The Power of Collaboration: As Seen Through the Eyes of John Flory

“Collaboration, especially in these times, is so powerful,” says John Flory, Special Projects Director for the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC). For the past 13 years, LEDC has been working to support Latino entrepreneurs throughout Minnesota. Like LEDC, the Hmong American Farmers Association (HAFA) too works to uplift Hmong entrepreneurs. In fact, it was through a meaningful collaboration with LEDC in late 2011 that got HAFA started. Pakou Hang, HAFA’s Executive Director, often says if there wasn’t an LEDC or John Flory, HAFA would never have been created.

Later in 2017, John will be retiring from LEDC, and as an organization that has greatly benefited from his hard work, HAFA would like to celebrate John and his tireless commitment to both HAFA and LEDC.

John likes to joke that he is the token white guys at LEDC and HAFA. Although he was born in the United States (U.S.), John’s first words were actually Chinese (where his family were missionaries for the first three years of his life), and he grew up in Ecuador from the ages of five to 12 years old. John says his personal experiences of growing up in Ecuador, and then returning the U.S. in the late 1950’s and 1960’s, inspired him to work with immigrant communities in the Twin Cities.

John started this career in economic development with the Whittier Neighborhood Development Center in1988. While he was working there, large groups of Latino immigrants started moving into Minneapolis. Because he could speak Spanish and wanted to provide opportunities for small business owners, John helped start the Spanish language entrepreneurial program. In 1999, many graduates of the program went on to launch the Mercado Central–a vibrant, Latino community-gathering place on Lake Street in Minneapolis. The Mercado Central eventually led to the creation of LEDC, and since, LEDC has helped launch over 200 Latino businesses with sales in excess of $50 million.

In 2011, Pakou went to visit her old friend, Ramon Leon, the founder of LEDC. Pakou wanted to start a frozen egg roll business and she knew Ramon and LEDC could help. In between talks about HAACP plans and food labels, Pakou started having conversations with John around entrepreneurship and economic development in the Hmong farming community. John and Pakou discussed how they could leverage resources to assist both Latino and Hmong farmers. Soon John contracted with Pakou to interview Hmong farmers and that eventually led to the formation of HAFA.

In HAFA’s inaugural period, LEDC served as the organization’s fiscal agent. And since then, LEDC and HAFA have continued to work closely together, collaborating whenever possible; and sharing ideas, challenges, and opportunities. In fact, HAFA and LEDC received a $600,000 grant to develop a bicultural and bilingual training program aimed at increasing the farming and business acumen of immigrant farmers. The alliance of these two organizations–run by and serving minority communities– help reinforce each other’s missions and allows them to accomplish more than they could alone. Collaboration is powerful, just as John Flory sees it.