Overview
As president and CEO of La Raza Pizza, Gene’s business interests include Pizza Hut restaurants, Marriott hotels, banking, and real estate development. In the past 10 years, these business holdings have been recognized as being in the top 150 largest Hispanic-owned businesses in the country. Gene served three terms as the chairman of the International Pizza Hut Franchise Association board and was recently inducted into the Pizza Hut Franchisee Hall of Fame. He also serves as chair of Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters, Empower, the Pizza Hut Foundation and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, which provides more than $30 million in scholarships annually. Gene is a board member of Work Torch, Hispanics in Real Estate, United Way of the Plains and the University of Kansas Endowment Board of Trustees. He received a master’s degree in Business Administration from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Business of Administration from the University of Kansas.