SignTek Graphics
Elvis Campos and Richard Weaver

Singtek was founded in 2006 by two entrepreneurs. Elvis Campos is from Guatemala and Richard Weaver is from Spain, but grew up in Argentina. They met back in Los Angeles and decided to move to Florida due to the high cost of housing in California. They both had worked together in printing and loved the idea of opening a business with their experience in the industry. They settled in a location in Sanford, Florida and they have seeing tremendous growth since there arrival to Central Florida. Some of their customers are Central Florida Regional Hospital, Lake Mary High School and many other happy customers.

Habana Grill Restaurants
Ruben and Laura Perez

Ruben Perez opened his first restaurant in 1990. At that time, Ruben was attending the University of Central Florida, when he decided to open a restaurant. Ruben now has two Habana Grill restaurants, Yaya’s bakery, a Hispanic Bakery in Orlando, as well as Pepito’s Cuban Café, located at the Orlando International Airport. Ruben started his company with 10 employees and currently has 150 working in his restaurants. His future plans include creating a concept that can be duplicated in order to create a nationwide franchise chain.

George Rodon
Orange County Government

Mr. George A. Rodon has actively served the community for 36 years and has served directly under all of Orange County’s mayors. He has also served for several boards of directors including United Way, Junior Achievement, Goodwill Industries just to name a few. Mr. Rodon is a native of Cuba and attended the University of Maryland. He began his career in Florida as an employee of the department of Health and Rehabilitative services and is currently serving as Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard T Crotty as well as Director of Economic Trade for Orange County. He has been appointed to senior positions by former Governor Bob Graham and former Mayors Chapin and Martinez.

Honorable Judge Wilfredo Martinez
Orange County 9th Judicial Circuit

Honorable Wilfredo Martinez is currently an Orange County Judge. He was born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico and is the youngest of five children. He moved to the U.S in 1956 and attended Yale University where he obtained his B.A(cum-lade) in 1979. In 1982 he achieved his J.D at New York University School of Law and practiced law in Central Florida for over 14 years prior to becoming a County Judge. Honorable Wilfredo Martinez has served the community and sat in several boards including Children, Youth and Family Services Advisory Board, City of Orlando Redistricting Advisory Committee Member, 9th Judicial Circuit Court Racial and Ethnic Bias Committee, Revision 7 Communications and Education Advisory Group and created and manages the Courthouse Law Academy, a program that exposes children from 1st to 12th grades to the courthouse in a positive manner.

Conrad Santiago
Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.

Conrad Santiago was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After he graduated from high school, he continued his college education at Bentley College in Waltham, MA where he obtained his college degree. After he graduated from college, he began working with a title insurance company in Puerto Rico, where he quickly became a partner.

In 1988, Conrad decided to relocate to Orlando, FL with his family and a few years later began to work with Ameriprise Financial Services as a financial advisor. In his first full year with the company, he was able to rank among the top 100 financial advisors in the nation. He has ranked as high as 15 and currently ranks among the top 1% financial advisors in the nation among more than 13,000 and is currently the top financial advisor in Florida. He has received the Chairman’s “Quality of Advice” recognition several years and has been selected “Advisor of the Year” for the past 16 consecutive years in his region.

Conrad has always believed and said that “giving back to the community is an obligation and not an option”. Shortly after arriving to Orlando, he was true to his motto and began to get involved in the community by joining the then Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce, where he became the Treasurer. In that capacity, he became one of the catalysts behind the effort to merge of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce and Latin Chamber of Commerce. The merge was completed in 1993 and he was selected as the Chairman of Board of what is now known as the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Orlando.

In 1994, former Orange County Mayor, Linda Chapin, challenged the Hispanic Chamber to create a Hispanic business investment program in order to improve the probabilities of success of Hispanic owned businesses. Conrad was asked to lead the effort and in 1995, helped create and establish the Hispanic Business Initiative Fund (HBIF). He served as Chair of the Board of Directors for five years and helped increase services and funding considerably during his term.

In 2001, he was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush as Trustee of the University of Central Florida, where he has also served as Chairman the Finance Committee. In such capacity, he has been involved in projects such as the new UCF College of Medicine, football stadium and arena, among other housing and academic projects. He has also been a member of the Board of Directors of the American Red Cross since 1998 and in 2005, was elected as Chairman of the Board. He served in this capacity for two years and was recently asked to lead the Regional Advisory Board for the American Red Cross. Conrad has been the recipient several times of the American Red Cross of Central Florida “Above and Beyond Award”. Just last year, he joined the Orlando Regional Healthcare Board of Directors as well. He has also been appointed by Orange County Mayor Richard Crotty and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to serve in various community boards.

Closed Caption Latina Corp
Maria Diaz

Closed Caption Latina started in Bogotá, Colombia. The owner, Maria Diaz decided to open a second office in Longwood, Florida in 2005 to provide services to members of the Hispanic population with auditory or visual disabilities through the development and application of video description and audio captioning. The company in Florida has been very successful growing from one employee to eleven in the last two years.

Nitesol
Claudio Meserontolo and Patrick Davidson

Nitesol was founded in 2005 by Claudio Meserontolo and Patrick Davidson after both graduated from college. The company specializes in the design, production and installation of signs and large format prints such as banners, commercial signage, and mounted media. They embrace the perpetuating growth in Orlando and Central Florida area with a unique passion for providing excellent customer service, fast turnaround times and unparallel design for any individual or organization that is looking for excellent service. Nitesol has a well rounded portfolio of clients such as Universal Studios, The Downtown Development Board, Valencia Community College among others.

Dr. Francelis Gonzalez and Victor Pantoja established, Kidsville Pediatrics, P.A. in 2003. The company has grown to become one of the most successful Hispanic medical clinics in Kissimmee. The clinic meets its goal everyday by offering optimal bilingual (English and Spanish), physical, mental, social health and overall well being for infants, children, adolescents and young adults in the community. By offering top patient care with compassion and integrity, the clinic has successfully expanded to three other locations, including Davenport, Orlando and Clermont and nearly doubled its annual sales to close to $1,000,000.
 

The Center for Foot and Ankle Medicine
Dr. Vanessa Nieves and Dr. Geovanny Chico

Dr. Vanessa Nieves and Dr. Geovanny Chico opened their practice in 2000. They are the only Hispanic Podiatric Medical Group in Orange and Osceola counties. Dr. Nieves is one of the few licensed female Hispanic Podiatrist in Central Florida and has been recognized as one of the “top podiatrist” in Orange County. The Center for Foot and Ankle Medicine has become one of the few podiatry centers in Central Florida that specializes in children's foot, ankle and leg disorders. The center currently has fourteen skilled workers providing services to approximately 1,600 clients a month.

Hispanic Health Initiatives, Inc.
Josephine Mercado

With a B.A. degree in Urban Legal Studies from New York Law School, Josephine has been an activist and social advocate since 1967. She has been a volunteer for various community boards dedicated to helping the medically unprivileged in New York and Florida. As the founder and CEO of Hispanic Health Initiatives, Inc., she is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the organization and establishing community partnerships and collaborations between health care providers, faith-based organizations and businesses. The organization focuses on the medically under-served communities of Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties with a special focus on the needs of the Hispanic community.
 

Payas, Payas & Payas LLP
Armando Payas, Sr

Dr. Armando Payas was forced to leave Cuba to avoid incarceration, leaving his family behind for two months until they were able to reunite once again. Dr. Payas arrived in the U.S in 1962 without any knowledge of the English language. Due to his perseverance and constant efforts he obtained two doctorates degrees, a PhD and a Doctorate’s degree in Jurisprudence. Dr. Payas along with two of his sons is the founder and senior partner of the family law firm, Payas, Payas and Payas.

Baker & Hostetler
Hector T. Perez

Hector Perez better known as “Tico” attended the University of Central Florida and obtained his B.A degree in 1983 and in 1986 achieved his J.D in Georgetown University Law Center. His professional career includes being a political analyst for WESH News Channel 2, hosting “Talking with Tico” on AM 580 WDBO, serving in the Board of Directors for several different organizations such as Board of Governors, State University System of Florida, Workforce Central Florida, United Arts of Central Florida, Center for Drug Free Living, Seniors First Foundation, Central Florida NFL Committee, Greater Orlando Chamber of Commerce amongst some. He is currently a Marketing Partner for Baker & Hostetler LLP and has received numerous awards including Florida’s Most Influential People awarded by Florida Trend Magazine, Distinguished Service Award awarded by Boy Scouts of America, Central Florida’s Ten Most Influential Men awarded by Orlando Business Journal.
 

Orlando Police Department
Deputy Chief Eugene Bernal

The highest ranking Hispanic for the Orlando Police Department, Deputy Chief Eugene Bernal is second in command. He is responsible for a police bureau that consists of 213 employees and direct management of the bureau’s 24.37 million dollar budget. He began his law enforcement career at the age of 21 with the Orlando Police Department and soon rose through the ranks. The Deputy Chief was instrumental in the development of the Hispanic Business Police Academy in partnership with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Orlando in effort to forge lasting relationships with the business community. He has been awarded countless awards for his dedication in his community and serves on several boards including Florida Association of Hostage Negotiators and Valencia Community College.