The Harvard Business School Latino Alumni Association (HBSLAA), in partnership with the Stanford Graduate School of Business Latino Alumni Chapter, presented the webinar “Get Latinx on Boards” on February 10, aimed at helping interested Latino professionals prepare themselves to be considered for board positions.

The virtual event was the second in a series of webinars offered as part of a coordinated campaign by the two alumni clubs, with consulting help from executive search firm DHR International, to increase Latino representation on private and public boards.

“Our goal is to get 21 Latino placements on boards in 2021,” says Lulu Curiel (MBA 2010) , president of Ivy Advisors, who organized and hosted the webinars with Melissa Hart (MBA 2017), senior finance manager at Microsoft, and Keith Giarman (MBA 1992) managing partner at DHR. “In 2020, Latinos held less than four percent of Fortune 500 board seats. But Latinos are a major force of the US economy, with a projected purchasing power of $1.9 trillion by 2023.”

Curiel adds that the clubs hope to seize on the momentum created by the new law in California that requires all publicly held corporate companies to increase board diversity, and the proposed NASDAQ listing rule that would require companies to disclose information about their board diversity and have at least two “diverse directors”—or explain why not.

The first webinar gave its 250 attendees a foundational understanding of the pathways to a board seat and how to create a value proposition, while the second webinar focused on creating a board resume and networking.

“The goal was to have a tactical conversation about how to prepare yourself to be visible to board opportunities,” says Curiel.

The webinar offered a panel discussion featuring guests with a variety of board experiences, including Anilu Vazquez-Ubarri, a Stanford alumna from TPG Global, Gabe Turner (MBA 2010), executive director of Draper Networks, and Ivelisse Rodriguez Simon (MBA 2004), managing partner at Avante Capital. The panel was moderated by Jazmin Medina (MBA 2015), principal at NewView Capital, and Heather Smith, partner at DHR International.

“Many of our alumni are exploring the possibility of serving on a board at some point, and they want to know how to get in the pipeline,” says Hart. “They were able to ask the panel all of their questions.”

The presentation then focused on how to build a board resume and establish a network of mentors in the desired industry.

Hart says the webinars were a chance to educate potential future board directors and set the groundwork for the next phase of the boardroom campaign. To “put it all into action,” she says, the HBSLAA is assembling the Latinx Board Taskforce, aimed at connecting board-ready Latinx alumni and board decision makers to “move the needle on driving diversity in the boardroom.”

Club President Miguel Sanchez (MBA 2011), a career coach at Management Leadership for Tomorrow, says the initiative touches on all aspects of the mission of the HBSLAA, by “empowering capable alumni to serve in this valuable capacity, connecting recent and more experienced alumni to each other and to opportunities, and advocating for and supporting initiatives that bring diversity, equity, and inclusion to systemically significant institutions at the highest levels.

“As an institutionally young club, one of our main goals is to connect with and tap the talent and experience of earlier Latinx alumni, for the benefit of the entire ecosystem,” he adds.

Curiel says an Executive Education course aimed at preparing Latinx professionals for boards is also in the works at HBS. For more information, visit the club’s Latinx Board Taskforce webpage.

With the global climate emergency at the top of every business and government agenda in 2021, it was no surprise that more than 70 HBS alumni and guests tuned in to the HBS Association of Southern California’s webinar on February 2 to learn how one start-up is meeting the climate challenge with technology and trees.

In “The Climate Crisis: Using Science and Drones to Replant Our Planet,” Aymeric Maudous and Monica Dodi (MBA 1984) shared the science behind their startup, Lord of the Trees, a precision drone tree-planting company focused on global high-speed reforestation. Maudous is the founder and director, while Dodi serves as director of the company’s trust and foundation.

Aymeric Maudous, CEO and Founder of Lord of the Trees (far left) watches a test flight of a seed-planting drone.

Aymeric Maudous holds one of the proprietary tree seed pods that are planted by drones.

Aymeric Maudous, CEO and Founder of Lord of the Trees (far left) watches a test flight of a seed-planting drone.

Aymeric Maudous holds one of the proprietary tree seed pods that are planted by drones.

“Living in LA, we’re seeing the climate crisis hit home with the fires,” says Dodi, who, as a board director of the Los Angeles River Revitalization Project, has more than 30 years of experience in VC, worldwide streaming channel development, digital media, and consumer products. “This is about using science and technology to address the climate crisis, in this case, using drones to reforest in a fast, cost-effective way.”

In his presentation, Maudous, a sustainability entrepreneur with a background in marketing and environmental management, laid out the facts of the global climate crisis and made clear that the speed of drone reforesting can play a critical role in stemming a climate disaster. Showing images of record-breaking heat waves, droughts, forest fires, catastrophic storms, and floods, he shared statistics that placed the lion’s share of the blame on the worldwide dependence on fossil fuels, followed closely by deforestation. He added that deforested areas on Earth add up to the size of the US and China combined.

“Planting trees by hand—using people who are dispatched to these areas to plant one tree at a time—is inefficient,” Maudous says. “At best, one person can plant 800 seedlings a day, but yields are only estimated at 30 to 40 percent.”

With drone technology, Maudous hopes to replant trees at a rate that is “faster than we are cutting them down.”

Working in a test forest site in Western Australia, Maudous says the Lord of the Trees drones can plant more than a million trees—via proprietary seed pods—in just 48 hours, with a success rate of 75%. What’s more, the effective cost of planting by drones is a third of the cost of planting manually, and drones can be operated day and night, can replant forests immediately following fires, and can access difficult terrain that would be dangerous for people.

Dodi says the company takes a holistic approach to each planting project to include a deep study of the local ecosystem, soils, and climate to build customized seed pods with multiple species of trees and plants and nutrients to support germination. After the drones plant the pods—at a rate of two pods per second—the trees will be monitored over the next five years.

Lord of the Trees has a goal to operate anywhere in the world, and currently has five projects underway, including replanting mangrove forests in New South Wales and Indonesia, and planting wildflower corridors on Australian highways.

Maudous says the United Nations has estimated that one trillion trees need to be planted in the next 10 years. “Our market opportunities include leasing the drone technology and proprietary seeders, and selling the seed pods to other organizations worldwide to help them reforest the planet.”

Lord of the Trees is raising money and looking for impact investors for its rapidly growing operation, says Dodi. “We’re showing how science and technology can help solve the climate crisis sustainably, employ people, and create value. The potential is enormous.”

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