Leadership

ORLANDO SALDAÑA

 Orlando is the president and founder of HTI Strategies. His experience as a business consultant is drawn from doing business consulting and for Senior Positions in the banking sector as Sr. Vice President of Commercial Lending for over 10 years. He worked as a consultant for the University of Houston – Small Business Development Center, as well as a Special Programs instructor and an Adjunct Professor of the University Of Houston System.  He specializes in design, structure, and implementation of business development strategies with businesses that are in the stage of change or in the beginning stages of their inception.  Orlando has successfully helped in the start up and in the strategic growth of numerous small businesses throughout the Greater Houston Area by negotiating over $500 million in loans and equity investments. His performance in the classroom has been commended with excellent reviews while teaching courses in Entrepreneurship, Business Management, and Marketing topics.

Orlando accumulated invaluable experience in large export projects based in Houston, Texas and in Monterrey, Mexico.  He was engaged in exporting Oil & Gas Line Pipe to Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East; his international experience in Mexico Consisted of securing assets during extreme times of economic turmoil.  He managed the assets for large organizations while in traffic throughout underdeveloped countries in Central America and Africa.  He has been in charge of promotion and distribution of consumer and industrial goods and services for an array of companies.  His ability of negotiation in international arenas is extensive and exceeded expectations during most of his interventions.

Orlando has been honored by Nick Lampson, member of Congress, with the “Henry B. Gonzalez Latino Leadership Award,” and he was nominated as a “Financial Advocate of the Year by the SBA”.  He was the recipient of the Man of the Year Award “Minority Small Business Champion of the Year” awarded by the SBA, and received a congressional recognition by Sheila Jackson Lee, Member of Congress. He has been appointed as an expert witness in bankruptcy cases, immigration cases, and has drafted turnaround strategies to release, acquire, or save business while in extreme financial stress from bankruptcy proceedings. He received an SBA Citation from the Houston District SBA office for excellence, and he was also nominated as the number one Regional Sr. Consultant within 7 states.

Orlando has been a member of the advisory board for the U. S. Small Business Administration for the Houston District serving a period of 17 years. He was  a Board member of the Chamber of Latino Entrepreneurs of Houston, The Lone Star Capital Development Corporation, and the Triple Helix, and Ivy League journal for Science and law.

He received The “Texas State Star Performer of the year Award” six times and he has been awarded the Houston District “Highest Impact Champion” covering 22 counties 8 consecutive terms.

Orlando graduated with a Bachelors of Business Administration in Accounting and Tax Law at the Universidad Regiomontana in Monterrey, México.  He holds a Bachelors of Business Administration with a major in Marketing, a Masters of Business Administration with specialization in International Business and Management, as well as a Masters of Interdisciplinary Studies with Post-graduate in Public Administration from Texas A & M University System.

He is a certified instructor in entrepreneurship for youths, NAGGL certified, Certified Global Business Professional (CGBP), Certified Technology Commercialization, and he has earned numerous entrepreneurship certificates attending seminars and workshops in Business Operations, Finance, Marketing, Management, Government Procurement, Small Business Innovation Research, and Technology Transfer Research.