Tuesday March 18, 2003
DIVERSITY RECRUITMENT

Working to Improve Hispanic Representation in Corporate America, By Julie Bennett

When The U.S. Census Bureau announced in late January that Hispanics had become the nation's largest minority group, with 13% if the country's population (compared with 12.7% for African Americans), the numbers made headlines. But even more startling is the subtext. While Hispanics are the faster-growing population segment, they are also the most unrepresented group in America's corporate office and boardrooms.  [...]

That argument, that Hispanics have been excluded because there aren't enough of them to fill leadership roles, infuriates Latino recruiters and public-policy institutions.  [...]

Manuel Boado, president and CEO of Spanusa, an executive search company in Mamaroneck, N.Y., that specializes in placing bilingual executives, says "In each of the past 10 years, 17,000 Hispanic earned master's degrees. Any company that makes a proactive effort to hire Hispanic professionals should be able to do so."  [...]

LatPro, the largest job board for Hispanics, has a database of 240,000 professionals, says founder Eric Shannon of Plantation, Fla., with 50,000 actives seeking entry-level management positions - the very $50,000 - $100,000 a-year-jobs that companies claim to have trouble filling with diverse professionals.  [...]