Borders crossed. Dreams built.
At one year old, my parents carried me across the Mexican American border with nothing but hope and the clothes on their backs. That leap of faith became my foundation and my fuel.
I grew up the son of farmworkers on an avocado and citrus farm in Southern California, a Mexican immigrant and first generation American learning to navigate two worlds at once. The rows of trees became my first classroom in discipline, resilience and responsibility. Every early morning and every long day in the fields taught me that nothing extraordinary is built without sacrifice.
Today, I am an American CEO. The distance between those two realities, from being carried across a border to leading complex organizations, is measured in grit, education and belief that struggle can become strength.
From farm fields to the CEO seat
I serve as President and CEO of the Los Angeles City Employees Association, LACEA, and its for profit subsidiary, LACEA Insurance Services, Inc., doing business as the Employees Club of California.
LACEA is a nonprofit, mission driven membership association serving 50,000 public employees across California. For nearly a century it has stood beside the people who keep our cities running, the workers who maintain streets, protect neighborhoods, deliver essential services and quietly hold our communities together.
LACEA Insurance Services, Inc., the Employees Club of California, is the association’s for profit arm and official insurance brokerage. Through this platform we partner with Aflac, a Fortune 200 company, to design and deliver supplemental benefits and coverage that protect public servants and their families when life happens.
Only three CEOs have led LACEA in its 98 year history. I am honored to be one of them and to lead both a nonprofit and a for profit subsidiary at the same time. That dual role is rare. Doing it for nearly three decades with a 60 million dollar operating budget and 2 billion dollars in benefits coverage is rarer still.
Impact by the numbers
Numbers never tell the whole story, but they do reveal the scale of a mission.
- 50,000 members served
- 2 billion dollars in coverage managed
- 60 million dollar operating budget led
- 28 years serving the same family of organizations
- Two entities with one unified mission
Behind every one of those numbers is a person, a city worker, a county employee, a state professional and the loved ones who rely on them. My job is to make sure they are seen, celebrated and protected.
What I bring to the work
I do not just bring a résumé to the table. I bring my whole life.
I bring the struggle of a family that risked everything crossing a border. I bring the grit forged in the fields of Pauma Valley. I bring the education earned at world class universities. I bring the heart of someone who knows what it means to feel invisible and who has devoted his career to making sure others are not.
That lived experience shapes how I lead and what I offer:
- Dual nonprofit and for profit CEO leadership
- Association management and membership growth
- Insurance brokerage and Fortune 200 partnership management
- Deep expertise in public sector and government employee benefits
- Employee benefits administration and risk management
- Fiduciary governance and board level stewardship
- An emotionally intelligent, people first strategic vision
In every room I enter, whether a boardroom, city hall, conference stage or classroom, I aim to connect mission, metrics and humanity. Strategy matters. So does soul.
Beyond the corner office
Leadership for me does not end at the office door.
I stay close to the next generation of leaders and to the institutions that shaped me:
- Panel Moderator, Michigan Ross LA Campus, 2026
- Mentor, Latinx MBA Mentorship Program
- Mentor, Michigan Ross Alumni in Residence Program
- Recipient, Michigan Ross G.O.L.D. Alumni Award, 2024
I also remain rooted in the land that raised me as an avocado farmer in Pauma Valley, California. The soil, the trees and the seasons keep me grounded and remind me where it all started.
Faith and family are my compass. Everything else follows.
Education and the power of opportunity
Education transformed the trajectory of my life.
I earned my B.A. in Spanish Literature and Linguistics, with a minor in Business Administration, from the University of Southern California. Years later I completed my Executive M.B.A. at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, an experience that sharpened my strategic lens and expanded my global perspective.
Those classrooms were far from the border crossing my parents made with me in their arms, yet every step in between is connected. That is why I care deeply about mentorship, representation and opening doors for others who come from humble beginnings.
A CEO for mission, metrics and meaning
If you lead an Inc. 5000 company, association or nonprofit, you know that today’s world demands a different kind of leadership. You need someone who can navigate board governance and bottom line performance while still keeping people at the center.
That is where I do my best work.
I understand nonprofit governance and for profit execution. I know how to align mission with financial discipline. I lead with a balance of strategy and heart that comes from living on both sides of opportunity, before and after the door opens.
If your organization needs a CEO, advisor or speaker who can bridge those worlds, who can speak to immigrants and executives, frontline workers and board members, public servants and founders, I am a conversation worth having.
Proud roots, bold future
If my journey resonates with you, I invite you to connect, collaborate or bring this message to your organization or stage so that together we can honor the people who serve and build a future worthy of their work.
My story is rooted in two countries and two cultures.
Proud roots: México and the United States.
Calling: to help others turn struggle into an extraordinary life.
Robert Larios 