Honoring heritage months within the workplace is one of the many ways to elevate perspectives and experiences of historically underrepresented and marginalized people. At Spin, we highlight the voices of our staff in celebration of Hispanic + Latin Heritage Month, starting with our Vice President of People, Jeffrey Alvarez (él/he/him).

Jeff joined Spin in February during a critical time of rapid and massive growth. In his short tenure, we tripled our workforce, re-introduced e-bikes, and helped expand to over 30 additional partnering cities before the Fall.

Jeff identifies as an out gay Latino Mexican-American man—and this is powerful especially when less than 20 percent of People leaders identify as Latino or LGBTQ+ in 2020. We understand that Jeff serves in a position where many people of Hispanic or Latin heritage can see themselves. Representation in workplace leadership has many benefits, including attracting diverse talent and providing an inspirational roadmap for their career trajectory.

It is equally important that we share our Spin employees who triumphed during our rapid period of growth under Jeff's leadership.

Mario Ayar (él/he/him) - Operations Lead, Market Management, San Francisco

Mario stepped up as a leader in one of our oldest markets. As a newcomer in May, Mario navigated effectively during an ambiguous, high-growth time. His leadership meant other managers can prioritize strategic expansion as Mario directly managed the day-to-day of the San Francisco warehouse.

He trained, delegated, and reviewed processes for an employee base that grew 300 percent within months. Our success in new markets such as Oakland, San Jose, and Emeryville, along with an increase in revenue in San Francisco by more than $600,000 was all possible because of Spin’s value in action: defaulting to trust in Mario’s skills and performance.

Agnes Tejeda (ella/she/her) - People Operations Specialist

Agnes Tejeda did the unthinkable at a time when Spin tripled in headcount across the country. Agnes processed nearly all new employees on her own—ensuring employees are registered in our HR Information System, paid on schedule, and filed for health insurance. This was a tough goal considering the hundreds of employees required processing a week.

Agnes also created an internal system alerting the Talent, IT, and People Operations teams to support a streamlined onboarding process. This included technology shipment, updated union status, and state tax information regardless of their location—a crucial development in a fast-growing period. ‍

Lauren Greenwood (ella/she/her) - Government Partnership Manager, West‍

Lauren started this year as part of an all women of color Policy Team. Part of Lauren’s charge is to solidify Spin’s partnership with new cities. Lauren’s manager, Alex April, had the following to share about her progress:‍

“Lauren has been working closely with Northern California, Oregon, and Washington markets to successfully pass laws in favor of Spin, aligning closely with company values to create long-term programs and relationships.

Her background and solution oriented mentality has led to creative and innovative ways to work externally with our markets and local organizations and internally with other teams.” ‍

Lauren's efforts are a testament to Spin being a workplace that makes us proud.

Jeff, Mario, Agnes, and Lauren are a handful of voices in our growing Spin team. And, we have much work to do to increase representation of professionals of Latin and Hispanic descent, as well as the accessibility of our products to Hispanic and Latin communities across the United States. This is an endeavor that we are working towards, but slowly seeing progress in our mission to embrace diversity and doing the right thing.