Lupe Martinez, the longtime leader of Milwaukee-based social service agency
UMOS, will sell step into an emeritus role with the organization after nearly 50 years as its leader.
In an announcement, UMOS said Martinez, who has served the organization for 54 years – 49 of them as president and chief executive officer – will assume the newly created role of president emeritus on Jan. 1.
“In my request to the UMOS board to step back from day-to-day management of the organization, I was honored with the title of president emeritus. This affords me the opportunity to continue to be of service to UMOS and focus on long-range planning, building, maintaining, and enhancing strategic partnerships, securing funding for the agency, overseeing government and legislative affairs, and assisting the board with the transition of a successor CEO,” Martinez said in a statement.
Founded in 1965 as United Migrant Opportunity Services as an agency focused on serving the often-Hispanic migrant families serving as seasonal workers on Wisconsin farms, UMOS has grown over the past six decades to assist people of all ethnic, racial, and linguistic backgrounds who struggle to meet their needs and dream of a better life for themselves and their families. Today, UMOS serves thousands of families every day across Wisconsin, Texas, Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Florida, and Minnesota.
Martinez was among those early leaders with UMOS, who helped to grow the Milwaukee-based organization from a small, single state, single focused organization, into the largest Hispanic-managed non-profit in Wisconsin and one of the largest, multi-state non-profit corporations in the country.
“We are delighted that Lupe will remain a member of the UMOS family and continue in his new role to help UMOS grow and prosper,” said Ben Obregon, chair of UMOS Board of Directors.
The UMOS Board Personnel Committee, in conjunction with an executive search firm, will begin an internal and external search for a successor CEO to lead UMOS into the future.
While that search takes place,
Jose Martinez, the organization’s chief operating offer, will serve as interim CEO. Jose Martinez has been with UMOS for over 27 years and is not related to Lupe Martinez.
Growth and service
A former migrant worker himself, Lupe Martinez was appointed executive director of UMOS in 1974, when UMOS was a migrant farmworker serving agency only.
In the years that have past he positioned the organization as a performance-based, data driven, customer focused corporation, the nonprofit said.
The outgoing CEO currently oversees the operations of more than 50 programs, often competing against larger, Fortune 500 corporations.
At the national level, Lupe Martinez serves as the chairperson of the National Farmworker Alliance, comprised of 23 CEOs of national and regional farmworker trade associations and organizations. He also sits on the board of Farmworker Justice, a national non-profit that collaborates closely with federal elected officials on immigration reform and other federal legislation that impacts agricultural workers.
At the state level, former Gov. Jim Doyle appointed Martinez to sit on the Wisconsin Council on Migrant Labor, a statutory council that enforces the state’s migrant labor laws. He was reappointed to that post by former Gov. Scott Walker, and recently served as chair of the council under Gov. Tony Evers.
Locally, he serves on the Mexican Fiesta and Employ Milwaukee Workforce Investment board.
Numerous rewards he has received over the years include, the Green Bay Packers Foundation’s Hispanic Heritage Leadership Award, the Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee (HPGM) Lifetime Achievement Award, and the BizTimes Media Nonprofit Executive of the Year award.
“Although my role may change, my commitment to UMOS and those we serve has not and will not,” Martinez said. “I am honored to have played a role in the growth and success of UMOS and I look forward to continuing this effort by working closely with the UMOS board and the new CEO, as well as with our strategic partners, funding sources, elected officials, and leaders in the communities where UMOS serves.”
