LCDEF's Boardready Institute: Their Journey to the Boardroom
story by: Carmen T. Joge
The Latino Corporate Directors Education Foundation (LCDEF), in partnership with its parent association, the Latino Corporate Directors Association (LCDA), has been supporting the work to increase the numbers of US Latinos serving on corporate boards by preparing and networking the supply of board-qualified, board-ready Latino talent.
LCDEF’s BoardReady Institute (BRI) is a comprehensive program designed to prepare and position highly qualified Latino executives and national leaders for corporate board service. The program’s tailored curriculum was developed in collaboration with the KPMG Board Leadership Center, the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford Law School, Boardspan, and LCDA’s search firm strategic partners, to support senior executives on their journey to the boardroom.
Graduates of the BRI, such as Gisel Ruiz and Denice Torres whose stories are in this edition of Latino Leaders, benefited from the board governance educational programming, the coaching by our search firm partners and Director members, and the board-level networking they were exposed to during their time as LCDA Executive Members. Our talented pool of aspiring directors also served as valuable links to their success. This year, 3 former LCDA Executives landed board seats and are now Director members – we expect another two placements before the end of the year among our aspiring members.
As you will read, invaluable to their success was the support they received from our partners and
our Director members who “pay it forward” by mentoring and coaching aspiring directors as to the steps, contacts and opportunities they can take while on their journey to the boardroom.
Programming, preparing, networking, coaching, peer support, feedback, paying it forward, and good old doing the work – all play a role in ensuring that talented and board-ready executives like those that go through our BoardReady Institute are successful and land the board opportunities they are passionate about. While there is no guarantee one will land a board seat, when you put talent, preparation and networks together with timing and opportunity, you have a winning combination. Read their stories and learn more atwww.latinocorporatedirectors.org.
LCDEF will be accepting interest forms for the next round of LCDA Executive Memberships and BRI program in the spring of 2021. If you’re interested in applying email cjoge@latinocorporatedirectors.org.