Board of Directors

The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of East Tennessee operates as a non-profit corporation approved by the Secretary of State of Tennessee on February 23, 2004. Any person, association, corporation, partnership or estate having interest in the objectives of the organization can apply for membership. The Board of Directors is the governing body of the corporation and is currently composed by the following persons:

LUIS VELÁZQUEZ

Director Emeritus

Telephone: (865) 777-5995; Cell: (865) 604-0049

Luis is originally from Puerto Rico, where he earned his degree as a Civil Engineer and initiated his professional career. In 1971, he moved with his family to the Chicago area where he started working for the Federal Government. After working 26 years for various agencies, he retired from the Department of Energy in Oak Ridge in December 1997. After enjoying full-time retirement for a few years, he found the opportunity to serve the Hispanic community when in 2001, Legal Aid of East Tennessee, Inc., asked him to serve as a consultant for the Hispanic Project on a part-time basis. In this capacity, he visited over 100 Hispanic businesses and prepared the Directory of Hispanic Businesses in Upper East Tennessee. While involved in this project, he saw the need to have an organization that would work in support of Hispanic-owned businesses in the region. With this goal in mind and the expression of interest of various individuals, he founded the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of East Tennessee (HCCET) by bringing together a group of business owners and professionals. After the official launching of HCCET in April 2005, the Board of Directors of the Hispanic Chamber appointed him to serve as Executive Director of the organization. In addition, he also serves as part of the Board of Directors of the Pellissippi State Foundation, the Community Advisory Board of Alcoa, Inc., he is a member of the Empowerment Zone Small Business Loan Committee, an alumni of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville Chancellors Associates and recently served in the KUB Tree Trim Review Panel. Luis is a graduate of Leadership Knoxville Class of 2006 and of Leadership Plenty 2006.

FUAD REVEIZ

President /Chairman of the Board

865-288-7088

Fuad Reveiz (born February 24, 1963 in Bogotá, Colombia) is a former placekicker for the Miami Dolphins, the San Diego Chargers, and the Minnesota Vikings. He played for Miami Sunset Senior High and was voted one of the top high school football players from Miami of all time by the Miami Herald. Due to his reliability in medium-range field goals, he was dubbed with the nickname "Fuad-o-matic" later in his career. In college, he played for the University of Tennessee. He kicked 188 field goals and 367 extra points in his eleven-year National Football League career. He was selected to the Pro Bowl after the 1994 season. After his retirement from pro football, he founded a home remodeling company called Reveiz and Co., and also hosted the Weekend Remodeling television show on the DIY Network. He now resides in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he owns and runs the Knoxville office of Insurance Inc.  Insurance Incorporated, with offices in Cleveland, Nashville and Knoxville Tennessee, has evolved from the merger of several agencies with roots back to 1940. They handle a wide range of business and personal insurance services and products, including worker’s compensation, commercial property and liability, umbrella coverage, bonds, homeowners, automobile, life and group medical. Fuad has three children: Bryanna attends Farragut High School; Shane and Nick attend the University of Tennessee where Shane is playing outside linebacker and Nick is a starting middle linebacker.

BILL GARIBAY

Vice President

Telephone: 865-671-2374

Born in West Covina, California and raised in Evansville, Indiana, Bill Garibay graduated in 1988 from Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky with a Bachelors Degree in Occupational Safety and Health. Bill moved to East Tennessee in 1991 and started ES&H, Inc. in his home in 1997 in what would later become his first son’s bedroom. In 2004, the company was honored as DOE Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Small Disadvantaged Business of the Year. ES&H, Inc. has also been recognized with additional accolades from Hispanic Business Inc.; Inc. 5000; Business TN; and was recognized in 2005 with the Gold Medal Business Achievement Award by the Environmental Business Journal. In 2007, ES&H, Inc. won the Minority Business Excellence award at the Knoxville Tennessee Chamber of Commerce Pinnacle Business Award Ceremony. Bill is an active member of the Knoxville Chamber and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of East Tennessee, as well as the Energy, Technology and Environmental Business Association (ETEBA). He is currently serving as a University of Tennessee Chancellor’s Associate. In his free time, Bill is an avid fly fisherman, he enjoys spending time with his children, camping, and golfing.

ANAMARY DANIEL

Telephone: (865)

LUCILLE GRIFFO

Secretary

Lucille Griffo is a retired executive with over 40 years experience in non-profit management, fund development, human resources and marketing. Originally from Jacksonville, Florida, Lucille earned a B.A. in Political Science from Jacksonville University and began her career with the Girl Scouts of Gateway Council in Jacksonville Florida. She moved to Knoxville in 1996 to assume the role of CEO for the Girl Scouts of Tanasi Council which served over 13,000 girls and adults in 16 counties in East Tennessee.

In her tenure with the Girl Scouts she earned the Thanks Badge, Girl Scouts of the USA's highest award for Girl Scout adults; from the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine she earned the St. Anne award and from the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville she earned the Boy Scout Pelican Award. Lucille has also earned the Executive of the Year Award from the East Tennessee Public Relations Society of America. Lucille is an alumni of the UT University Associates; a Paul Harris Fellow with the Rotary Club of Knoxville; an alumni of Leadership Knoxville - Class of 2002; former board member with Leadership Knoxville; a former participant of the East Tennessee Regional Leadership Association; former member of Intro Knoxville Committee; lifetime member of the Association of Girl Scout Executive Staff and Girl Scouts of the USA; a member of the Executive Women’s Association, a board member of the Knoxville Public Assembly Facilities Board and is a volunteer with the United Way of Greater Knoxville.

FRANCIEL AZPURUA-LINARES

Board Member

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Franciel Azpurua Linares holds a bachelor’s degree in Information Engineering from UNITEC (Venezuela),a Master’s in Information Science and a Master’s in Economics (both from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville). Linares’ focus during her course work was in information management and technology, macroeconomics and regional & urban development. She began her career as information engineer in Information International Associates, Inc. (IIA) located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. As part of this company she has had 15 years of experience in a project manager capacity and later as Director of information management & technology consulting to a $23M information management & technology provider. Her extensive experience providing information management & technology (IM&T) includes work with local businesses and non-profi ts as well as Federal agencies such as NASA and international entities such as World Bank and the Organization of American States. She has considerable skills and experience in information engineering, information architecture, knowledge management, crawling/harvesting technologies, systems development, and Web 2.0

LEÓN DUQUELLA

Board Member/Events Coordinator

865-385-3828

Email

Leon Duquella is an Emergency Management Specialist in the Emergency Management Team with the Department of Energy - Oak Ridge Operations Office. In this capacity, Leon is responsible for directing the Emergency Operations Center during an emergency, as well as planning drills and exercises and completing evaluations and inspections of the emergency readiness of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), and other areas. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez and has taken numerous Masters level courses in Environmental Engineering from the University of Tennessee, and the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico. He began his career 20 years with the Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, and has worked there ever since. He has been an active member of the Knoxville and Oak Ridge community. As a DOE employee, Leon volunteered to serve as the Hispanic Employment Program Manager. Leon has been involved in several executive boards and organizations throughout his time in Knoxville. Some of these include, founding the first League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) chapter in East Tennessee, Knoxville International Festival Organization, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), Hora Latina (HoLa), National Coalition for Community and Justice (NCCJ), Alianza del Pueblo, Knoxville Museum of Art Volunteer, the Hispanic Youth Symposium, and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Leon also was very proud to serve in the Advisory Committee for Latinos Admission and the Hispanic Latino Relations Task Force which provided direct input to the University of Tennessee’s Vice Provost Rodgers regarding Latino issues in the University of Tennessee community. Leon also maintains his volunteer spirit active by participating with the Knoxville Opera Company, and the Appalachian Chapter of the American Red Cross. Leon was deployed for 3 weeks to assist in the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, for Hurricane Isabel in North Carolina, and was also able to respond for several local house fires, and other incidents.

ROBERTO MARTÍNEZ

Treasurer

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Roberto Martinez is originally from Mexico City, but moved to Knoxville in the summer of 1996 to further his education. After attending Pellissippi State Community College and The University of Tennessee, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a Major in Finance and International Business. His professional career has included a range of diverse business related experiences with some of the best Fortune 50 and Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation. Currently, he has joined SunTrust Bank as an Assistant Vice President - Assistant Branch Manager and Licensed Insurance Agent with SunTrust Investment Services, Inc. and currently serves as the Latino Sub-committee Chair for the SunTrust Diversity Council in Eastern Tennessee. Roberto is a proud graduate of the Leadership Plenty Class of 2007 and the 2008 Class of the FBI Citizen’s Academy. He is a member of the East Tennessee Civil Rights Working Group, and has volunteered for Big Brothers Big Sister of East Tennessee and HoLa. He also serves in the board of the Race Relations Center of East Tennessee. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his daughter and wife. He also enjoys the outdoors and traveling.

OSCAR GRANDAS, MD

Board Member

865-305-6050

Email

Dr. Oscar Grandas received his MD from National University of Colombia, Bogota, Columbia, and completed a General Surgery Residency at Washington Hospital Center, Washington, D.C. and University of Tennessee Medical Center. Additionally he completed a Fellowship in Transplant Surgery at Washington Hospital Center, Washington D.C. and a Vascular Surgery Fellowship at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, in Knoxville, TN. Currently he is an Assistant Professor and Attending Physician in the Department of Surgery, Division of Vascular/Transplant Surgery at the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine and the Director of the Vascular Research Laboratory (VRL). Dr. Grandas provides the clinical expertise and medical relevance to facilitate translational investigation of vascular pathology.

SUSANA NAVARRO-VALENTI, PH.D.

Board Member

Telephone:(865) 220-9650

Dr. Susana Navarro-Valenti founded Navarro Research and Engineering, Inc. (Navarro) in 1993 and serves as President and CEO. She earned a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and has over 20 years of experience in the nuclear and safety fields. In 1993, she was awarded the American Nuclear Society’s Mark Mills Award for the best Ph.D. thesis in the nuclear field in the United States.

Navarro is an award-winning small business that is a premier provider of environmental and technical services to the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Navarro provides environmental remediation, D&D, waste management, safety, quality, emergency management, and renewable energy services to the DOE and the NNSA. Navarro successfully diversified in 2005 into the energy sector with contracts in the energy efficiency, renewable energy and oil and gas industries. Under Dr. Navarro-Valenti’s leadership and vision, Navarro has grown from 2 employees at inception to approximately 450 today and is one of the nation’s strongest, most successful, most stable small business with projected revenue of $85 million this year. Navarro is headquartered in Oak Ridge, TN with fourteen offices nationwide.

Hispanic Business Magazine has listed Navarro as one of the fastest growing Hispanic 500 for seven consecutive years. Navarro has also been named one of American’s top 500 entrepreneurial growth leaders in Inc Magazine. The Engineering News-Record ranked Navarro in the Top 200 Environmental Firms in 2008. Also, Navarro was ranked in 2008 and 2009 by BusinessTN as one of Tennessee’s “Hot 100” companies.

Dr. Navarro-Valenti has a strong commitment to ensure that Navarro provides the best in services and to be extremely high-quality, efficient and customer focused. She has successfully managed this extensive growth by proactively building up the infrastructure of the company to accommodate the growth while maintaining the level of excellence in services to which our clients have grown accustomed.

Susana Navarro-Valenti started the firm with her husband, Mark Valenti, in 1993. Both worked in Oak Ridge at the time, Susana at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Mark for the Y-12 Weapons Plant. Susana and Mark currently reside in Knoxville with their two children, John (age 16) and Susie (age 6).

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