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Ana Valdez

Ana Valdez

President & CEO, Latino Donor Collaborative

Ana Valdez is the President and CEO of the The Latino Donor Collaborative. She is an American marketing, media, research, and political expert, a thought leader combining 30 years of experience in business, media and the corporate world. She was born and raised in Mexico City, and has studied and worked in Mexico, Europe, and the U.S.  She has lived in Los Angeles, California, since 1997. 

Valdez started her career working for Nielsen, where she developed the largest market research client base in the company. She then worked for Banamex, now Citibank, attracting multibillion foreign investors and helping to determine their best business opportunities in the country. Since then, she has worked at the United Nations in Geneva, the Clinton Administration in Washington DC, and has collaborated with companies such as Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Procter & Gamble, Pepsi, CBRE, Morgan Stanley, McDonald’s, and others.

Valdez has been the executive leader of the Latino Donor Collaborative since 2014, working directly with corporate CEOs and the C-suite to create a think tank called Latino Data Collaborative. The LDC produces economic data and business fact-based tools to detect growth opportunities in the market and develop innovative strategies to engage the new mainstream consumer. Research partners include Columbia, Stanford, UCLA, ASU, Bain, BCG, Accenture, NERA and others. As the CEO, Ana has built the LDC data to become a tool for all American resource allocators: CEOs, C-suite, and institutions such the Federal Reserve, The White House, and the Joint Economic Council of Congress.  
Simultaneously, Ana has served on the board of trustees of Southern California Public Radio since 2011, chairing the board from 2016 to 2020. During these four years, Ana led the national search for the new CEO and an intentional strategic effort to create growth by using fact-based data to identify additional audiences.

By creating content and covering news that appeal to those potential audiences and their daily news time and investment, the organization has grown their revenue 41% since 2018, expanding their board, venturing into new technologies, and growing its ratings and national awards. The organization has become a role model in the news industry creating transformation that engages new demographics that were invisible before. 

Ana Valdez

Some additional board participation:
- SiTV Cable Channel
- American Public Media Group- CEO Search Committee
- Minnesota Public Radio
- The Trust for Public Land National Board - Chair of Diversity Task Force
- Los Angeles Universal Preschool Board of Directors (LAUP)- Chair of the Government Relations Committee
- Children’s Bureau- Chair of the Public Outreach Committee
- LA Mayor’s Small Business Board 
- Green Leadership Trust- Founding member
- UCLA Department of Statistics, Advisory Board
- Center Dance Arts Board, Los Angeles Music Center
- The White House Fellowship and of The Eisenhower Fellowship Regional Selection Committee

Ana has been recognized as one of the Top 10 Latinos in America in 2018 by Hispanic Magazine; one of the Top 50 Most Influential Latinas in the US in 2020; one of the Top 100 Latinas by Latino Leaders Magazine in 2021, and as a one of the eight CHANGEMAKERS within the 2022 Fifty Most Powerful Latinas by ALPFA, 2022 100 Top Latino Leaders by Latino Leaders Magazine, 2023 Top Latina Leaders by Latino Leaders Magazine, nominated for Inspiring Women of the Year 2023 by The LA Times, to name a few. She is a soaked-after national and international speaker, and has been assistant professor at Tec de Monterrey, on-the-air Political and Media Analyst for Fox11 and Univision, and a blogger for MyFoxParents.com, Huffington Post, and CNN online. She became a best-selling published co-author of the book Extraordinary Latinas in March of 2023.