Graduation recently occurred in Dallas for the largest ever Corporate Executive Development Program (CEDP), a leadership program for guiding Hispanic managers into corporate leadership positions. The program began in 2011 as a joint effort from the National Hispanic Corporate Council (NHCC) and the Cox School of Business at SMU, and remains the only program designed specifically to broaden the Hispanic talent pool in corporate America.
The award-winning CEDP was developed by the two institutions in order to support Hispanic employees with the potential for advancing into executive leadership roles. Several graduates of the nine-month program, which combines training in business and leadership taught by SMU Cox faculty, have already advanced to executive positions within Fortune 100 companies.
Frank Lloyd, associate dean of Executive Education at SMU Cox, has commented on the partnership: “We are proud to partner with the NHCC in this continued effort to prepare Latino talent for corporate executive responsibilities…CEDP graduates consistently deliver positive business results at high levels.”
Octavio A. Hinojosa-Mier, Executive Director of NHCC, has already announced the partnership will continue through 2016 and 2017. “As the nation’s leading organization founded with the mission of maximizing our corporate members’ Hispanic market opportunity, NHCC is making a tremendous impact in working with Fortune 1000 companies to increase the pool of Hispanic executive leadership.”
This year’s graduates included 33 participants from several NHCC corporate members, such as Comcast NBCUniversal, Marriot International, State Farm Insurance, Shell and Walmart.
The CEDP curriculum involves three stages: authentic leadership, leading successful teams, and becoming a corporate leader. It is clear that the CEDP is achieving its goal of advancing Hispanic corporate talent- over 70% of the 100 CEDP alumni from the past five years have already achieved significant new responsibilities.