Laura Butler Executive Director - Pioneers 21

Laura started her finance career in 2002 with Wells Fargo. She held leadership roles and became the National Small Business Vice President in 2013. As a National SB Leader, she championed small business in El Paso and across the nation. Her role was to build strategies that engaged business owners with business specialists in the $0-$20MM revenue segment. She created financial education programs that helped guide entrepreneurs through the small business journey around the country. Laura has completed several leadership, strategic planning, facilitating, negotiation, sales, human resource, management, lending, and business training academies. April 2021, Butler became Executive Director for Pioneers 21, FKA The Hub of Human Innovation. P21’s mission is to inspire & incubate businesses & entrepreneurs through mentorship, training & connection. Since its founding in 2011 as P21 has helped support more than 170 entrepreneurs and startups. Laura founded the P21 Venture Mentoring Service, licensed by MIT. She is responsible for increasing programing to include pitch competitions, educational workshops, internship programs as well as ensuring that the startups and businesses have an online and e-commerce presence via grant funding. Since her time at P21, Butler has added programs and strategic collaborations to include partnerships with The Borderplex Alliance, City of El Paso, EPCC, The MCA, UTEP and Capital Factory plus various VC entities outside of El Paso. In 2023, Laura received the Woody & Gayle Hunt Fellowship for Aspen Executive Seminar. She is committed to evolving her work with the community and building a better ecosystem with support of the Aspen Institute Latinos And Society (AILAS). Earlier accolades include awards for access to capital from the Minority Business Development Association and the Small Business Administration.