Elizabeth Suárez, a Puerto Rican native, is a results-driven business executive who brings to her company a strong blend of marketing (general and multicultural) knowledge, strategic expertise, and truly engaging and exciting facilitation and group moderations. Prior to entering the entrepreneurial field, Suárez spent more than 15 years in the management ranks across several Fortune 500 companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Cigna International, Pepsi Cola International, American Cyanamid, Qwest Communications, and AT&T Broadband.

In the summer of 2002 she became an entrepreneurial by co-founding Xcelente! Marketing & Advertising (Xcelente), a Denver-based, cross-cultural, full-service marketing and advertising agency that focuses on providing its clients with Hispanic expertise. In December 2005 Suárez sold a majority portion of her ownership in Xcelente to pursue her dream of beginning an organization (Avanza Business Group) that focuses on providing its clients with hands-on training, strategic consultation, ethnic market know-how and facilitation/moderation skills to ensure future business success.

Active in the local community, she served for two years as the president of the NSHMBA Denver Chapter. She has spent years mentoring the Hispanic youth of the area via her association with some local area high schools, and she currently is a board member of the Denver PBS Station KBDI Channel 12, where she chairs both the Latino and marketing committees.

Suárez is the co-president of the Adelante Mujer Board of Directors, an organization that provides training to young Latinas in the Denver Metro Area. She also sits on the board of the Denver Small Business Development Center and the Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and serves as chairwoman of its communications committee.

Suárez was recognized in 2005 as one of the nation’s Top Latinas in the “Business-Entrepreneur” category by Hispanic Magazine, and she named to on the “2004 Top Latinas” list featured in Latina Style Magazine. Recently she was awarded the Women of Achievement Award from the Women in Communication Association, Denver Chapter.