Rudy Beserra Leveraging Latino Relationships

The highlight to his three-and-a-half years in that role was accompanying the president to south Florida in 1986 to swear in 20,000 new citizens after Reagan signed the Amnesty Bill.

“The president would always talk about the fact that his parents came in as immigrants—they were Irish. He always believed in the fact that immigrants are the backbone of this country,” Beserra recalls. “To see what’s going on with the whole immigration debate and everything that’s happening, it probably would not make President Reagan very happy because he’s the one who provided amnesty to 3.6 million undocumented citizens.”

Staying Involved

Beserra credits Coca-Cola’s leadership for the corporation’s early recognition of the importance of Latino consumers. “They saw the emerging growth of the Latino community and they wanted something that was separate and unique from marketing. They wanted an operation and an office that basically was the conduit or the liaison between the Latino community and our company,” he says.

A large part of his role entails engagement with different groups and organizations that are making policy that may impact the community in a certain way. It might also impact the company in a certain way. Beserra chuckles as he says, “I think I probably have the Guinness Book of World Records in Latino affairs as the only Latino corporate representative that’s probably been on every Latino corporate non-profit organization in the country. I could probably take the credit for that.

“This is a great way to build relationships because we’re helping build organizations and it’s helping build a strategic plan to function, to become sustainable. That’s the kind of expertise and leadership that I can lend.”

One of the many organizations he serves is the Latin American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia. A group he’s chaired for almost 12 years. The organization, which partners with sister groups in North Carolina and South Carolina, is one of the largest Latino chambers of commerce in the southern U.S., representing more than 1,000 Latino businesses around Georgia.

Beserra’s contributions to the Latino community do not go unnoticed. Last year he received the NFL Hispanic Heritage Leadership award from the Atlanta Falcons in recognition of his service and because he was instrumental in Reagan’s inaugural Hispanic Heritage Awards celebration when more than 200 Latino leaders were invited to the nation’s capital.