterprise - February/March 2008 Contents Briefcase: BIZBUZZ: Business Briefs Briefcase: Trendsetters Briefcase: BIZTECH: Virtually Meeting BizLife: Travel: Madrid's New Attraction Q & A: Mi Case es su Casa Hispanic Commerce: The Agenda Cover Story: The Top 50 Corporations for Supplier Diversity Technology: Hispanic Web 2.0 Success & Motivation: Sweetening the Deal Politics & Government: The Rescue Generation Managing: The Method Franchising: The Hispanic Face of Franchising Chamber Focus: It's Showtime Movers & Shakers: Open for Business Finance & Investing: Getting Your 401(K) on Target

Hispanic Enterprise - February/March 2008

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