As a prominent figure in the business world, Sol Trujillo has made it his life’s mission to bring awareness to the power of Latinos living in the United States.
Born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Trujillo’s early life was shaped by his parents, who instilled in him a deep sense of pride for his Mexican heritage, despite the lack of diversity in his hometown.
His father always made sure people pronounced their last name correctly, and even had a mariachi band, in which Trujillo played trumpet.
It’s this sense of self that drove Trujillo to accomplish his highest goals.
“I learned the value of work so that you have self-worth,” he said. “You create your own self-worth. It’s not that somebody grants you anything.”
In the latest episode of “LA Stories with Giselle Fernandez,” Trujillo opens up about his rise in career. He gained national attention when he became the youngest executive at AT&T and later, as the first U.S.-born Hispanic to run a Fortune 150 company when he became president and CEO of U.S. West.
He later took the helm at Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications and media company, where he helped to drive innovations and expand the company’s global footprint.
Wherever he went, he emphasized the importance of investing in the Latino cohort.
“Those of us that grow up bicultural, your lens is wider,” he said. “So you listen better, you see better because you’re sensitive to other views.”
Today, Trujillo is chairman of Trujillo Group Investments and founder of L’ATITTUDE, which, with a focus on U.S. Latinos, works to bring together top executives and innovators from across business, media, politics, and technology to foster economic growth.
He is committed to investing in Latino and Latina-owned businesses and encourages others to do the same, as he highlights the fact that the U.S. Latino economic output has grown to $3.6 trillion. Latino economic output has grown to $3.6 trillion.
To Trujillo, the proof is in the data.
“The power of our country has been this immigrant innovation, the DNA that we have about always looking for new and evolving,” he said. “We have something very pristine and very powerful. We’re going to show that the returns are going to be better than anywhere else.”
