New leadership takes over at AHAA

The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies announced Jose Lopez-Varela as its new leader today.

He takes over for Jackie Bird. According to the release, during Bird's tenure, AHAA:
-- Tipped the 100-member agency mark and revised the strategic initiatives outlined two years earlier by the Board of Directors.
-- Implemented the first annual AHAA salary survey specific to Hispanic marketing agencies;
-- Created a partnership with Simmons Research and conducting qualitative and quantitative research supporting the Latino Identity project
-- Published, with AdAge, a magazine supplement on the Hispanic advertising industry and AHAA
-- Met with legislators to gain support for unbundling government contracts
-- Executed a partnership with Nielsen to analyze what advertisers are spending in the Hispanic market versus the general market and will be releasing the results in May
-- Planned a re-design the AHAA Web site.