PBN Leaders & Achievers 2024 Awards
Oscar Mejias | Rhode Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce | Executive director
OSCAR MEJIAS BELIEVES in destiny. The proof: His personal story, which has unfolded toward success since he escaped to the U.S. to avoid persecution 21 years ago.
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Working as a computer engineer in the Venezuelan oil and gas industry made him a political target. In 2005, he was granted political asylum and hasn’t been home since.
“When I came to this country, I had jobs in Florida,” Mejias said. “I lost them and destiny told me I shouldn’t be here. I had a brother-in-law in Rhode Island. When I came here in 2006, it was supposed to be temporary.”
Mejias’ career path has zigged and zagged. His first job was servicing vehicles before moving on to fixing computers. Along the way, he started a vocational school for job seekers, then recognized the need for nursing assistants and opened a school for people looking to become certified nursing assistants.
“My basic skill is grabbing opportunity,” he said.
But when he sold the CNA school in 2015 and wanted to open another, he found many roadblocks.
It was a clarifying moment. A year later, Mejias launched the Rhode Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which promotes and supports the local Hispanic business community and its more than 1,000 members. As a Hispanic business owner, Mejias says he’s faced barriers.
“It made me think about entrepreneurship and what happens to people who don’t know how the system works,” he said.
During the Chamber’s first two years, Mejias had to build trust.
“Then COVID-19 gave me a huge opportunity to show members I was working for them. I connected with the government to deliver sanitizers, masks and gloves to them and help with access to grants and [Paycheck Protection Program] loans,” he said. “We also assisted with access to capital and helped connect them with all kinds of assistance.”
By the end of the pandemic, he says membership climbed from 75 to 750. “We never stopped. The Chamber was an information center,” he said.
Mejias says future plans include acquiring the Chamber’s own office building, with shared workspaces for businesses that can’t afford rent.
