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The Wealth of a Network: Pedro Guerrero on the Latino Tsunami
Pedro Guerrero has spent nearly 21 years building media for the Latino professional community, starting a publishing company at age 26 with three partners and one investor. That venture produced Hispanic Executive, a magazine Guerrero conceived to do something he felt the market wasn't doing well: highlight Latinos in a top-shelf way. He remembers his father, a school administrator, receiving Hispanic Business Magazine in the mail only for it to go straight to the trash, a well-intentioned publication that never got the design or distribution it deserved. Guerrero built Hispanic Executive on quality paper, with quality design, to match the caliber of the people it covered.
Today Guerrero is President and Chief Media Officer of AVANCE Global, and Hispanic Executive is stepping into a new role as the official media brand of AVANCE Global, the ecosystem that brings together the Hispanic Wealth Project, NAHREP, the Alumni Society, and AVANCE Sports, and National Construction Alliance under one platform. Ahead of the September AVANCE Global conference, Guerrero spoke about what AVANCE is building and how the ecosystem can move the needle on Latino wealth year round.
You're now President and Chief Media Officer of Lazar Global and publisher of Hispanic Executive, soon to be AVANCE Global's official media brand. Tell us about the journey that got you here.
Pedro: The journey started in publishing when I was 26 years old. I started a publishing company with three partners and one investor. We wanted to be entrepreneurs and find a way to leverage publishing to make money, but really it was about carving a path for ourselves. Two of us, me included, were ad salespeople for a publishing company previously. My third partner was a colleague from college who had produced magazines, including an indie rock title, so he knew how to hire writers, editors, and designers. He was a tastemaker for our brands from the get-go, and we had an economic model that worked.
Hispanic Executive was maybe the second or third publication we launched. My partners thought of it as my pet project in some ways. They weren't Latino and didn't necessarily understand or care about that identity. But my original idea, which is still relevant today and something I share with NAHREP Co-Founder & CEO Gary Acosta, was simple: wouldn't it be cool to highlight Latinos in a top-shelf way? I came from a family of educators, and my dad received Hispanic Business Magazine, an important publication, but one that would come in the mail and not be read. When we produced our first issue of Hispanic Executive, I wanted it printed on quality paper and designed in a quality way, to match the quality of the individuals doing incredible things. That idea has stayed true through everything we've done since, including what we're building now with AVANCE Global.
What is AVANCE Global trying to advance, and how does that link to the September conference?
Pedro: At the highest level, we're trying to impact American culture by portraying Latinos as successful, clearly unstoppable. With AVANCE, we're building our own table. If someone isn't letting you in the door, you build your own room. I think about what it looks like when the Latino community isn't derivative of something greater but is squarely in the middle of American culture and American power.
The conference is a major piece of that, and I think it's genuinely unique in the market. It's a complex of conferences: there are distinct communities that serve as tributaries into this big lake called AVANCE. NAHREP is obviously a huge component. The Alumni Society is the newest community in the ecosystem. There's also the AVANCE sports track and the construction track. What makes AVANCE Global interesting is bringing all these distinct communities together under one umbrella.
What I'm also thinking about, as Hispanic Executive becomes the official media brand, is how we scale this conference throughout the year: the regional connections, the International Regional Conference we're holding in Mexico City this January, and how we use Hispanic Executive to continue the conversation, the awareness, and the advancement 365 days a year. By the end of 2027, I want people looking back and saying AVANCE wasn't just a one-off event. It was a year-long movement of Latinos coming together to advance each other.
What should members, partners, and sponsors look forward to?
Pedro: From an event standpoint, there's a handful of formats that will make up our portfolio of in-person connections. There's the big conference in September. There's the International Regional Conference, which Gary has designed to rotate; we were in Málaga, Spain last January, we'll be in Mexico City this coming January, and there's talk of Colombia and Argentina down the road. There are regional gatherings that follow the NAHREP calendar, in Miami and Las Vegas this year. And there are high-touch, 20-to-30-person dinners, a format we used to run with Hispanic Executive and later the Alumni Society. We've already done three, in New York, LA, and Miami, and I can see us doing one or two per quarter around the country.
Ultimately this whole enterprise is about putting important Latinos together, and "important" is relative, whether that's a real estate broker with a homebuyer, or people who might not otherwise have met. It's all in the spirit of building a fabric of Latino connectivity that can stand the test of time.
What are the business opportunities for members, partners, and sponsors tapping into the Latino market?
Pedro: Let me answer from the perspective of the end user. Take Hispanic Executive: we've spent 20 years elevating Latino leadership narratives. That's been empowering for the executives we feature and has added a positive narrative to the community. Now I want to take Hispanic Executive from elevating Latino leadership to informing Latino leaders, integrating content from the Hispanic Wealth Project, studies from NAHREP, and journalism from Hispanic Executive so our audience can get information that helps them make decisions, inspires them, and helps them progress.
There's also a real marketplace happening where business and opportunity come out of these connections. I think we need to do a better job amplifying those individual moments of ROI so people can see the value clearly, both as members and as sponsors. For sponsors specifically, this platform, spanning real estate, financial services, sports and entertainment, construction, entrepreneurship, and capital allocation, is a one-stop shop for commercial strategy. We're talking about tapping into the fifth-largest economy in the world. If you're going to reach the Hispanic market in the U.S. and across LATAM, you must do it intentionally, by sponsoring, engaging, showing up, and doing the work needed to leverage the investment. AVANCE is an organization built to help you grow into that.
How do you see this ecosystem moving the needle on Latino wealth beyond real estate?
Pedro: I'll speak from observation. I'm not a wealth expert. But a lot of NAHREP members' first step is getting certified as real estate brokers, which is very much an entrepreneurial, wealth-building trade. What I've come to understand about effective wealth strategies is diversification, thinking comprehensively about how to solidify your position financially and your legacy.
What I find valuable about this ecosystem is the connections you make across different sectors. You might attend a sports panel and realize there's potential for yourself in something you didn't know you were interested in, inspiration that leads to connections, and connections that lead to a financial outcome. And when it comes to legacy, if you feel like yours has to be tied to something beyond real estate, I think this platform can help you find that more meaningful path: maybe you meet someone and start a nonprofit together or discover something more compelling at a different track.
Last question: how would you like your legacy to be remembered?
Pedro: I want to feel like I've made a difference for the Latino community, not just for us but beyond us, including with non-Latinos. That's part of why I'm excited about this new chapter with AVANCE, working with Gary. I believe the future of this country is one where Latinos are front and center. Latinos are multicultural by nature, and this country's future will be predominantly Latin and in much more respectful communion with the rest of Latin America. I hope my legacy plays a small part in making that a reality.
There's a lot of noise these days, and I want this effort we're building together to be the signal, pouring toward the future, because that's where we're all headed. There's a Latino tsunami ahead. I coined that phrase in an article I published in Hispanic Executive a while back. A lot of us see it coming and are prepared for it. A lot of people aren't yet but will be.
Guerrero's vision for Hispanic Executive as AVANCE Global's official media brand reflects the broader design of the NAHREP family of brands, an interconnected system built to support the economic mobility of the Latino community, spanning the Hispanic Wealth Project, AVANCE Global, AVANCE Sports, NAHREP, the National Hispanic Construction Alliance, and the Alumni Society.
For more information about the AVANCE Global Las Vegas conference September 14-16 see https://nahrep.org/fallconference/
Today Guerrero is President and Chief Media Officer of AVANCE Global, and Hispanic Executive is stepping into a new role as the official media brand of AVANCE Global, the ecosystem that brings together the Hispanic Wealth Project, NAHREP, the Alumni Society, and AVANCE Sports, and National Construction Alliance under one platform. Ahead of the September AVANCE Global conference, Guerrero spoke about what AVANCE is building and how the ecosystem can move the needle on Latino wealth year round.
You're now President and Chief Media Officer of Lazar Global and publisher of Hispanic Executive, soon to be AVANCE Global's official media brand. Tell us about the journey that got you here.
Pedro: The journey started in publishing when I was 26 years old. I started a publishing company with three partners and one investor. We wanted to be entrepreneurs and find a way to leverage publishing to make money, but really it was about carving a path for ourselves. Two of us, me included, were ad salespeople for a publishing company previously. My third partner was a colleague from college who had produced magazines, including an indie rock title, so he knew how to hire writers, editors, and designers. He was a tastemaker for our brands from the get-go, and we had an economic model that worked.
Hispanic Executive was maybe the second or third publication we launched. My partners thought of it as my pet project in some ways. They weren't Latino and didn't necessarily understand or care about that identity. But my original idea, which is still relevant today and something I share with NAHREP Co-Founder & CEO Gary Acosta, was simple: wouldn't it be cool to highlight Latinos in a top-shelf way? I came from a family of educators, and my dad received Hispanic Business Magazine, an important publication, but one that would come in the mail and not be read. When we produced our first issue of Hispanic Executive, I wanted it printed on quality paper and designed in a quality way, to match the quality of the individuals doing incredible things. That idea has stayed true through everything we've done since, including what we're building now with AVANCE Global.
What is AVANCE Global trying to advance, and how does that link to the September conference?
Pedro: At the highest level, we're trying to impact American culture by portraying Latinos as successful, clearly unstoppable. With AVANCE, we're building our own table. If someone isn't letting you in the door, you build your own room. I think about what it looks like when the Latino community isn't derivative of something greater but is squarely in the middle of American culture and American power.
The conference is a major piece of that, and I think it's genuinely unique in the market. It's a complex of conferences: there are distinct communities that serve as tributaries into this big lake called AVANCE. NAHREP is obviously a huge component. The Alumni Society is the newest community in the ecosystem. There's also the AVANCE sports track and the construction track. What makes AVANCE Global interesting is bringing all these distinct communities together under one umbrella.
What I'm also thinking about, as Hispanic Executive becomes the official media brand, is how we scale this conference throughout the year: the regional connections, the International Regional Conference we're holding in Mexico City this January, and how we use Hispanic Executive to continue the conversation, the awareness, and the advancement 365 days a year. By the end of 2027, I want people looking back and saying AVANCE wasn't just a one-off event. It was a year-long movement of Latinos coming together to advance each other.
What should members, partners, and sponsors look forward to?
Pedro: From an event standpoint, there's a handful of formats that will make up our portfolio of in-person connections. There's the big conference in September. There's the International Regional Conference, which Gary has designed to rotate; we were in Málaga, Spain last January, we'll be in Mexico City this coming January, and there's talk of Colombia and Argentina down the road. There are regional gatherings that follow the NAHREP calendar, in Miami and Las Vegas this year. And there are high-touch, 20-to-30-person dinners, a format we used to run with Hispanic Executive and later the Alumni Society. We've already done three, in New York, LA, and Miami, and I can see us doing one or two per quarter around the country.
Ultimately this whole enterprise is about putting important Latinos together, and "important" is relative, whether that's a real estate broker with a homebuyer, or people who might not otherwise have met. It's all in the spirit of building a fabric of Latino connectivity that can stand the test of time.
What are the business opportunities for members, partners, and sponsors tapping into the Latino market?
Pedro: Let me answer from the perspective of the end user. Take Hispanic Executive: we've spent 20 years elevating Latino leadership narratives. That's been empowering for the executives we feature and has added a positive narrative to the community. Now I want to take Hispanic Executive from elevating Latino leadership to informing Latino leaders, integrating content from the Hispanic Wealth Project, studies from NAHREP, and journalism from Hispanic Executive so our audience can get information that helps them make decisions, inspires them, and helps them progress.
There's also a real marketplace happening where business and opportunity come out of these connections. I think we need to do a better job amplifying those individual moments of ROI so people can see the value clearly, both as members and as sponsors. For sponsors specifically, this platform, spanning real estate, financial services, sports and entertainment, construction, entrepreneurship, and capital allocation, is a one-stop shop for commercial strategy. We're talking about tapping into the fifth-largest economy in the world. If you're going to reach the Hispanic market in the U.S. and across LATAM, you must do it intentionally, by sponsoring, engaging, showing up, and doing the work needed to leverage the investment. AVANCE is an organization built to help you grow into that.
How do you see this ecosystem moving the needle on Latino wealth beyond real estate?
Pedro: I'll speak from observation. I'm not a wealth expert. But a lot of NAHREP members' first step is getting certified as real estate brokers, which is very much an entrepreneurial, wealth-building trade. What I've come to understand about effective wealth strategies is diversification, thinking comprehensively about how to solidify your position financially and your legacy.
What I find valuable about this ecosystem is the connections you make across different sectors. You might attend a sports panel and realize there's potential for yourself in something you didn't know you were interested in, inspiration that leads to connections, and connections that lead to a financial outcome. And when it comes to legacy, if you feel like yours has to be tied to something beyond real estate, I think this platform can help you find that more meaningful path: maybe you meet someone and start a nonprofit together or discover something more compelling at a different track.
Last question: how would you like your legacy to be remembered?
Pedro: I want to feel like I've made a difference for the Latino community, not just for us but beyond us, including with non-Latinos. That's part of why I'm excited about this new chapter with AVANCE, working with Gary. I believe the future of this country is one where Latinos are front and center. Latinos are multicultural by nature, and this country's future will be predominantly Latin and in much more respectful communion with the rest of Latin America. I hope my legacy plays a small part in making that a reality.
There's a lot of noise these days, and I want this effort we're building together to be the signal, pouring toward the future, because that's where we're all headed. There's a Latino tsunami ahead. I coined that phrase in an article I published in Hispanic Executive a while back. A lot of us see it coming and are prepared for it. A lot of people aren't yet but will be.
Guerrero's vision for Hispanic Executive as AVANCE Global's official media brand reflects the broader design of the NAHREP family of brands, an interconnected system built to support the economic mobility of the Latino community, spanning the Hispanic Wealth Project, AVANCE Global, AVANCE Sports, NAHREP, the National Hispanic Construction Alliance, and the Alumni Society.
For more information about the AVANCE Global Las Vegas conference September 14-16 see https://nahrep.org/fallconference/
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