By Alexandra Mendoza
The Chairman of the Board of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has been witness to the strengthening of both small businesses, as well as of the Hispanic market in general.
Albert Clark-Castañeda came to the organization six years ago with the objective to meet people and network.
It did not take long for him to become Vice President and, later, President and CEO.
He gets his interest for business from his family. He recalls in his youth, growing up in Santiago de Veraguas, Panama, helping out in his mother’s and grandfather’s construction business, which specialized in building homes for low-income families.
Clark- Castañeda remembers spending his summers working in the business, shoveling sand and carrying slabs of anything construction related.
By the age of 18, he returned to the United States, where he was born and had spent the first three years of his life, to attend Bradley University in Illinois to study International Business.
His intent was to return to Panama to take over the family business, but met his girlfriend, now wife with whom he has two children, a 5 and 9-year old, and decided to start a new life in San Diego, California.
For almost 10 years, Clark-Castañeda worked as a commercial insurance agent at Alliant Insurance, educating his clients on the importance of having insurance and being protected in case of an accident.
It was at this time that he came to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce convinced of the difference this organization could make, and its significance to Latino businesses.
When he took office, the organization had 90 members. Today it has strengthened its membership to more than 500, from small businesses to large corporations.
Clark-Castañeda is convinced of the potential of the Hispanic market and recalls how, during the economic crisis of 2007-2008, small businesses many of which were Hispanic, helped move the country forward.
“Nowadays Hispanic businesses are no longer small, they are an industry on its own,” said the lead merchant as he discussed how Hispanics have managed to conquer different opportunity areas in the county.
“When you provide a small business with the ability to grow, it means that it will have to hire two or three people whom it will be financially supporting.”
This boom has not gone unnoticed. He was even hired recently, by Atlas Insurance to serve as their Business Development Specialist to create a national bilingual initiative to identify associations and Latino agents interested in these products.
Furthermore, in August of 2015, he was named Southern Regional Chair of the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which consists of 18 chambers of commerce from Santa Barbara to San Ysidro.
Albert’s vision is to provide tools and opportunities to businesses run by Hispanics so that they can thrive, primarily in a binational region such as Cali-Baja.
“As part of our chamber’s mission, I would like to help create new millionaires in the Latino community, I want us to develop the Latino Bill Gates,” he said.
“ I would like the support we provide as a community, assists business advance,” stated the businessman, citing success stories like Northgate or Vallarta Supermarkets.
Concurrent to his work in the Chamber of Commerce, Clark-Castañeda is part of the non-profit San Diego RISE, which seeks to train the next generation of leaders.
As part of this initiative’s first generation members, a multicultural festival will be held at King Chavez Primary Academy at the end of April, with which he wants to encourage tolerance and prevent racism and cultural barriers at an early age.
Clark-Castañeda will conclude his stewardship at the SDCHCC in December, but will remain as part of the leadership of the Hispanic chamber at the state level.