North Carolina Team

The Prospera employees and Regional Board volunteer members listed below collaborate to fulfill our mission across the state of
North Carolina.

North Carolina Staff

José David Alvarez

Vice President

Carlos Zepeda

Sr. Small Business Consultant

Leonor Clavijo

Triangle & East Markets Lead

Ana Irene Lanzas

Small Business Consultant

Ana Villafuerte

Small Business Specialist

Antonio “Tony” Lasi

Small Business Consultant

Beatriz Aguayo Moreno

Small Business Specialist

Volunteers

We appreciate the commitment and passionate support of Prospera’s volunteers across our organization and offices. These generous individuals contribute time, talent, treasure, ties, and testimonials to help us deliver services to more clients, support our staff, and serve as representatives of our brand in the community.

North Carolina Regional Board

Raymond Chinn, Bank of America, CHAIR
Rodrick Banks, Wells Fargo
Karen Bardales, Bank of America
Juan Cruz, JuaJua Cleaning
Jaime Cuellar, Northwestern Mutual, TAC Chair
Holly Eskridge, City of Charlotte
Renee Hode, South Piedmont Community College
Andrew Jones, Duke Energy
David Kaiser, NC Rural Center
Simón Muñoz-Alvarez, Wells Fargo, LACCC Chair & Representative
Joaquin Soria, Charlotte Regional Business Alliance

Jose Alvarez’s professional experience and passion for more than two decades have been focused on the multicultural small business and marketing fields. As North Carolina Vice President, Jose manages all statewide operations for Prospera, including service delivery, fundraising, personnel oversight, and community and government relations. He has become a leader and community builder in North Carolina, helping to enhance collaborations and strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem in urban and rural areas alike. Jose began his career in the early 2000s working in a public relations firm, managing bilingual and multicultural public relations campaigns for major local and national organizations in the private, government and nonprofit sectors. He then joined Prospera’s Central Florida team to serve as Business Development and Marketing Specialist, counseling local Hispanic business owners in addition to establishing and managing the organization’s marketing and communications department.

He returned to his native Venezuela for a few years, in one of the largest cultural bi-national centers in Latin America as the Academic Adult Program Coordinator. He managed all adult academic classes, in charge of the academic team, coordinating special cross-cultural programs, and providing ongoing support to the marketing department. After a few years, Jose returned to Prospera to support the organization’s expansion to South Florida. He initially took on the role of Business Development and Education Consultant and was later promoted to Assistant Vice President. He worked with the region’s vice president to establish full-time operations, including providing business consulting to local established and aspiring Hispanic business owners, coordinating all bilingual outreach and business educational seminars in the region, supporting fundraising efforts, handling local government relations, and assisting with grant writing and reporting. In 2017, Jose once again took on a new challenge at Prospera.

As part of a national expansion strategy to provide more Hispanics with culturally sensitive and in-language business support to help increase economic opportunities through entrepreneurship, Prospera opened a new office in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was the first Prospera office outside of Florida, and Jose was recruited to establish and manage it.

Today, Jose oversees Prospera’s six employees in North Carolina, a second office in Raleigh, and periodic service delivery in other areas of the Research Triangle, Wilmington, and Winston-Salem. Jose currently serves on the Board of Directors of NC IDEA and the North Carolina Rural Center, as well as on Provisional Council of the Kauffman Foundations’ Ecosystem Building Leadership Project. Under Jose’s leadership, Prospera was recognized with a 2022 Charlotte Business Journal Inno Fire Blazer Award and as the 2023 Carolina Small Business Development Fund 2023 Referral Partner of the Year.

Jose is a graduate of the University of Central Florida with an Advertising/Public Relations Bachelor’s Degree. He enjoys living in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife Roxssi.