Emanuel Pleitez

Early life and education

Pleitez was born in South Los Angeles and raised in the Eastside neighborhood of El Sereno. He is the son of Mexican and Salvadoran immigrants, brought up along with his younger sister by their single mother.

He attended Woodrow Wilson High School in El Sereno, where he was elected senior class president and earned 19 varsity letters as well as several academic scholarships. He went on to attend Stanford University.

During his time at Stanford, Pleitez was involved in many student groups, including the Hispanic Undergraduate Business Association, ASSU student government, and Alpha Kappa Psi, a professional business fraternity. He also took time off from school to work in the political field; he served as a field organizer on John Kerry's presidential campaign, as well as the special assistant to then-councilman Antonio Villaraigosa during the councilman’s 2005 mayoral race.

While at Stanford, Pleitez was honored with the Jerry I. Porras visionary leadership award and the Cecilia and Tony Burciaga community development award. He graduated from Stanford with a B.A. in urban studies in 2006.

Career

Beginning in 2007, Pleitez worked as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs. He left Goldman Sachs when President Barack Obama was elected in 2008, after being selected to serve as a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team. He worked specifically on Treasury Department agency review. Following the presidential transition, Pleitez ran for Congressional Representative of the 32nd District of California against Gil Cedillo and Judy Chu.

After the congressional campaign (which ended in May 2009), Pleitez was appointed to the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) as special assistant to chairman Paul Volcker. There, he "delivered recommendations to President Obama on workforce development, tax reform, financial regulatory reform, infrastructure financing, and residential retrofitting."

In August 2010, Pleitez left his government job to work as a management consultant in the Los Angeles office of McKinsey and Company. He left McKinsey and Company in February 2012 to accept his current position of chief strategy officer of Spokeo, a privately held tech company based in Pasadena.

Non-profit work

Emanuel Pleitez has been involved in many charitable and non-profit projects. While in school at Stanford he was the program coordinator for El Centro Chicano. From April 2006 – January 2007 he served as a leadership network developer at the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. He currently serves as the chair of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation's LOFT Institute. In 2008 he became the board of directors' chair for the Salvadoran American Leadership and Educational Fund (SALEF), a position he still retains. In 2009 he volunteered as a Development Assistant with the United Farm Workers.

In 2011 Pleitez founded Inspira, a web series featuring inspirational stories of Latino leaders. He currently serves as the executive producer and host alongside Gabriela Fresquez. He also serves as an advisor to various non-profits, including the New Leaders Council, No Labels, and the Woodrow Wilson High School Alumni Foundation. In 2013, he joined California Children's Academy and sits on their board of directors.

2013 Los Angeles mayoral candidacy

Pleitez announced his mayoral candidacy early in July 2012. He cites a “void in the field of candidates” as well as a desire to “inspire and reenergize LA” and to ”represent those voices asking for integrity, hard work, and fair representation of all Angelenos” as some of his reasons for running.

Pleitez was one of two Latino candidates running for mayor of Los Angeles, and said that he planned on running a competitive and unconventional campaign. On January 3, 2013, Pleitez qualified for City of Los Angeles matching campaign funds, by raising $150,000 in qualifying campaign contributions prior to December 31, 2012.

Pleitez failed to make the runoff, placing fifth with only 4% of the vote.

Personal

Emanuel met his wife Rebecca in Washington, D.C. and was married in 2011.