Hispanic Marketing & Communication Association Announces New Board Members

Posted by Elena del Valle on March 24, 2005

Miami, FL (March 24, 2005) – The Hispanic Marketing & Communication Association (HMCA) announced today four new board members: Suzanne Irizarry de López of Bilingual Research Services, Sylvia Nieto-Vidal of Multicultural Insights, Juan Guillermo Tornoe of The Wizard of Ads, and Richard Velez of MASS Promotions.

Suzanne Irizarry de López is Director of Business Development for Bilingual Research Services (BRS), a unique supplier of dual-language (Spanish/English) telephone interviewing for consumer research and public opinion polling. BRS is based in what the U.S. Census named the most bilingual city, El Paso, Texas. A native of Puerto Rico and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communications, Suzanne has been doing Hispanic market research since the early 90’s and has also worked as educator, simultaneous interpreter, social worker, and journalist.

Sylvia Nieto-Vidal is Managing Partner of Operations at Multicultural Insights a certified minority, woman-owned full-service market research firm for multicultural and niche markets located in Miami, Florida. Multicultural Insights provides full-service qualitative and quantitative research for Hispanic, African American and other niche markets in the U.S. as well as throughout Latin America. Nieto-Vidal has designed, set-up, managed, overseen and conducted qualitative and quantitative research for over 17 years for Fortune 100 companies such as Pepsi-Cola, Cingular, SBC, Pfizer, Pizza Hut, Ford Motor Company, Colgate-Palmolive, and Radio Shack among others.

Juan Guillermo Tornoe is based in Austin, Texas and is Market Research Director for Wizard of Ads, Inc. Spearheading the Hispanic branch of the company, he is creator of Hispanic Trending, a Latino marketing and advertising Blog, which gives access to research, news, and commentaries on the Hispanic market. He has a degree in Pre-Med from the Universidad Francisco Marroquín and an MBA from ESEADE (Escuela Superior de Economía y Administración de Empresas), both in Guatemala.

Richard Velez is Director of Strategic Services for MASS Promotions, a leading Hispanic integrated marketing and strategic promotions company based in Miami. He helps develop strategies for clients to effectively touch Hispanics where they work, live, play, and shop. Richard is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY, where the first association of Latin American students (La Union Hispano Americana-1898) was ever founded in a U.S. university.

The Hispanic Marketing & Communication Association, HMCA, is a volunteer driven national nonprofit professional association dedicated to Hispanic marketing excellence. HMCA roundtables, seminars and conferences serve as forums to discuss interesting, timely issues, and encourage professional development. To learn more about HMCA and to sign up for complimentary copies of InterAcción, the HMCA newsletter, visit www.hmca.org