Thank you to the 1,400 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 questions!
I hope reading
helps you in your leadership.
Cheers,
Jonno White
7 Questions with Andres E Jimenez
7 Questions with Andres E Jimenez
Name: Andres E Jimenez
Current title: President and CEO
Current organisation: Americas
Andrés Eugenio Jiménez Montoya has an extensive forty-year record with academic training and research as well as professional public service activities in the fields of Latin American and Latino Studies, US Relations with Cuba and Mexico, and Inter-American cross-border relationships. Jiménez currently directs the UCLA Latin American Social Science Council Program (CLACSO) at the Center for North American Integration and Development (NAID). He also serves as President and CEO of the Americas Partnership, incorporated as a non-profit organization in Mexico and the United States. Previously, he directed for three years the California Program on Opportunity and Equity (CalPOE) and seventeen years the California Policy Research Center (CPRC) both affiliated with the University of California. Under the auspices of CPRC, Jiménez oversaw the Latino Policy Research Program that was founded in 2001, the Mexican-Mexican American Dialogue. He also co-founded in 2000 the California-Mexico Health Initiative that is now the Health Initiative of the Americas.
Jiménez previously coordinated research programs at the Institute of International Studies and the Institute for the Study of Social Change at the University of California, Berkeley for more than a decade. Born in Los Angeles, California, Jimenez received a BA in politics and Latin American studies from University of California at Santa Cruz and pursued doctoral studies in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley earning a Masters of Arts in Comparative Politics, Latin American Politics, Political Philosophy, and International Relations. He is divorced with one adult daughter and is a descendent of the Tongva or Gabrieleño people, the original settlers of the Los Angeles area.
1. What have you found most challenging as a leader of a small or medium enterprise?
Raise funding necessary to provide services.
2. How did you become a leader of an SME? Can you please briefly tell the story?
More than 40 years experience working for higher education and related nonprofit organizations led me to be invited to lead a small-scale nonprofit organization.
3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?
Allow work module time in the morning, afternoon, and evening with breaks between work times.
4. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?
Share responsibilities and tasks with other members of the team.
5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?
Paolo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed that discusses how to facilitate success in low income and underserved populations.
6. How do you build leadership capacity in an SME?
Allowing all team members to participate in group decision making regarding the activities and management of the nonprofit organization.
7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader of an SME so far?
That a low income person from an underserved community kept on being refused services or attention persevered to accomplish her goals.