Arnoldo Avalos is a business leader who is passionate about diversity and equity in the workforce, especially for immigrant communities. An immigrant from humble beginnings, Arnoldo understands the power of education as a building block toward equity. Driven by his commitment to equity, Arnoldo and his wife, Alma-Ruth Gutierrez-Avalos, founded the Avalos Foundation in 2012. The foundation provides scholarships to low-income high school students from the Central Valley. Prior to starting the foundation, Arnoldo worked for myriad world-class companies, including Accenture, Cisco Systems, Google, and Facebook.
Arnoldo serves as a National Board Member for Hermanos Unidos, an organization he helped create as student at UC Berkeley. He was also recently appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the California Community College Board of Governors, where he helps oversee 113 community colleges. In 2016, he was honored by President Barack Obama, who awarded him the 2016 Medallion of Excellence for a Distinguished Alumnus of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.
Arnoldo received a degree in history from UC Berkeley, where he graduated with honors and received several other accolades, including the Ida Sproul Award and being named a Woodrow Wilson National Scholar. He received a Master of Public Policy at Harvard University.