JESSE TORRES

PRINCIPAL & FOUNDER, ARROYOWEST LLC

CO-FOUNDER, SMALL BUSINESS FRONT INC.

Jesse.Torres@arroyowest.com‍ ‍Jesse@smallbusinessfront.com

Jesse Torres is founder and managing partner of ArroyoWest LLC, a strategic consulting and communications firm advising economic development agencies, community colleges, state departments, municipalities, corporations, and nonprofits nationwide. Projects span standing up municipal disaster relief programs, orchestrating generative AI transformations for state agencies, and designing statewide and regional workforce and small business development strategies. Headquartered in Los Angeles County, ArroyoWest also maintains offices in San Diego, Bay Area, and Illinois.

Previously, Jesse served as California’s Small Business Advocate and Deputy Director of Small Business and Innovation at the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO Biz). In that role he secured $108 million in state General Fund appropriations - now permanent - to expand small business technical assistance and advanced legislation that strengthened the advocate’s authority in disaster recovery.

His GO Biz portfolio included stewardship of the Innovation Hub (iHub) Network; CASCADE, the state’s defense supplier diversification and cyber resiliency initiative; the California Cybersecurity IT Health Advisory Board; and the California Cyber Innovation Challenge. He also directed small business recovery operations following the 2017 Northern California firestorm and the Thomas Fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.

Earlier in his career, Jesse led the Los Angeles Regional Small Business Development Center Network and served as Director of Alumni Affairs at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business. He serves on the boards of Union Station Homeless Services, the California Coalition for Public Higher Education, CAMEO Network, and is the Chair of the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce. Jesse earned an MBA from Pepperdine University and a B.A. in psychology from UCLA.