Upstarter Profile

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Ramon Nieves-Lugo is principal and co-founder of UniComm Media Group, a Greenville-based ad agency dedicated to helping companies market to Hispanic consumers.

Ramon relocated to Upstate South Carolina to attend Bob Jones University, and his family soon followed to take advantage of the quality of life in the area. Upon graduating with an MBA, Ramon saw a need to help businesses communicate more effectively with Hispanic audiences. Being bilingual himself, he could see that companies’ well-intentioned efforts to reach these consumers didn’t quite translate. He and his brother teamed up to start the business in 2010 from their parents’ house. Today, UMG has more than 15 employees and clients across the Upstate region and nationally, as well as internationally in Mexico and Sweden.

Ramon’s work to elevate the Hispanic community extends beyond his business to his efforts to give back. He is an active volunteer and board member for a variety of Upstate SC organizations, most notably Latinos United, which promotes community involvement and self-empowerment for young Latinos in Upstate SC, and Fall for Greenville, a food and cultural festival among the most popular in the Southeast.

While volunteering for the annual Fall for Greenville festival in 2016, Ramon saw an opportunity to make the event more inclusive for Upstate SC’s bilingual and international residents. The idea was to recruit volunteers who speak different languages to work the event and wear a pin indicating which languages they speak. The concept was even more successful than Ramon could have imagined. More than 100 volunteers wore pins with upwards of 15 different languages represented.

An unintended benefit of the initiative was amplifying just how many multilingual Upstate SC residents there are. “To see the level of the international community and number of languages spoken here was incredible,” said Ramon. “Over a hundred people raised their hand to say, ‘I speak another language and want to help others feel included.’ French, Arabic, German, Spanish, Japanese—the list goes on.”

“The international scene in Upstate South Carolina is so unique,” he said. “Not only is the area blessed with natural beauty and opportunities just 30 minutes away, you can also meet people from Germany, France, Dominican Republic, Mexico—all over.”

“I love serving as a role model and being part of the forward-thinking international community here. Little things, like the language pins, can make an impact to an exponential level for so many people.”