Hispanic growing strength in Connecticut

Nicolás Rising

This Cuban-American who grew up in Coral Gables and Miami Beach, is rising through the ranks of one of the largest companies in the US. In the meantime, he’s bringing with him the Castilian language, some good old-fashioned cariño Latino and a little lucha for the community to the forefront of a conversation that’s only just beginning.

By Cara Marcano

Director, Board of Directors, National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP)

Publisher, Reporte Hispano, NY area’s largest Hispanic newspaper and member, NAHP

When Nicolás Perez Stable agrees to be interviewed as a Hispanic business leader, and winner of Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR)s top Young Corporate Achievers, he suggests a meeting not at a large chain coffee shop, but at CFCF Roastery and Café at 118 Greenwich Ave. in Greenwich, CT, one of the wealthiest and traditionally most white-non Hispanic bastions of money, power and prestige in the United States.

All that falls away when I greet him at the entryway to the shop in Spanish and what floods back to me is pure Latin American cariño across the boundaryless Connecticut air between us.

“Hola como estás? Soy Nicolás.” He rises, smiling.

He’s a tall guy, a coveted “white Latino” the color everyone — no matter how they start out –somehow ends up on every page of People en Español. Stable, whose lineage is Anglo-Cuban could pass for just another WASP.

BUT he goes out of his way not to. He uses both his last names and spells his first name with no ‘h’ and always, always, uses accent.

In fact immediately as he rises from his seat in the coffee shop to greet me what falls from his mouth is a torrent of warmth, and cariño and Castilian language, the likes of which connect him to his story and mine and ours in ways we all are just beginning to understand.

And I exhale. And smile. And order coffee. A pour-over from Eduardo Piñeda, the coffee shop’s Latino manager and master roaster – the reason Perez Stable picks this coffee shop over “the Big Green Guy down the street.”

Not that he has anything against big, huge companies. As one of 16 attorneys who work for GE Capital Aviation Services, Perez Stable manages $3.5 billion of a portfolio of $50 Billion. He’s responsible for the Aircraft leases and legal financing that keeps 1/10 airplanes in the World in the Sky. “I’m not shy,” he says.

He started his career as a Wall Street lawyer.

“For six years I worked at White & Case on the Latin American side and on the Aviation and Privatization side. I basically privatized every toll road in Chile,” and had a blast doing it, he recalls humbly with the pride of a life earned and built over time and still evolving. My first week at work was the week of 9-11. In 2009, I negotiated GE’s $2.4 billion lease with American Airlines. In 2012, American Airlines files for bankruptcy. It was by far one of the most rewarding moments of my career to date. We (at GE) went into that bankruptcy in a very good place. We didn’t loose any money on that bankruptcy. That bankruptcy filing by American Airlines actually has been one of the most successful bankruptcies EVER. I was very proud of the work that I did. That transaction and that deal that we made stood the test of time. It got me a lot of accolades. If you make your boss look good, you look good. It took a long time, also. That’s something that people don’t realize. Not until 2012 did it really become clear how those documents I worked on stood the test of time. Talking about it as a career highlight I think it is really important to remember, it doesn’t happen overnight. Sometimes the best things that happen in your career happen over time. You have to put yourself in the right position and get the right training. You have to ask for responsibility and seek out more responsibility. It’s not a given once you get the job. Take stretch assignments.”

GE is one of the oldest and largest companies in the Dow Industrials, one of the top 10 biggest companies in the US by market cap. Its brand and employees regularly works intimately with the federal government on all sorts of initiatives and its holdings run the gamut from manufacturing equipment, oil and gas, healthcare, and Perez Stable’s specialty ~ aviation.

A glowing history in Hispanic work and diversity hasn’t always come easy to such a large, entrenched corporate powerhouse as GE. This past spring, a female attorney who works in another division of the company filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit saying she felt discriminated by the company’s “Old Boys Club” culture.

Also just this past spring, the company’s Capital Retail Bank (GE Capital Retail Bank) agreed to pay $169 million in Justice Department fines. The bank was accused of discriminating against Hispanic credit card customers when it ran two programs from 2009 to 2012 that helped cardholders with low credit scores and high balances catch up on their payments. During that time, government prosecutors say the bank sent out offers for the program to 400,000 people but did not inform 108,000 cardholders with mailing addresses in Puerto Rico or whose accounts indicated a preference for communications in Spanish.

The Bank has since been spun off as Synchrony Bank and Perez Stable – whose job keeping airplanes around the world financed and in the sky has nothing to do with the BANK — is committed to GE’s mission of community service, diversity HR and Attracting Hispanic Employees and Talent.

Perez Stable is head of the Hispanic Forum, GE’s Affinity Network for Hispanic employees. In 2009, he created position as national co-leader for Hispanic for external outreach.

Also in 2009 he attended the inauguration of President Obama to get involved with GE’s many relationships with the Government and as a result of the company’s leadership noticing, “We needed to ramp up our efforts in Hispanic.”

He’s also been named National Progress Leader – a position he describes as a “Great Honor” whose victories have included:

-Enhancing GE’s role within HACR

-Make GE founding member of CHLI – the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Corp.

Two years ago he helped GE found a scholarship program with Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College to provide accelerated MBA courses to 2 (Latino) students who have an undergraduate major and degree in STEM.

Perez Stable also sits on the board of the Cuban American National Council in Union City, NJ.

It didn’t come easy or quickly stresses Perez Stable.

“I didn’t come into my job and get permission to work on a $2.4 billion transaction. When it comes to CHLI, I didn’t just get named to the board. It took 4 years to get named to the board. Inside the company we do things quickly – In my career though it’s definitely been fits and spurts. In corporate America and in Life, it is like this, he says.

“We need more Hispanics on corporate boards and Hispanic being Hispanic, but being active in the community and in the innovation that that community requires.”

representation in corporate America. HACR is doing good work in this area when it comes to young people,” says Perez Stable, who received the Estrella Award from the GE Hispanic Forum and was named Young Hispanic Corporate Achiever by the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR).

“We need to promote diverse slates and Inclusion from HR. It’s not just about A father of a baby daughter born summer 2014, Perez Stable is also committed to the HACR conversation about what that looks like 360. When asked what is the most important thing you can give your children and future generations to succeed he’s very clear.

“El idioma. The language. The infusion of a bilingual, bicultural identity into our children. For me, this is fundamental, that my daughter speak Spanish. ”

Back at the coffee shop, we order our coffee en Español from Píñeda, who is trained in the art of coffee and connections from his grandmother in Guatemala who taught him to roast the beans over an open flame. Stable wants to be supportive.

“It’s about sponsorships rather than mentorship,” he says, noting that HACR is doing good work at connecting like-minded folks across companies, industries. The shop roasts beans in the shop (umm not over an open flame, this is Greenwich after all 😉 and specializes in a coffee bean sweetness that’s more Latin American than Arab or African.

“That’s what I enjoy about my job and GE financially backing some of these projects we are working on in the US Hispanic space. I do feel like there is an obligation to give back to the community from which you come. I think it is important meeting the kids who get the scholarships Do I have to do that to advance? No, but it does help me.

Diverse slates are very important at GE and hiring managers and candidates are given credit for making sure when an opportunity opens up a diverse candidate – a Hispanic, or a woman or whatever the diversity infusion that is needed from the balcony, big-picture — is given priority.

“It’s informal mentoring because it is not forced. You have to be a little bit restless in your career and in life for that matter. You can’t just sit there with your head down. You have to be your own advocate. You have to own your own career.”

Cara Marcano is the Publisher and CEO of Reporte Hispano, the largest Hispanic newspaper and Web site in the NY/CT/NJ market, a proud member publication of the National Association of Hispanic Publications. She is a Director on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Hispanic Publications. She can be reached at: publisher@reportehispano.com or 609 933 1400