Student Symposium

About ALPFA Orange County

ALPFA - Empowering Latino Leaders

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ALPFA (Association of Latino Professionals For America) is the longest standing Latino organization with 81,000+ members assembled in 44 professional and more than 160 student chapters across America. Our vision is to be the premier business organization for expanding opportunities for Latino leadership in the global market.

Covering the counties of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino, ALPFA Orange County develops the next generation of Latino professionals via experiential leadership development and mentoring from senior corporate executives, whom we empower into the C-suite and onto corporate boards.

ALPFA OC Board Leaders

Today, ALPFA is well-positioned to assist America’s Latino owned and operated companies and Fortune 500 to recruit, retain and develop professional Latino/Hispanic talent in every sector of the U.S. and global economy. We offer consumer insight, diverse procurement, and welcome all who share our mission.

Robert Castera

President, ALPFA Orange County County

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Senior Manager at KPMG

Fernando Sauceda

Executive VP, ALPFA Orange County

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Equipped with over 15 years experience as a Financial Manager / Director Finance including, Forecasting, Modeling, Budget, M&A Activities, Month/Year-End Close, Probability Risk Analysis, Pro Forma Planning/Analysis, and Capital/Operating Expenditures.

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Strongest attributes are building relationships, attention to detail, and growing strong teams.

Melissa Martin

VP of Operations, ALPFA Orange County

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Senior Manager at KPMG

Mirna Cereceres

Secretary, ALPFA Orange County

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Junior Accountant at CheckWorks, Inc.

Wendy Figueroa

Director of Events, ALPFA Orange County

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Wendy Figueroa is the Manager of Audit Services at RJI International. She has extensive public and private company accounting experience. Wendy worked at the public accounting firm KPMG for 10 years in Mexico City, Los Angeles and Amsterdam, primarily serving Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registrants.

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Her public accounting experience includes complex financial accounting matters under U.S. GAAP and IFRS accounting frameworks, SOX 404/financial controls and capital market transactions (IPO, U.S. GAAP/IFRS conversion, etc.). Wendy also has experience managing clients with multiple locations and was part of international projects focused on shared service center environments with complex legal structures, statutory requirements, and financial processes, requiring the coordination of international resources and on-site fieldwork in areas such as Mexico, Poland and Romania. Wendy’s experience includes providing professional audit and assurance services in accordance with IFRS, MEX GAAP and U.S. GAAP.

Gregorio (Greg) Cisneros

VP Marketing-Communication, ALPFA Orange County

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Senior Digital Marketing Specialist – Mag Instrument, Inc. • Responsible for the strategy, creation, execution, and management of paid, shared and organic social content • Manages and reports website and social analytics, which assist in evaluating content performance and KPI (Key Performance Indicator) results

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• Ensures marketing plans are aligned with brand goals and objectives. • Translates strategic goals and brand requirements to actionable concepts and recommended marketing solutions • Specializes in design, photography, digital asset management, and content marketing • Greg holds a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Information Technology/ Web Development from the University of Phoenix and is a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) candidate at the University of Redlands.

Luke Culley

Manager Corporate Strategy, ALPFA Orange County

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Senior Associate – KPMG LLC

Pete Vara

VP of Membership, ALPFA Orange County

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Analyst US Forensic Technology (Lead, Data & Analytics) – KPMG
Focusing on assisting clients in their efforts to achieve the highest levels of compliance and efficiency in managing records and information, developing efficient, repeatable business processes for responding to legal and regulatory requests for Electronically Stored Information (ESI)

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and providing effective collection, processing and hosting of ESI for review and production. Pete’s professional skillset include: data mining, statistical analysis, quantitative analysis, querying databases with SQL, various methods of testing, predictive modeling, financial modeling in Alteryx. Pete is an alumni from the University of California, Irvine.

Fidel Gómez Garcia, MBA

ALPFA Orange County

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Business Manager for the University of La Verne, Small Business Development Center (SBDC) – Los Angeles Network, and Director of Marketing Communications for ALPFA Orange County. Fidel Gomez assists the Center Director at University of La Verne SBDC in delivering consulting services and workshops to entrepreneurs in the San Gabriel Valley Region.

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He is also responsible for working with community, state, federal stakeholders and managing a team of professionals to assist local businesses to start and/or grow their businesses. Prior to joining the University of La Verne SBDC, Mr. Gomez acquired an extensive background in high-end corporate retail providing strategic direction to assist in new store openings, sales, operations and retail management for companies such as: Brooks Brothers, Original Penguin, BCBG, Bloomindale’s and C-Wonder. Mr. Gomez is an active an active community volunteer in both Orange and Los Angeles Counties. He was a founding board member and past Vice-President for the Orange County Youth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. In addition, Mr. Gomez serves as the advisor for the Latino Student Forum and a mentor to students from the First Generation Student Success Program at La Verne. He is a member of the 49th Class of the Riordan Leadership Institute from the Southern California Network and a David C. Lizárraga Fellow. Mr. Gomez grew up in México City and at an early age developed the desire to study and emerge himself in International Business. He holds a B.A. in International Business with a concentration in Spanish from Cal State University, Fullerton and an MBA with an emphasis in Marketing & International Business from the University of La Verne, College of Business & Public Management.

Leo Gonzalez, Ph.D.

Academics Director, ALPFA Orange County

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An Organizational Psychologist with more than 15 years experience as a facilitator, coach, consultant, and professor. Leo is a passionate, ethical, friendly and fun business coach and consultant with a twist on innovation knowledge management.

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He has led multiple change management, organizational and leadership development projects across various industries in the private and public sectors, in the US, Latin America, and globally including at the United Nations. Leo holds an MS degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Chile, and a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the College of Organizational Studies at Alliant International University in San Francisco, California.

Rebeca Diaz

Content Manager, ALPFA Orange County

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Senior Associate at Global Mobility Services, KPMG LLP

Jonathan Cardona

Manager Membership, ALPFA Orange County

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Audit Senior Assistant at Deloitte

Nohemi Ayala

Treasurer, ALPFA Orange County

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Associate Business Analyst at T-Mobile

Mark Goshgarian

VP Corporate Strategy, ALPFA Orange County

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Managing Director in Valuation Services – KPMG US
Mark Goshgarian is a Managing Director in KPMG’s Economic and Valuation Services practice and works out of the Orange County, California office. He specializes in the valuation of business enterprises, intangible assets, and financial securities for financial and tax reporting purposes.

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Mr. Goshgarian has worked in the valuation business for over 13 years, in the US and Hong Kong. He is a senior accredited member of the American Society of Appraiser. Lastly, he graduated from University of California, San Diego with a B.S. in Management Science.

Nicholas Riley

Manager Corporate Development, ALPFA Orange County

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Nick is an Advisory Associate in KPMG’s Advisory Services practice. Nick’s main focus is on testing different controls, conducting walkthroughs and discussing process improvement opportunities with clients.

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Nick is currently pursuing his CPA licensure and has already passed all four of the exams.

Juan S. Ruelas

Manager STEM, ALPFA Orange County

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Sr. Quality Engineer, UTC Aerospace Systems

Andrea Alejandre

Manager Corporate Strategy, ALPFA Orange County

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Senior Associate – Management Consulting, KPMG LL

George Perikhanyan

VP Corporate Development, ALPFA Orange County

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Senior Manager at KPMG US

Rose Arevalo

Corporate Advisor / Past President, ALPFA Orange County

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A technology professional with global sales experience in hardware, software, consulting, and training. My ongoing career success derives from game-changing market strategies and an engaging actionable plan that yield greater ROI, business process improvement and client satisfaction.

Milton Galeas, MBA

Corporate Advisor / Past President, ALPFA Orange County

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Senior Associate Advisory Consultant with 15 years of experience in auditing, financial reporting and management consulting. Held senior positions and has supervised teams of up to 10 directs. Results driven professional with proven record of delivering practical, attainable and realistic solutions to clients.

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Industry lines includes: Aircraft leasing, Financial Services, Insurance, Pharmaceuticals, CPA, Media & Communications. Milton has been involved with major projects that include: Finance Manager, worked as part of the Finance Transformation project team for a major pharma to centralize 5 business units. Governance and Risk Management for SOX review and testing for a major aircraft leasing organization. Strategic Finance, where he participated in the accelerated month end process from BD6 to BD4 with deliverables to multiple stakeholders; this project helped improve efficiency in the transfer pricing process for a life insurance organization. Milton holds an MBA with licenses and certification in MIS and Risk Management.

Jessica Lomeli Ruiz

Chapter Ambassador, ALPFA Orange County

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Service Alignment Manager at Humana.
Jessica holds a Bachelor degree from California State University Fullerton, is a California CPA candidate and is pursuing a Masters degree in Accountancy.

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Humana is relatively new to the California market; she started her journey with Humana in early 2015 as a Project Manager with Market Operations & Finance taking on projects that crossed all functional areas and levels of the California market. A busy Unidos NRG member and YP group ambassador. Jessica is the previous Communications Director for ALPFA Orange County.

Jonathan Javier

Chapter Ambassador, ALPFA Orange County

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“I love what I do because I am passionate about growing my skills and making an impact in the community” – Jonathan Javier
A recent graduate from the University of California, Riverside, concentrating in Business Administration Finance.

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Jonathan has had several years of experience in the business field, working with companies as a brand ambassador or as an intern. Active in leadership positions, such as the Student Body CHASS Senator for UCR’s student government, Director of Finance for UCR’s School of Business Administration, and currently the Ambassador for the Association of Latino Professionals For America (ALPFA), Orange County Professional Chapter. He is currently on a contract with Snap, Inc. as an Operations Specialist.

Open Positions Available

ALPFA Orange County

Join us, share your expertise or be a part of this dynamic group to increase your circle of influence and leadership.

Open Board Roles
• Director Corporate Development II: obtain corporate sponsorships
• Director Grants: research & apply for grants
• Director Leadership Summit: manage event, budget, VIPs , & volunteers
• Director Mentors & Volunteers: recruit, manage volunteer for events
• Director Professional Development: design & manage workshops & training
• Director Research: analyze & synthesize demographics
• Director Western Student Symposium (2019): manage budget, sponsors, VIPs, & volunteers
• Director of Media and Entertainment

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Why ALPFA OC?

WE REPRESENT THE FUTURE.
WE REPRESENT…

The fastest growing segment of the American economy:

U.S. Latino population
is expected to grow by
167% from 2010 to 2050

The essential economic engine for America’s future:

$1.5 trillion of buying power in 2015. Latinos are expected to make up half of new entrants into the workforce by 2025.

The fastest growing American minority business community:

Increasing from 557,000 in 1990
to more than 3.1 million in 2013,
and growing almost 10 times faster than the general population.

The increasingly important Latino American generation:

Latinos are 21 percent of the millennial population.

(source: ALPFA.org)

Recent ALPFA OC NEWS Posts

Learn the lastest news from ALPFA Orange County and more…

Job Opportunity – Santa Clara, CA – Manager of Accounting

by Greg Cisneros | Sep 21, 2018 | ALPFA OC Partner News

California's Great America has an opening in its Finance Division for Manager of Accounting - Santa Clara, CA (Bay Area – Silicone Valley). This position will report to the Director of Finance. JOB FUNCTIONS SUMMARY: Performs weekly/monthly close including preparing...

2018 Survived and Thrived Business Honoree – ILS – Rose Arevalo

by Wendy Figueroa | May 31, 2018 | ALPFA OC News - Blog

The ALPFA Orange County Professional Chapter is pleased to announce that our very own, Rose Arevalo (past ALPFA OC Chapter President) and her Company, ILS – Industrial Listing Services, Inc. has been selected as a Hispanic Lifestyle 2018 Survived and Thrived Business...

2018 Women of ALPFA Summit Recap

by Greg Cisneros | May 24, 2018 | ALPFA OC News - Blog

Orange County, CA., May 17, 2018 - The ALPFA (Association of Latino Professionals For America) Orange County (OC) Professional Chapter presented the 2018 Women Of ALPFA Summit featuring keynote speakers Codie Sanchez (Head of Latin America First Trust, Investor,...

Contact Us

ALPFA Orange County Professional Chapter
801 South Grand Avenue, Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90017 USA

For membership and event information: info@orangecounty.alpfa.org
For sponsorship info: president@orangecounty.alpfa.org