ANTHONY TRUJILLO
Anthony D. Trujillo, president and CEO of HOLMANS USA, believes in making time for the important things in life.
“The time’s there. You’ve just got to budget for it,” he said, adding that one way he finds time for a demanding career and busy volunteer life is by not watching any TV.
Trujillo runs an awardwinning company, has created the HOLMANS Foundation for Autism and established the Anthony D. Trujillo Hispanic Scholarship to support Hispanic high-school students seeking degrees in higher education. Trujillo was the first in his family to earn a four-year degree.
In addition, he is chairman of both the National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation and the Albuquerque Small Business Regulatory Advisory Commission, vice president of the New Mexico Philharmonic board and a member of the Friends of UNM College of Education and the CNM Foundation board.
“I definitely believe in giving back to the community, and I do that in a big way with my time and resources,” Trujillo said.
The autism foundation was
inspired by his daughter, Sophia. “She’s now 14 and she’s very, very bad on the spectrum,” he said. “She inspires me every day to help other families.”
The foundation aims to increase awareness, recognize deserving teachers and provide technology for autismspecific classrooms in public schools –— something Trujillo found is important after discovering that Sophia’s communication skills improved after he gave her an iPad. Trujillo also started and raised money for The Symphony for Autism, a first-of-its-kind private concert for children and parents who are living with autism.
His father and mentor, Tony Trujillo, said his son is committed to the community.
“That’s the way HOLMANS has been, and he’s taken it to another level,” Tony Trujillo said.
Trujillo got his start in the family business at age 14, emptying trash cans, working in the warehouse and then moving up through the ranks. He helped to expand the business, moving to El Paso and then Tempe, Ariz., to set up new offices. Eventually, he bought the business from his father.
“He’s always been a go-getter since he was a young person,” Tony Trujillo said, adding that Mr. Holman hired his son after spotting him selling flowers in the rain on a street corner to earn extra money.
HOLMANS is a national company selling HP and Apple products to federal contractors at the national laboratories. The company’s surveying equipment business now focuses on public safety and includes training to teach investigators and detectives how to use the technology to collect evidence.
“We’re part of that process now,” Trujillo said. “It’s very cool.”