24 APRIL 6, 2020 |^ ADWEEK
®ADWEEK CHAMPIONS
Claudia
Romo
Edelman
founder and
CEO, We Are
All Human
EDELMAN
T
he research that Mexico native Romo Edelman
has done at her foundation, We Are All Human,
has given her quantifiable evidence that
Latinos in the American workforce have extra
hurdles to overcome in terms of confidence and
self-perception. Where some might see wonky
numbers and charts, Romo Edelman sees a wealth
of untapped power.
“Women don’t apply for a job unless they
think they have at least 70% of the qualifications
to apply. For Hispanics, that’s 90%,” says Romo
Edelman. “Hispanics are huge, but we act small.
We’re powerful, but we act weak. It’s almost like a
reverse marketing problem.”
Romo Edelman’s career leading marketing
for humanitarian efforts like the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World
Economic Forum and the UN Refugee Agency
trained her to think fast in a crisis. So when the
coronavirus pandemic shut down Romo Edelman’s
plans to unveil her new nationwide corporate-
backed Hispanic Star campaign (the launch was
a planned tie-in with Major League Baseball’s
Opening Day), she quickly harnessed all of
Hispanic Star’s assets and redirected them.
“We’re going to coordinate action to help
Hispanics that have been laid off,” Romo Edelman
says. “We mobilized the Hispanic leaders and
said we aren’t launching Hispanic Star the way
we were going to, but we’re doing supply-chain
matching so that companies like Unilever and
P&G can diversify their supply chain.”
This is Romo Edelman’s fourth pandemic,
and she’s learned a thing or two about the
lasting impact public health crises can have on
communities. “Every pandemic in every area is
about the secondary consequences, like what are
we going to do with the economy. If you don’t have
that recovery plan ready to go, it takes longer.”
Through the supply-chain effort, Romo
Edelman hopes to ensure that Latinos are
included in the post-pandemic economic recovery
and don’t get left behind. It’s part of her overall
philosophy: People who give have the most to
gain. That concept applies to her work at the We
Are All Human Foundation, and it applies equally
to mentorship. —Mary Emily O’Hara
Mariana Vasconcelos
founder and CEO | Agrosmart
Romo Edelman says she has learned from
her mentee, Mariana Vasconcelos. “She’s so
innovative and flexible,” says the CEO. “She
always thinks, If I know this already, how do I
get two steps ahead? I think millennials have
that sense of leapfrogging a lot of things.”
Vasconcelos isn’t just the CEO of Agrosmart,
a tech pioneer that uses AI to help agriculture
businesses adjust to changing climates—she’s
also the daughter of farmers. She remembers
being impressed early on not just with Romo
Edelman’s marketing vision, but also her
approach to parenting. “Right at the beginning
of our relationship Claudia went to watch me
presenting at the Kairos K50 Summit, and
she had her children with her,” Vasconcelos
recalls. “It is amazing how she balances
family and work, and teaches her kids about
business and impact.”‘Hispanics are powerful,
but we act weak. It’s
almost like a reverse
marketing problem.’
JOSHUAKISSI