Greeting from the CEO
Hola NAA Familia,
The end of August is a bittersweet time because it is when we say goodbye to summer vacations with all the fun and activities we enjoy—just kidding! I know that all you Type A workaholics don’t take time off. Ha!

For many of us, it also marks the end of the summer Pathway Fellowship Program where we say farewell to our summer Fellows and wish them well.

The experience of being a mentor to these young people touches many of us deeply. Not only experiencing the joy of exposing them to the financial services industry and discussing how your own professional trajectory developed, but also providing advice that perhaps your mentors gave you. Yes, we help and expose them to the financial services industry, but they give us back so much with their involvement and connection. Do you remember what it was like when you started college? What advice would you have given yourself? 

Below, under The First Rung by Gerson Guzman and Beyond Expectations by Linda Choi, these two NAA mentors share some of their experiences. 

We should all celebrate the tribute Crain’s Chicago Business bestowed on Ms. Linda Choi from Kabouter Management, LLC. Crain’s named her a Notable Executive of Color in Finance. The Notable Executives series features best-in-class executives across a range of industries in the Chicago area.

Lastly, we start preparing for a productive 2022 Fall season by welcoming a new member to the organization, Farid Guindo from Bornite Capital. Also, we welcome back one of our founding members, Andy Unanue, from AUA Private Equity Partners. Bienvenidos.

Our September Town Hall lays out the red carpet for the Honorable Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, the first Latina Republican elected to the California State Senate. She is a big proponent of financial literacy, particularly among youth. Join us. It will be a lively discussion.

We will be finalizing our list for the Fall Season of the CIO & Asset Class Connections meetings. Included in the lineup are some of our old friends and new ones. Also, we are putting the finishing touches on in-person and virtual events and meetings, including Dealmakers Forums. Stay tuned. More to come.

See you on September 28 -30 at AAAIM’s National Conference in New York.
Un abrazo,

Solange F. Brooks

NAA Voices
Inspiring the Next Generation of Investors and Leaders
By Solange F. Brooks
In 1999, our founders created the New America Alliance to advance the Latino Community in four areas: (1) education, (2) political awareness, (3) economic empowerment, and (4) philanthropy. Our founders being successful and intelligent people made sense that education was at the top of the list.  Education, in all its forms, reflects our country's hope, optimism, and success.  
 
Initially, NAA made considerable donations to sponsor scholarships and programs outside the organization. Still, it was not until 2020 that serious thought was given to creating a program with hands-on mentorship by NAA members.  The target for the program was younger students that did not grow up discussing investments around the dinner table, or if they did discuss investments, they did not see themselves as part of that world.  The desire to expose younger students to financial services and demystify investments was the foundation of the Pathway Fellowship Program. The Gateway Scholarship Program, a form of assisting these Pathway Fellows with college expenses, was a natural result of those conversations.
 
This is our second year of the Pathway Fellowship Program – and what a year!  We increased the number of Fellows from 12 students in 2021 to 20 Pathway Fellows in 2022.  This was possible due to the energy and enthusiasm of 17 participating firms that understand the importance of creating the next generation of leaders.  Their generosity of time and effort and team members' openness to participating as mentors made the program successful. 
 
This year we had Pathway Fellows ranging from Juniors in High School to Juniors in College in 15 participating schools. We have to give credit where credit is due and acknowledge all the effort that Maria Chavez, the Pathway Program Director, provided to ensure that every firm had the proper student and that it turned out to be a win-win situation.

The program has evolved to include webinars on various topics, as well as inviting current students and associates to come in and share their career experiences. This year, we had the privilege that NAA members offered the webinars, in which topics such as hedge funds, private equity, global equity, real estate, and infrastructure were presented and discussed.  Important to note that the presenters also discussed their professional trajectory through the years and how they ended up at their chosen posts. Sometimes the best advice to students is to talk about your career experience and the road you took to your chosen profession. Yes, there is a direct route, but you can get there via many creative, meandering paths throughout your life.

I urge you to seriously consider becoming a mentor for the summer of 2023.  The four young people I worked with during the summers of 2021 and 2022 could not have been more perfect.  My fellows were Camila Estrada, Alyssa Gute (2021 - below), Alexandra Maldonado, and Gonzalo Armenta (2022 - pictured above). They were from the same high school I attended many years ago, which made me re-live my wonderful high school years. However, I found them to be much more prepared for the college experience than I ever was. They were thoughtful and eager to learn about the financial services industry and everything about the world around them. I learned much from them, and I owe them a debt of thanks. 

Lastly, I am reminded of what Dolores Muñoz, NAA Institute Chair said, “For myself, personally, I’ve always wanted to give back.  I started my career as an intern, and I am thankful for the numerous people that helped my career along the way. I feel very fortunate to be part of the NAA Institute, because now I can do the same for others.”   That about sums up the Pathway Fellowship Program.

Member Firms Providing Webinars for 2022 Pathway Fellows
The First Rung
By Gerson R. Guzman, Co-Founder, Ceiba Capital Partners
NAA Institute Pathway Fellows (L) Emmanuel Jacquet (2022) and (R) Joshua Ferrafino (2021) working at the offices of Ceiba Capital Partners in New York City.
While there are a lot of different viewpoints on how to move up the ladder of success – no one should argue that you need to get a first foot on that ladder. At Ceiba, we are committed to being that first rung as proud participants in the NAA Pathway Fellowship Program. For the last two years, we have been hosts to students from diverse backgrounds who are exploring careers in business and finance. While we could constantly harp about the lack of diverse talent in the industry, we decided to do our part to build that pipeline for the generations to come.

In addition to getting exposure and training in business basics, the Pathway Fellows have gotten a heavy dose of entrepreneurship as they have witnessed our efforts to build Ceiba from the ground up. They have had an opportunity to learn the buy-out business firsthand, reviewing investment opportunities, conducting financial analysis, and participating in our pipeline discussions. We’ve had them conduct industry research and support our CRM build-out. More importantly, they have had exposure to a small team dedicated to their future success. And we like our track record –our first Pathway Fellow joined us as a rising freshman at UC-Berkeley and secured an internship on his own this year with a multi-billion-dollar asset management platform. 

We are now working on helping our second Pathway Fellow, a rising sophomore at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch, to refine his resume to compete more effectively for internships during his remaining undergraduate career.

They will each pull themselves up that ladder; we’ll take great joy in knowing we were there when they stepped onto that first rung.
Beyond Expectations
By Linda Choi, COO, Kabouter Management
NAA Institute Pathway Fellows (L) Jenni Hernandez (2022) and (R) Lawrence Sanchez (2021) working at the offices of Kabouter Management in Chicago, IL.
For the past two summers, Kabouter Management has had the pleasure of hosting two NAA Pathway Fellowship students for a multi-week externship, wherein each was able to explore their career interests and get firsthand experience in the financial services industry. Being new to the program in 2021, we didn’t know exactly what to expect, but were immediately impressed by each student’s preparedness, work ethic, desire to deliver high quality work, and confidence to seek clarification and ask questions when necessary. 
 
Both fellows split their time between projects on the operational and investment sides of the business, most specifically client services and equity research, where each was given the opportunity to network and collaborate with professionals across the business, participate in team meetings, and execute on project deliverables that help support the clients we serve. They were diligent and thorough in their analysis and followed our instructions well. What impressed us the most was the initiative they took to make additional improvements to their work without our prompting. Both fellows clearly take pride in their work and went beyond the initial instructions to create an excellent product.
 
Despite having no previous experience in the financial services industry, we believe both fellows added value to the firm and aided in Kabouter’s mission of delivering best in class investment management services to its client base. We would enthusiastically welcome both fellows back to our firm as interns in the future and look forward to hosting future Pathway Fellows in the future.
NAA Members' Recognitions
When Linda Choi assumed the role of COO at Kabouter in 2009, the firm’s assets were less than $180 million and were managed by a team of four running one micro-cap fund.

Under her leadership, the team has grown to 36 people (75% minorities and women), managing four portfolios with peak assets of nearly $6 billion. The firm’s institutional client base is composed primarily of endowments, foundations, and pensions.

Choi oversees Kabouter’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, launched a Women’s Mentoring program with the goal of encouraging professional development and providing a safe space to discuss challenges, and has partnered with the New America Alliance Institute and its Pathway Fellowship program over the past two summers.
kabouter logo
New Member Spotlight
Farid Guindo - Bornite Capital
Bornite Capital is a New York-based investment firm. The flagship investment vehicle is a generalist long/short equity fund that specializes in commodities and cyclical equities. The fund was launched in January 2020. Bornite seeks to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns by combining a long-term investment approach with active portfolio management.
 
Farid Guindo is the Director of Research and one of the firm’s co-founders. Farid attended McGill University and after graduating in 2009 with a Joint Honors degree in economics and finance, he joined the Barclay’s Global Natural Resources Investment Banking Group. After Barclays, Farid started his career on the buy-side at Ospraie Management covering cyclical equities and commodities in 2011. He also worked at energy investment firms TVR Capital and Brenham Capital in senior investment roles prior to helping launch Bornite in 2020. 
 
At Bornite, Farid is also responsible for the firm’s ESG and diversity initiatives. Farid grew up living in UN peacekeeping communities in developing and conflict-prone countries around the world. His fifth and final evacuation from a UN peacekeeping mission as a kid, was from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. “I arrived in Santo Domingo, to the most welcoming Argentinian host family who helped me look for a new school to transition to, mid-way through the year. I will always look to support the Latino community wherever I find myself knowing that they were there for me at a turning point.” 
 
Bornite has extensive relationships across commodity, industrial and infrastructure related industries. The firm plays an active role engaging with companies transitioning to Net Zero in hard to abate sectors including energy, metals and mining, and agriculture. “Successfully achieving Net Zero ambitions within these sectors would help accelerate UN climate and energy access goals. It would also have a powerful and lasting impact in the communities where I grew up. We joined the NAA to support our efforts to ensure diversity in recruiting, so that the under-represented talent at Bornite see themselves as future leaders in finance and within the community. We launched our first internship program earlier this year and look forward to leveraging the NAA network as a resource to build on the program next year.”
 
For further information about Bornite please contact: ir@bornitecapital.com
Welcome Back!
Andy Unanue - AUA Private Equity Partners
AUA Private Equity Partners (“AUA”) is an operationally focused private equity firm with a strength in buying consumer-oriented family-owned businesses in North America. AUA’s founding principles encourage a partnership-approach to investing with a particular emphasis on empowering the selling family, who is almost always allowed to participate in the AUA investment vehicle. Given the background of our Managing Partner, Andy Unanue, AUA targets Hispanic owned food manufacturing companies, where we believe we add the value through our collective experience.
 
Andy Unanue is the Managing Partner of AUA and Founding Member of the NAA. Prior to AUA, Andy was the Chief Operating Officer of Goya Foods, the largest and most successful Hispanic food company in the United States. Andy brings his passion for people, business, and operational excellence each day to AUA’s investments and his other involvements. Andy currently serves on several corporate boards, including Goya, Raymundos Food Group, Tijuana Flats Restaurants, Westminster Pet, and Water Lilies Food. Additionally, he serves on several not-for-profit boards, including his family’s charitable foundation, The C&J Unanue Foundation. Mr. Unanue is a member of the University of Miami’s Business School Dean’s advisory committee and the University of Notre Dame’s Cavanaugh Council and is on the Columbia University Medical Center’s Board of Advisors.
 
Andy's return as an NAA member completes the circle of what he has focused on his whole life: business and empowering the Hispanic/Latino community. He was a NAA founding member at its inception in 1998, and he hopes to continue making connections and being an agent for change in his community.

For further information: WWW.AUAEQUITY.COM
Upcoming Events
RFPs and Career Opportunities
NAA supports matching high-quality professional talent with institutions across the United States. Interested candidates, please reference New America Alliance in your application and notify Jodi Towner at jtowner@naaonline.org once submitted so we may be aware of your candidacy.

Employers, you may submit information on current high-level and high-impact job vacancies to Jodi Towner at jtowner@naaonline.org.