Vincent Cordero, '99: Latino Media Leader Directs Expertise toward Community Service
Vincent Cordero, ’99, is the chief operating officer of HBO Latin America. After graduating from the Law School, he began his media career with Univision, becoming one of the youngest general managers in Chicago television history, and continued at 21st Century Fox in Los Angeles as executive vice president and general manager of Fox Deportes, where he led the network’s ascent to become the number-one-rated Latino sports cable network in the United States.
At Univision, he enacted extensive community-service campaigns, including voter registration and engagement programming with the Chicago Board of Elections, as well as college readiness and access programming and town halls with the Chicago Public Schools. Such efforts earned Cordero recognition by Crain’s Chicago Business as one of the city’s top “40 Under 40.” Broadcasting and Cable recognized Cordero as one of the “Next Wave of Leaders,” describing Univision under his leadership as “a lifeline for the Chicago Latino community.” At Fox, he launched college access town halls and a PSA campaign with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund that aired across the country on the 21st Century Fox networks. The National Association of Multi-Ethnicity in Communications recognized Cordero as a “Next Generation Leader” and awarded him its Corporate Diversity Leadership Award.
Cordero was raised in south Los Angeles, by three women to whom he says he “owes everything”—his mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. He shares: “Growing up in my neighborhood was not easy. But as Nietzsche said, ‘What doesn’t destroy you makes you stronger.’ I knew I was an agent of my own destiny, that I would dream big and commit myself to make a difference in the world.”
The first in his family to attend college, he graduated magna cum laude from UCLA with a triple major in philosophy, political science, and Chicano studies.
While interning for California congressman Xavier Becerra during his second summer at the Law School, Cordero met Henry Cisneros, the former San Antonio mayor and former HUD secretary who was then Univision’s COO and president. Cordero had an epiphany: “Ideas shape the world. Media shapes ideas. Therefore, media shapes the world.” Ultimately, Cordero interviewed with Cisneros and industry legend Jerry Perenchio, who was then Univision’s CEO and chairman.
After graduating from the Law School, Cordero began at Univision as an executive trainee in Los Angeles and assumed the role of vice president and general manager of the Chicago television station duopoly just five years later. Under his leadership, the channel received nearly 40 Emmy nominations, and its nightly Spanish-language news program became Chicago’s number-one-rated news show in any language. At Fox Deportes, Cordero’s team launched what would become the number-one-rated Latino sports news show in the United States; expanded the portfolio of live event content, including the NFL, UFC, Golden Boy Boxing, and NASCAR; and made television history by being the first US Spanish-language network to air the NFL Super Bowl live.
“I fell in love with Chicago the first day I came to visit the Law School as a prospective student,” Cordero says. “I was thrilled to return in my professional career and contribute to the life of such a great city.” He attributes his professional success to his mentors, colleagues, and Law School training: “I believe we are all called to be our best, and everyone at the Law School, faculty and students, propelled me in that direction. When you graduate, you know you have been taught and tested by some of the best minds in the world—not to mention US President Barack Obama, who was a professor. You are equipped to succeed and realize your dreams.”
At HBO Latin America, his team’s accomplishments include increasing advertising sales by record amounts and implementing the technological underpinnings of the new standalone HBO GO online subscription service that the company is introducing throughout Latin America.
“Media is the ever-evolving business of creative story sharing. It inspires and informs the imagination,” he says. “The transformative opportunities are limitless. I am eternally grateful to Chicago and the Law School for empowering me to achieve my dreams and make a difference.”