Junior Achievement names 2004 Laredo Business Hall of Fame Laureates

 

Junior Achievement of Laredo has named Nancy de Anda and her husband, the late Juvencio de Anda, Ray Keck III, and J. Jorge Verduzco Laredo Business Hall of Fame Laureates for 2004. Now in its tenth year, the Laredo Business Hall of Fame recognizes business leaders for vision and innovation, inspiring leadership, and community service. The Laureates will be inducted into the Business Hall of Fame May 13 at a dinner at the Laredo Country Club.

Mainstays of civic and community service, Nancy and the late Juvencio de Anda have likewise taken high profiles in the business community as owners and operators of Juvencio's Men's Wear and Gateway Cleaners, businesses they established in 1975.

Nancy, a native of Prince William County , Manassas , Virginia , is a graduate of Radford College/Virginia Poly Institute. She serves on the board of United Day School and has served on the advisory board at Mercy Regional Medical Center , the Laredo Regional Food Bank, and the Laredo Webb County Food Bank. She was named MDA Humanitarian of the Year in 1997 along with Juvencio. As a longtime member of the Women's City Club, she initiated the "Coats for Kids" program through a partnership between WCC and Gateway Cleaners. She has served the WCC as its president, treasurer, and director.

A veteran of World War II in the Army Air Corps, Juvencio De Anda served in the European theatre. He was a member of the Air Force Reserves and also served for a year in Korea . He completed his high school degree in the service and later attended Laredo Junior College . His career in retailing began at Guajardo Drug and later at clothier Joe Brand. De Anda opened his own store downtown, Sande Casual Wear, with partner Rudy Santos.

De Anda was a lifetime member of the Optimist Club and a former member of the International Good Neighbor Council. He was the only U.S. Citizen to hold membership in the Sembreadores de Amistad in Nuevo Laredo .

Lifetime educator Dr. Ray Marvin Keck III, president of Texas A&M International University , holds a Ph.D. in romance languages from Princeton University . The La Salle County native has taught high school and college level Spanish and has also worked in international banking. He taught Spanish at Laredo State University from 1989 until 1993 and served as chair of the TAMIU Department of Language, Literature, and Arts from 1994 until 1999. He served as provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at TAMIU from 1999 until his 2001 appointment as president of the University.

Dr. Keck has served on the Council of Chief Academic Officers of Public Universities of Texas, the Council of Chief Academic Officers, Texas A&M University System, the Chancellor's Council on Distance Learning, the Council of School Executives for Regents' Initiative for Excellence in Education, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Committee for Field of Study, and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Committee for Transfer - Colleges and Universities, and the Board of Directors of the Texas Council for the Humanities. He has published extensively in the academic field and is working on a full-scale biography in English of Lope de Vega.

Dr Keck is a founding member of the Laredo Philharmonic Orchestra and a member of the Laredo Rotary Club.

Banker Jorge Verduzco began his career in international enterprise in the Latin American and Administrative Bureaus of the U.S. Department of State. Verduzco's wide-ranging background includes Central American and Caribbean export managing and marketing, as well as international health foundation management. Upon joining the International Bank of Commerce in 1981, Verduzco devoted his energies to international business development, market research, government relations, and marketing and advertising on behalf of IBC-Laredo and International Bancshares Corporation.

A longtime proponent of economic development along the Texas-Mexico border, Verduzco was appointed to serve as chair of the Texas-Mexico Authority Advisory Board and as a member of the Policy Board of the Texas Department of Commerce. He was a founding member of the Border Trade Alliance and the Association of South Texas Communities, which promote economic development along the U.S.-Mexico border and South Texas . Verduzco is a founding board member of the Gateway Trade and Business Alliance and founding director and vice chair of the Alliance for I-69 Texas. He serves as a board member of the Texas Association of Business and Chambers of Commerce and co-chair of the International Trade Committee.

Verduzco earned a B.A. in International Relations at St. Mary's University in San Antonio , and a master's degree in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University in Washington , D.C. He earned a second master's degree with honors from the American Graduate School on International Management in Glendale , Arizona .

Verduzco is the author of International Relations, The Organization of American States. His many local, national, and international awards and civic/charitable directorships and chairmanships range from economic development groups to the United Way and Boy Scouts of America.

All proceeds of the Laredo Business Hall of Fame benefit Junior Achievement's economic education programs in the Laredo area. Junior Achievement is the largest and fastest-growing business and economics education organization in the world. This year Junior Achievement of Laredo will reach more than 10,000 students with the help of more than 500 classroom volunteers.