Ramon Leon, Founder and Executive Director        León was born and raised in Mexico City and came to the United States in 1987. He has been an entrepreneur since a young age, and has owned and run several businesses since he arrived in the United States. As the founding board president of the Mercado Central Cooperative, a successful business center in Minneaplis with 47 businneses, he and with other leaders initiated the economic forums that lead to the creation of Plaza Latina in St. Paul. Ramon has served as a board member of numerous organizations advocating for the interests of immigrants and has been involved on social justice issues for many years.

Alvaro Rivera, Business Consultant

Alvaro has been recently hired as a business consultant and comes to the organization with a vast experience on loan packaging and business planning. He holds a BS in Agriculture from the National University of his native Colombia.  He also has experience in non-profit and government programs management and he was the director of the new immigrant agriculture project with the MN Food Association, a position that he held until he started with LEDC in January 2007.

contact me at: alvaro@ledc-mn.org

Daniel Bonilla, Business Consultant and Programs Coordinator

Daniel is one of the newest faces at the organization. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social and Economic Planning at the UNA in Costa Rica. Daniel has experience creating developmental community plans for the government of Costa Rica. He also worked for UNIR, which is a non-profit organization that provides community organization services and technical assistance to low income communities so that they may have the opportunity for a better quality of life. In addition, Daniel worked for MR Associates consulting for Human Resources and Organizational changes related to quality in services and internal communication improvements to various organizations, businesses, and churches in Costa Rica, Guatemala and the United States. Lastly, Daniel has experience writing books and public speaking on both a radio talk show and television program.

contact me at: daniel@ledc-mn.org

Edgar Alfonzo, Latino Scholarship Fund Director

Edgar is a Venezuelan lawyer who graduated in 1993 from The University of Catolica Andres Bello with a Master in Arts of Management received in 2006 from Hamline University. Currently, Edgar Alfonzo is pursuing a doctorate in education at Hamline University. Recently, Edgar has been hired by LEDC as Latino Scholarship Fund Program Director.  Edgar has been working with education almost since his college graduation. He truly believes in education as a way to produce positive changes in individuals and he decided to become an active agent of those changes in our community. Edgar believes that this program will give him important tools that will allow him to be apart of the group of people which is fighting every day to provide more and better opportunities for Latino youth.

contact me at: edgar@ledc-mn.org

Ingrid Schubert Johnson, Receptionist

 Ingrid came to LEDC with 5 years of administrative experience that she acquired in her native Mexico working for the government of the state of Oaxaca. She has a BA in Business Administration from the Technological Institute of Oaxaca. She moved to Minnesota in 2004 with her husband, and worked for a 27 year-old, Hispanic radio station in Minnesota, performing duties of administrative nature. She started working for LEDC in July 2007, and has already made plans to make her contributions to the organization and the community we serve.

contact me at: ingrid@ledc-mn.org

John Flory, Special Projects Director

John has more than twenty years of experience in micro-lending and small business development support, and played a lead role in developing two business incubators, including the Mercado Central.  John received a Bachelor in History from Manchester College, Indiana in 1969 and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas in 1988.  John managed cooperative grocery stores for seven years before coming to work full-time at LEDC. John also owns North Country Fair Trade, an international for-profit business that connects Latin American laborers with North American consumers.  John is a Caucasian and United States citizen who grew up in Ecuador and is fluent in Spanish.

contact me at: john@ledc-mn.org

Mónica Romero, Business Consultant

Mónica came to Minneapolis from Colombia 12 years ago. Mónica provided business assistance for almost 4 years while at WomenVenture, prior to her hire at LEDC. Mónica has associate and professional business degrees from Colombia and a Master in Business Administration from Metropolitan State University in Minnesota.  On her cultural side Mónica co-founded a Colombian folkloric dance group and used to be one of the group’s dancers. Also, for 4 years she was the choreographer for a group of kids ranging from 7 to 12th grades performing Latin American dances, these kids are part of PLAC (Parents of Latin American Children).  She owns a small importing business called Artesanías Macondo, selling hand-made crafts from Colombia a few times a year at special events such as the Festival of Nations.

contact me at: monica@ledc-mn.org