Interviewee

Jose Luis Lopez

Interviewer

Ana Palacios

Project

Paso del Norte Entrepreneurship Oral History Project

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee

Jose Luis Lopez was born in El Paso, Texas in 1954. His father was Jose Lopez and his mother is Amelia Lopez. Joe is the oldest and has three brothers and one sister. Joe attended Bel-Air High School and he is a graduate of The University of Texas at El Paso. Joe is the owner of Lopez Marketing Group and is married with children in El Paso, Texas.

Summary of Interview

After graduating from The University of Texas at El Paso in 1975, Joe worked at Safeway groceries and with two advertising agencies. He worked for Coca-Cola selling Minute Maid orange juice as an unpaid worker in order to gain experience in the advertising field. Coca-Cola hired Joe and he began working in New Products bringing new items to local grocery stores. Joe did well and was moved to run a small division within Coca-Cola that allows them to test new products, come up with new names and then work on the selling and distribution of the products. Joe was the first Hispanic in the Coca-Cola Foods Marketing Department and he also worked for the company in Houston, Texas. After working for Coca-Cola for five years, Joe worked for another agency for five years before starting Lopez Advertising in 1989. George Thomas, a local homebuilder was a big client of Lopez Advertising and a friend to Joe. George Thomas also helped Lopez Advertising with their first real office space. Joe’s company also received assistance from The United States Small Business Administration. In the late 1990’s Lopez Advertising closed and in 1998 re-opened as Lopez Marketing Group. Tom Cardenas helped Lopez Marketing Group with their first office as well. Joe is a part of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and he was the first El Pasoan on the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce board. Lopez Marketing Group is minority owned and certified and is 8A certified and received help through the National Minority Development Council. The advice Joe would offer entrepreneurs is to prepare well, make sure you understand where you’re going, know whether the market is there, how you’re going to make profit and make sure you’re very conscious of the growth.

Date of Interview

10-18-2010

Length of Interview

84 minutes

Tape Number

No. 1501

Transcript Number

No. 1501

Length of Transcript

35 pages

Transcriber

GMR Transcription Services

Interview Number

No. 1501

Terms of Use

Unrestricted

Download

Share

COinS