S2E5 - The Biggest Challenges Facing Utah’s Economic Ecosystem, with Silvia Castro

Women in Business Impact Lab (WBIL) Podcast

In this WBIL Podcast episode, Jonathan H. Westover (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanhwestover/) and Angela Schill (https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-s-69b18369/) talk with Silvia Castro about the biggest challenges facing Utah’s economic ecosystem.

Silvia Castro has spent more than 20 years as an executive in non-profit, government and for-profit organizations. Her past experience includes working with other executives and business owners from Fortune 500 companies, the State of Utah, Salt Lake County, and Salt Lake City as well as forward-looking non-profits such as the Suazo Business Center, Utah Microenterprise Loan Fund, the Austin Project, in Austin, TX, and the Goldman Sachs 10K Small Business Program. Her love for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship began in 1999 when she worked as the Assistant Director of the Women’s Business Center of Utah.

Silvia received an International Fellowship through which she completed her MBA with an emphasis in International Business from the University of Utah. She received her bachelor’s degree in International Business from Westminster College, where she graduated with honors. She is certified in Cultural Intelligence through the CII and certified as a Six Sigma Black Belt.

She currently serves on the Federal Reserve’s 12th District Advisory Board and on the Executive Committee of Envision Utah. She is a Senior Advisor to the Kem C Gardner Institute at the University of Utah, on the Board of the Wasatch Front Regional Council’s Economic Development District, and the MOFI Small Business Advisory Board. She Co-Chaired Salt Lake City Mayor Mendenhall’s Economic Development Transition team, served as a Trustee on the Board of Trustees at Salt Lake Community College, the Utah Governor’s COVID Economic Taskforce, and the Governor’s COVID Multicultural Taskforce. Silvia is also the recipient of the 2020 Pathfinder Award from the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, and the 2022 Utah Business Woman of the Year.

Learn more about the WBIL at www.uvu.edu/woodbury/wbil/.