1. LOS ANGELES⚫133.11.2016
LGBT Business Series
>BUSINESS FOCUS
NEW
Mark Morales energizes LA’s
LGBT business social network
⚫ BYT.S.LEONARD & DAVID EHRENSTEIN
M
ark Morales, recently appoint-
ed President of the Los Ange-
les Gay and Lesbian Chamber
of Commerce, wears a lot of hats. It’s a
good look for the leader of the Cham-
ber he’s steering, because members of
the LAGLCC—minority business own-
ers—are, by nature, varied hat wearers
themselves. To be an entrepreneur of
any stripe requires a near-athletic de-
gree of versatility; to do it as an unsup-
ported minority can present an even
greater, and often lonelier, challenge.
But using identity and diversity to a
financial advantage is Mark Morales’
specialty. As the Vice President of the
SBA division of HomeStreet Bank, he
has spent nearly 20 years consulting
financing with small businesses. He is
an appointed member of the Califor-
nia Department of Insurance diversity
task force. He pitches in to help hus-
band Michael Mirch run their Asian
antique importer, Charles Jacobsen.
His many varied professional capaci-
ties provide plenty of a-ha moments for
Morales about best business practices,
informing the seasoned and assertive
leadership he brings to the Chamber.
“We have very specific goals,” Morales
says. “We plan on growing the Cham-
ber by 20 percent. We are trying to cer-
tify everyone within our membership
that would benefit from it.”
That certification process is key. The
LA Chamber is one local contingent
that works within the much-larger Na-
tional Gay and Lesbian Chamber of
Commerce. The nationwide organiza-
tion has its own certification status.
Morales has a vision of working de-
liberately to interconnect businesses
within the LA area that will ultimately
draw lines across a national playing
field.
“Part of our mission is connecting
large companies to the LGBT suppli-
ers,” he explains. “It’s all about rela-
tionships, and those relationships are
created on the local level with [us].”
The usefulness of linking large cor-
porations to LGBT suppliers was an-
other one of Morales’ a-ha moments,
from his experiences attending big
business events as a representative
of the Diversity Task Force. His work
with the California Department of In-
surance has been a continuing inspi-
ration for rallying action amongst the
Chamber.
“The first year I attended the [Cal-
ifornia Department of Insurance’s]
Diversity Summit, there were three
LGBT businesses represented there,”
Morales explains, excitedly. “The fol-
lowing year in Sacramento, there were
22. Fully a quarter of the audience
were LGBT businesses, and most of
them were from Southern California,
trained by me to be in those seats in
front of those insurance companies. A
700 percent increase. All it took was
one person talking about it for a year.”
Meeting Mark Morales, it’s no sur-
prise he could drum up such support
by simple word-of-mouth. Morales is
a talker, but a quick one, an efficient
one. It’s no surprise, given his busy
professional calendar, that the word
“hyperactive” comes to mind. He net-
works with seamless agility, able to
caption one businesses’ operation to
another in seconds, and determine
how the two could help one another in
just a few more.
This social character has seeped
down through the ranks of the LAGL-
CC. At a recent networking event on
the Sunset Strip, there were suited at-
torneys dishing furniture trends with
interior designers. Publicists were
talking politics with small non-profit
leaders. Like any networking event,
there were plenty of handshakes and
elevator pitches floating around the
bar. But the LAGLCC feels unique for
its internally plural character.
The directory of registered business-
es boasts a wide array of diversity with-
in the community. There are recogniz-
able names that run the gamut from
Fresh Brothers to Morgan Stanley.
And in between pizza and finance,
there are delegates from real estate to
restaurants to major media outlets.
Brought together by their common mi-
nority identity, this rag-tag roundup of
businesses big and small builds a col-
lective community of support.
“As much as I’d like to say it’s what
you know,” Morales explains, “it’s who
you know—connecting—and the rela-
tionships you create.”
The ever-multiplying membership of
the Chamber is remarkable. When the
organization began in 1979, as the Val-
ley Business Association, it was only a
handful of entrepreneurs, rallying to-
gether in reaction to the just-defeated
Proposition 6—the proposed statewide
ban on gays and lesbians working in
California public schools. Long gone
are the days that business owned by
and catering to the LGBT community
feel the need to present their allegianc-
es carefully. For the Chamber today,
the point is visibility.
“Acknowledging that the LGBT com-
munity is a viable consumer base is
just good business sense,” Morales
says. And in his professional opinion,
considering that identity internally is
just good business practice.
“It’s like this: here’s a list of 300
large corporations,” Morales explains.
“Do you do business with any of these
companies? Good! Then it benefits you
to get certified, because that opens the
doors to do business with the others.”
In its almost 40-year history, the
LAGLCC has helped open many doors
in the Southern California business
world. Going forward, Morales is pal-
pably giddy to see how that effect can
be multiplied as it is applied across
LGBT businesses and suppliers. His
energy has been infectious, and the
future of the Chamber seems assured
to be a proactive, and possibly, hyper-
active, one.
MARK MORALES, PRESIDENT OF THE LOS ANGELES GAYAND LESBIAN CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE, PHOTO COURTESY LAGLCC
T
The LosAngeles Gay
and Lesbian Chamber of
Commerce opens many
doors in the Southern
California business world