The 30th Hispanic Business Person of the Year is a manufacturing manager at Gleason Works who spends much of his free time volunteering, including serving as president of the Puerto Rican Festival.
Orlando Ortiz received the award today (Tuesday) at the Rochester Hispanic Business Association’s annual gala.
Ortiz says he started volunteering as a teenager, and it has led to developing good networks and relationships with a wide variety of people.
"You’re never too young to start volunteering in any capacity, and just to kind of get that mindset of you know, I should be giving back to the community, because other folks in the community may not have role models that they can look up to," he said. "I’m happy to see folks that are younger than me and sometimes older than me look up to me and ask me for advice on different things, whereas if I hadn’t taken that step myself, I would have missed out on that opportunity to help others."
Ortiz says being recognized as Hispanic Businessperson of the year is an amazing honor.
The Hispanic Business Person of the Year award recognizes someone who has enhanced the local community or economy with positive contributions.