Portland entrepreneurs and startup advocate Juan Barraza was named the first executive director of the group Latino Founders.
Barraza co-founded the nonprofit, which has been steadily organizing and consolidating events. He takes over this new role July 1.
He will remain in his current role as director of innovation and entrepreneurship for climate nonprofit VertueLab through June 30.
“The spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship is equally spread across our region; the opportunity is not, and we are looking to support entrepreneurs in scaling and accelerating their ventures across any sector,” he said in a written statement.
“I’m honored to be stepping into this role to continue Latino Founders work and support entrepreneurs’ scalable ventures that will contribute to the economic development of our region and wealth creation in our community,” he added.
Latino Founder has received support from Oregon Community Foundation in the form of a $225,000 in grants from the group’s Latino Partnership Program and Thriving Entrepreneurs Program. Prosper Portland has supported the group with $125,000.
Latino Founders is seeking funders from other philanthropic organizations, said Barraza.
The nonprofit has coalesced over the last five years after a series of ad hoc events including Startup Weekend Latino and several past Pitch Latino events. Last year, the group introduced its first accelerator program.
Barraza co-founded the group with entrepreneurs Edgar Navas and Gabriel Flores.
Flores, who is also board president, said appointing the first executive director is a major milestone for the group.
“Latino Founders is designed to nurture entrepreneurial growth through membership and business development initiatives,” he said in a written statement. “With Juan, we have an opportunity to further advance economic development and create lasting impact within our community.”
Prior to VertueLab, Barraza was director for the Portland State University Center for Entrepreneurship. He first got involved in the Portland tech and startup community when he founded his own digital health startup VDO Interpreters.
Barraza is receiving the Tech Champion Award for 2024 from the Technology Association of Oregon.
