2023 Latino Business Award winners and event
The Pacific Coast Business Times is pleased to present the winners of our 12th annual Latino Business Awards.
Since 2011, the Business Times has recognized a major part of the Central Coast economy: Latino business leaders. We’re glad to continue this tradition with a celebration on July 20th at the Limoneira Ranch in Santa Paula.
As with previous years, we’re recognizing all of the incredible people in this report at that celebration, including our scholarship winner, Cecely Zamora, a rising senior at California Lutheran University. The Pacific Coast Business Times administers the scholarship with the help of the Ventura County Community Foundation.
We also have an incredible lineup of Latino business leaders this year, in industries ranging from non-profit work that keeps the Central Coast going to agriculture and electronics.
We’re recognizing Brandy Beesley, the CEO and executive director of Project Understanding, for her work in supporting Ventura County and keeping people from losing their homes – and working with people who already have. We’re also honoring Kimberly Valenzula, the regional director of Casa Pacifica’s Santa Barbara efforts, for her work in helping families and children in the community.
Mayra Paniagua, the founder of Golden State Farms, is using family connections and family knowledge to carve out a space for herself in strawberry farming, and Armando Casillas is supporting his community and his family with his work at Montecito Bank & Trust.
We’re also recognizing Jorge Gonzales, the president and CEO of Vast Circuits, for the work he’s done in regards to circuit board manufacturing, and the UCLA/CLU team behind the U.S. Latino GDP Report, for the impact their research has had on policymaking and the entire country.
Tickets to and more information about the July 22 event are available here.
