December 7 Speaker - Mark Madrid
Our speaker on December 7th was Mark Madrid, President of Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, where he has been for the last 23 months. Mark grew up in small town in Panhandle where his father was small business owner. His father taught him to strive for excellence, and he was the first Hispanic valedictorian of his high school. He graduated from UT and then took a job on Wall Street with JP Morgan. Later he moved back to Texas and continued in banking until his bank employer closed. He then started with a low level job at the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and worked his way up to president. In Feb 2014, he started at the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which has been around since 1973 and has 571 members. Mark reported that Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic group in businesses, population and schools. For example, there are 61% Hispanic students in the Austin school district. With regards to Hispanic owned businesses in U.S., there were 1.6 million in 2002, 3.2 million in 2012, and 4.07 million in 2015. The Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce wants to support all small businesses - whether Hispanic or not. Its programs are open to all. The Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce was named US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of the year and is working to collaborate with other Chambers in Austin.
