2026 San Gabriel Valley Economic Forecast
March 26, 2026
8:30 am - 11:30 am
Check-In, Networking, & Breakfast: 8:00 am - 8:30 am
Business leaders from across Los Angeles County will come together for an up-to-the-minute discussion of where the economy is headed.
This event is co-organized with Cal Poly Pomona.
Sponsorship opportunities available! Click here for details.
Location
Diamond Bar Center
1600 Grand Ave
Diamond Bar CA 91765
We sincerely thank the City of Diamond Bar for their generous support in helping this event to take place at their elegant venue!
Sponsors
We thank our generous sponsors!
Leadership Sponsors
- City of Industry
- LA County Sanitation Districts
- San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority
- Southern California Edison
- Upper Water
Silver Sponsors
Sponsorships
Sponsorship opportunities available!
Presenting Sponsor
- $7,500 (Only one available)
Gold Sponsor
- $3,500
Silver Sponsor
- $2,000
Full-Page Ad
- $500
Individual Tickets
- Members: $100
- Non-Members: $175
Speakers
Ambassador Carlos González Gutiérrez
Consul General of Mexico in Los Angeles
As of February 26, 2024, Ambassador Carlos González serves as Consul General of Mexico in Los Angeles. He was ratified to this role unanimously by the Mexican Senate in December 2023.
As a career diplomat since 1987, he has specialized in the Mexican communities in the United States, the country where he has served in all of his appointments outside of Mexico. In the late nineties, he served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico City, in the Program for Mexican Communities Abroad, and in 2003 he became the first Executive Director of the Institute of Mexicans Abroad (IME), an agency responsible for strengthening ties and collaboration between Mexico and its diaspora.
He has had five assignments abroad. Early in his career, he was Consul for Community Affairs at the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles. Later, from 1999 to 2003, he was appointed Counselor for Latino Affairs at the Embassy of Mexico in Washington D.C. In 2009, Amb. Carlos González was appointed as Consul General of Mexico in Sacramento, where, in addition to his regular activities, he was in charge of monitoring public policies implemented in the state that could affect Mexico or Mexican communities in California. After six years in Sacramento, Ambassador Gonzalez was transferred to the capital of Texas, serving as Consul General of Mexico in Austin, once again being responsible for monitoring state public policies, as well as providing the traditional general services of a Consulate General, such as documentation, protection, and community development. In September 2011, the President of Mexico conferred him the rank of Ambassador. In 2019, he began his duties as Consul General in San Diego, California, where he served until the end of February 2024.
He holds a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from El Colegio de México and a Master's degree in International Relations from the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California (USC).
He is the author of several publications on the Mexican population in the United States.
The Ambassador is married to Alina, and they have two daughters: Marina and Camila.
Dr. Peng Jing
Counselor
Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles
Counselor Peng Jing, PhD, of the Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles, is responsible for promoting trade and investment between the consular district in the U.S. and China, advancing local cooperation. She has long focused on international trade and investment policy, with in-depth research on global supply chains, and possesses extensive experience in bilateral and multilateral economic and trade cooperation.
Sameer Ahmed
Consul & Trade Commissioner
Consulate General of Canada in Los Angeles
Photo and bio coming soon.
Lupe Valdez
Senior Director, Public Affairs
Union Pacific Railroad
Lupe Valdez joined the Union Pacific as the Director of Public Affairs in July of 2005. She serves the Los Angeles Basin, which includes Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara and Imperial Counties as well as Arizona and Southern Nevada.
Her responsibilities include working with local elected officials and community groups as well as dealing with environmental policy.
She grew up in Northeast Los Angeles and attended local schools. She continued her education at the University of Southern California where she earned both a B.A. degree and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.
Prior to joining the Union Pacific, she worked for Southern California Regional Rail Authority- (Metrolink) in Los Angeles and served as a Deputy Executive Officer for the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) in Diamond Bar. She began her professional career at the Southern California Rapid Transit District (RTD) and continued her transportation work with Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (LACTC) and MTA, now known as Metro.
Lupe currently serves as Board Member for the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership, the San Gabriel Valley Public Affairs Network Executive Board, the Commerce Business Council, the Inland Empire Economic Partnership Executive Board, and the Arizona State Chamber of Commerce.
Economic Forecast
Dr. Anthony W. Orlando
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Anthony W. Orlando is an Associate Professor of Finance, Real Estate, & Law at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where he holds the title of Singelyn Fellow of Analytics in the College of Business Administration. He serves on the Public Finance Authority Board for the La Verne Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District. He is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of Los Angeles.
Dr. Orlando teaches and conducts research at the intersection of finance, real estate, and public policy. He has published over a dozen peer-reviewed articles in top economics and finance journals, including the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Energy Economics, Real Estate Economics, and the Journal of Real Estate Finance & Economics.
Dr. Orlando received a Bachelor’s in economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a Master’s in economic history from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a PhD in public policy and management from the University of Southern California.
Dr. Gerd Welke
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Gerd Welke is Professor of Real Estate Analytics in the College of Business at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. His academic research interests cover the real estate capital markets, housing market efficiency, and housing policy, and he teaches classes in real estate, finance, and business analytics at the undergraduate and graduate levels. As executive director of the Real Estate Research Council, he is responsible for the long-running SoCal and NorCal Real Estate Research Council quarterly housing and construction reports. Gerd is a member of the board of directors of the National Housing Law Project and the advisory board of the Real Estate and Land Use Institute. He has consulted extensively in industry and for startups on a wide range of topics such as derivatives valuation, as a real estate capital markets expert witness, on Merton default models for real estate assets, and general insurance pricing.
Dr Welke graduated from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley with a Ph.D. in Real estate finance. In a prior incarnation, he was a physicist, using BBGKY hierarchies to study transport properties of nuclear matter and deconfined hadronic plasmas.
2025 Report and Slide Deck
Click here to download: