Rosa Santana

Rosa Santana is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Santana Group, a top-tier minority- and woman-owned group of companies whose transformational solutions differentiate industry-leading companies through more efficient, effective, and competitive service. Since its founding in 2002, the Santana Group today includes Integrated Human Capital, Workforce Management Mexico, Diversa, Oveana, and Forma Automotive. Each of these companies was founded to address clients’ specific challenges.

Tapping into her bicultural upbringing as a Mexican immigrant to the United States from the age of 5, Santana has been a driving force within the U.S./Mexico outsourcing industry. Santana’s passion for community and entrepreneurship has inspired her to create thousands of jobs across the United States and Mexico, contributing to the economic prosperity and well- being of the diverse communities in which she does business.

Realizing this passion early in her career at a Fortune 500 Company, Santana made a substantial impact by delivering extraordinary results in response to client challenges. Santana expanded the company’s footprint into Mexico, earning her a senior leadership role as corporate Vice President. Several years later, Santana was offered an executive leadership position at a competing international services company and again successfully established operations in Mexico while continuing to lead their U.S. division.

In 2002, Santana reached a turning point in her career when downsizing presented her with the opportunity to start her own business. She launched Integrated Human Capital (IHC), a staffing company, in El Paso, Texas, and simultaneously opened a cross-border company, Workforce Management, in Cuidad Juárez, Chih., Mexico. Always seeking growth opportunities, Santana set in motion plans to expand into the surrounding metro markets, and three years later, IHC began servicing clients in Austin and San Antonio, Texas.

Over the next ten years, Santana built relationships with numerous companies and successfully delivered human capital solutions as a Tier II supplier to Toyota’s Tier I suppliers at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas.

Santana’s commitment to innovation and a continuous improvement culture drew the attention of Toyota procurement and supplier development leaders, and she was singled out for an opportunity to supply Toyota directly. In 2014, Toyota named Santana and her newly formed Forma Automotive the first Hispanic-, Woman-Owned Direct Tier I Supplier to Toyota, providing fully assembled truck beds for the award-winning Tacoma truck.

Today the Santana Group continues to demonstrate their expertise in developing solutions for their clients’ unique business challenges, resulting not only in the growth of the Santana Group companies but also in the creation of high-quality jobs.

Santana credits her numerous mentors for her success and has completed two Minority Business Executive programs at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University as well as the Advanced Management Education program at the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University.

Utilizing these experiences, Santana has dedicated countless hours to empowering other minority- and women-entrepreneurs through mentoring and service in various organizations that are committed to fostering diversity and inclusion, such as the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), the Latino Business Action Network (LBAN), and the Women’s Business Council Southwest (WBCS).

As a result of her business acumen and dedication to serving her clients and community, Santana has won numerous awards locally, regionally, and nationally, including the 2020 Minority Business Development Agency’s National Distinguished Supplier Diversity Award (the first time in the history of the award that a minority- and woman-owned business was named a recipient) and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award 2019 Central Texas. Additionally, Santana was named to Automotive News’ coveted 2020 list of 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry.