Few business leaders have had a career quite like Sol Trujillo’s. A technology pioneer and executive trailblazer, Sol was the youngest executive officer in AT&T history at just 32, he went on to lead major companies in the United States, Europe and Australia, and became the first U.S.-born Latino CEO of a Fortune 150 company.
Today, his attention is focused on the future and on an economic story he believes American business leaders cannot afford to misunderstand: the growing influence of U.S. Latinos and what he calls America’s “New Mainstream Economy.” He is a co-founder of the Latino Donor Collaborative, L’ATTITUDE Ventures and Velocity, initiatives focused in different ways on Latino economic opportunity, entrepreneurship and growth.
In this episode, Mike Fernandez sits down with his former boss, mentor and longtime friend for a wide-ranging conversation about leadership and breaking barriers; diversity and opportunity; immigration and economic growth; CEOs as communicators; representation and storytelling; and whether AI represents the beginning of another industrial revolution.
We explore experiences that shaped Sol’s leadership, what he thinks CEOs still misunderstand about Latino consumers, workers and entrepreneurs, what he is learning from building Velocity with his daughter Andrea, and the legacy he hopes to leave for the generations that follow.
It’s an unusually personal conversation between two people who have known one another for more than 30 years, and a provocative discussion about leadership, economic growth and what America may look like next.