GRAND RAPIDS — Directors at the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce have promoted Guillermo Cisneros to president and CEO from executive director, citing his “outstanding performance.”
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Under Cisneros’s leadership over four years, the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber grew its budget from $200,000 to $1.2 million and increased the number of employees from two to eight. He also led the development of three initiatives to support Lantinx business owners, including helping them improve business processes and forming partnerships with local colleges and corporations to connect talent with employers.
Guillermo Cisneros
COURTESY PHOTO
The third initiative that will soon launch, known as the Accounting Initiative, “will create solid financial structures that will allow growth and access to capital for Latinx businesses,” according to an announcement on Cisneros’s promotion.
“Guillermo’s vision for West Michigan is to change the systems in place in order to level the playing field for Latinx businesses and communities of color in general, goals that will be achieved through the relationships he has developed with the WMHCC and the community,” said West Michigan Hispanic Chamber Board President Caryn Zavala.
Cisneros represents the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber on a number of local boards, including the Grand Action 2.0 Executive Board of Directors, the Economic Club of Grand Rapids, and the city of Grand Rapids’ Economic Development Corp. and Brownfield Redevelopment Authority boards.
In a social media post, Cisneros wrote that he was “truly blessed and honored to be recognized by the organization I serve with this promotion.
“My love for the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and for its mission is great. I am committed to change the current systems to help our communities of color get to levels where they have never been and have a better West Michigan for my children,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
