New President of Latino Enterprise Group Hopes to Expand Presence

The Los Angeles-based Latin Business Assn. has picked up steam in recent years as Latino enterprises grow in numbers and clout. Today, it is the nation’s largest membership-based Latino business organization and its annual expo--to be held Sept. 11 and 12 at the Los Angeles Convention Center--is expected to draw 5,000 Latino entrepreneurs.

It has an annual budget of $2 million and has brokered $50 million in corporate contracts for its members over the last two years alone.

Now, in another milestone, the 24-year-old organization has hired its first full-time president and chief operating officer. Richard Verches, who took the helm June 1, hopes to help the LBA’s 1,500 member businesses grow by increasing corporate contracts, promoting international trade and facilitating training.

Verches, 41, brings an unlikely set of skills to the job. He has never owned a business, but has worked extensively in international affairs, the corporate world and with local community organizations.

Verches grew up in Echo Park, his family of nine squeezed into a two-bedroom home. His Belmont High School counselor scoffed at his desire to attend UCLA, suggesting a career as a mortician instead. But Verches bucked her advice and sent for an application on his own.

He later got a law degree from the UCLA School of Law and built a career as an international human rights expert, spending nearly seven years with the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees and the U.N. Center for Human Rights in Geneva.

In that role, he helped nations such as Vietnam, Thailand, Senegal and Zimbabwe build democratic institutions, and in 1994 he was appointed deputy head of the U.N.’s Haiti Refugee Emergency Operation in the Caribbean.

Verches returned to Southern California in 1997 to marry and start a family. He spent three years at Arco, in public and international affairs, before leaving this year during the acquisition by Britain’s BP Amoco.

Verches, who is Mexican American, serves on the California Student Aid Commission, the UCLA Foundation’s Board of Councilors, and the boards of the National Latino Family and Fatherhood Institute, the Salvadoran American Leadership and Education Fund, the California Latino Civil Rights Network and East L.A. Classic Theatre.

He spoke about his background, his views on the Latino business community and his plans for the LBA.

Q: How did you become involved in international human rights?

A: I had studied French and Spanish starting in junior high school. I always had an interest in international issues, even though I grew up in a microcosm, very poor. In about 1987 I met an international human rights lawyer. When I heard her speak I said, “I want to be just like her.” I asked her what she did to get where she was, wrote it down and followed her footsteps.

Q: What was most rewarding about your work in Geneva?

A: The institution-building we did with emerging democracies . . . to integrate human rights and humanitarian values.

Q: How did your experience in Haiti affect you?

A: Bill Richardson [U.S. Department of Energy secretary and former New Mexico congressman] was assigned as special envoy. It was quite a moment. The level of involvement of Latinos in the U.S. had evolved. That a Latino official from New Mexico could represent the U.S. globally--I felt as though we had arrived in some sense and there was tremendous new potential. That was a seed for me to come back and promote Latinos seeking global leadership.

Q: Why did you return to the United States?

A: I came in search of community. I came with the knowledge as well that something exciting was happening. Antonio Villaraigosa and Richard Polanco were emerging in state leadership. I also knew [Latinos] had great potential on the international level. We were multilingual and multicultural. That someone from Belmont High School could not only go to UCLA but end up in the U.N., we didn’t have enough of those examples. I wanted to be in a position to promote international involvement.

Q: After the international affairs division at Arco was dismantled, you moved to public affairs. What did you gain from that work?

A: I was more active in supporting community groups at the local level. Asian, black, Jewish, white, seniors--bringing them all together like we did at the U.N., trying to improve the community through the grants you make. I was actively involved in most of the proposals I supported. One of the groups that impressed me was New Economics for Women. I started thinking not only about community empowerment but economic empowerment.

Q: What is your take on the growth of Latino business?

A: Our emergence as Latinos was first cultural, then political, and business was the next step. A lot of corporations have no idea how big the Latino business community is, as a market. Business was an issue that even the Latino politicians were not familiar with. I realized there was something incredible happening. Just as I had arrived in the U.N. as the world was changing, I came back to the United States as Latinos were emerging on many levels.

Q: What attracted you to the LBA job?

A: The ability for me to serve as an ambassador from small business to big business was there from my work at the U.N., my work with Arco and my commitment to the community. I’ve got diverse experience which allows me to access academia, the legal community, the political community, the international community and the corporate community--all areas we’ll grow into. In talking to political and business leaders, the expectation and hopes for an organization like the LBA were just incredible. It’s an excellent challenge.

Q: What do you see as the LBA’s greatest weakness?

A: The lack of infrastructure and the lack of staff continuity to sustain high levels of performance. We have a strong economy, so talented people are attracted elsewhere. Because of a continuous turnover, training isn’t always on par. Having a president is a commitment to elevate the level of professionalism. We’ve established a business library for members and staff, and we’re doing a lot of worker training. I told them from the very first day: I will not be satisfied until I see them all stolen away because they are so good. And I told the members that I will not be satisfied until I see their names on the tops of some tall buildings downtown.

Q: What are your key goals for the LBA?

A: The LBA exists primarily for one reason, to grow Latino business. They need contracts, access to new markets and an understanding of where their products and services have the most value. At the expo this year, we’ll have 1,000 one-on-one appointments between Latino business and corporations and 100 international appointments. We’re also beginning to realize our national potential. We’ve got a lot of companies coming to the expo from Florida--”dot-coms,” telecommunications and import-export companies.

There are also very specific goals already set for LBA members in terms of achieving excellence so they don’t remain isolated. We want to involve them in competitions [like the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award] and get them aware of what standards of excellence are for business. We’re at a stage where families are passing their businesses on to the second and third generations. With each passing there is a bump up in sophistication. We want to redefine how corporations and government and the public define Latino business.