Latino representation on Fortune 1000 boards: 2019 Edition

The importance of the Latino community to the U.S. economy cannot be overstated. Latinos comprise just over 18% of the US population¹ and this percentage is expected to grow to 29% by the year 2050.² The contributions to the U.S. economy made by Latinos is significant and is also expected to grow dramatically in coming decades. Consider these facts:

• Latinos³ accounted for 82% of the growth in the U.S. labor-force participation between 2010 and 2017⁴
• GDP among Latinos has grown at a faster rate than the overall U.S. economy, growing from $1.7 billion in 2010 to $2.3 billion in 2017⁵
• The purchasing power of the Latino community is expected to top $1.9 trillion by 2023.⁶

As business leaders plan for long-term growth and sustainability, they must take into consideration the role that Latinos will play as their companies’ employees, consumers and business partners. However, the Latino voice is rarely represented in the corporate boardroom, despite increasingly loud calls for improved diversity on boards.

For a variety of reasons, discussions about board diversity have predominantly focused on gender. However, racial and ethnic background is an important aspect of board diversity as well. To date, studies of the racial and ethnic backgrounds of directors have been limited by a lack of consistent data since boards are not required to disclose the demographics of each director in their regulatory filings. Based on data that has been collected and verified by the Latino Corporate Directors Association, this study provides a unique perspective on the state of Latino representation in the boardrooms of U.S. corporations as of July 31, 2019.

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^{_{1 Source: United States Census Bureau website, QuickFacts section, October 11, 2019.}}

_{^{2 Source: Pew Research Center, “U.S. Population Projections” (February 11, 2008).}}

_{^{3 Throughout this report, the terms “Latino” and “Latinos” are used to refer to both males and females collectively, unless otherwise indicated.}}

_{^{4 Source: CNBC.com, “Latinos may be the key to future US economic growth, study argues” (September 26, 2019), citing “LDC U.C. Latino GDP Report, Quantifying the New American Economy,” Latino Donor Collaborative, prepared by Dan Hamilton, PhD and Matthew Fienup, PhD, California Lutheran University and David Hayes-Bautista, PhD and Paul Hsu, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles, September 2019.}}

_{^{5 Ibid}}

_{^{6 Source: NBC News, “Even amid ‘trying times,’ Latinos are nation’s growth engine, Nielsen report finds,” (August 12, 2019).}}