Tom Soto, Founder and Managing Partner
Latimer Partners, LLC
Tom Soto is a long-time investor in the impact sector. Tom was born & raised in East LA County & Pomona, California to two of the state’s most well-respected Latino Civil Rights leaders. His father was Assemblyman Phil Soto, the first Latino elected to the state legislature in 1962. Tom’s mother was Nell Soto, Phil’s campaign manager & the mother of their six children & a longtime advocate in supporting farm worker rights, labor rights and the need for equity for the Latino community. She too was elected to the state legislature a year to the day that she buried her late husband in 1998.
Tom is also a long-time pioneering voice in the diversity in fund management and technology movement. His leadership, voice and investments have stood at the dovetail of energy, Tech, cloud based and IoT efficiency programs and in renewables, and to over many Fourth Industrial Revolution driven platforms where technology contributes to improving the human condition in AI, Fintech, and Blockchain tech. All well challenging LP’s and tech platforms to embrace diversity and inclusion. This ranges from Fintech to electric vehicle technology and policy, to political process and regulatory frameworks needed to promote the new economics driving the planet into a future of prosperity and abundance.
He is former Chairman and longtime board member of the New America Alliance, the national Latino business initiative seeking to increase access to capital for diverse fund managers and business leaders, founder and Vice Chair of the LA Clean Tech Incubator and Trustee of the California Science Center. Having sold his fund Craton Equity Partners to TCW in 2013, Tom became Managing Director of Alternatives at the $198b fund and was an Investment Committee Member of TCW Alternatives. Under his leadership and with a great team, the TCW alternatives platform grew from $300m in AUM to $10.3b in three years. Tom is former member of the board of directors and current Sr. Advisor to Aspiration, the country’s fastest growing online bank and financial services platform, a Senior Advisor to Trndsttrs Media the country’s leading Gen Z social media platform, and Camino Financial which democratizing access to capital to underbanked low income and diverse communities.
Tom has been an advisor to other portfolio companies such as Revolution Foods and Kabbage.com.
Tom is a two-time appointee of President Clinton and was the Team Lead for The Executive Office of the President’s Transition Team for the White House Council on Environmental Quality for former President Obama and is a founding member of the Executive Council for Biden for Clean Energy. He has been a well-embraced opinion leader not just in the environmental movement, but in the environmental technology, impact, and the renewable energy investment sector.