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Fidel A. Vargas is President and CEO of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the nation’s leading provider of scholarships and services designed to give Latino students full access to the opportunities a college education can provide. With more than $430 million in scholarships awarded since its founding in 1975, HSF continues to provide increasing numbers of students all the tools they need to apply to college, do well in their course work, graduate, enter a profession, excel, help lead our nation going forward, and mentor the generations to come.
Prior to joining HSF, Mr. Vargas was a founding partner of Centinela Capital Partners, a private equity asset management firm that focused on investing and managing nearly $1 billion in minority-owned funds. Prior to joining Centinela, Mr. Vargas was a Managing Director with TMG Advisors, an investment/consulting firm specializing in business development, strategic planning, and government affairs. He was also a Founding Principal and Managing Director of Reliant Equity Investors, a private equity investment firm.
At the age of twenty-three, Mr. Vargas became the country’s youngest elected Mayor of a major city: Baldwin Park, California, with a population of 75,000, twenty miles northeast of Los Angeles. In addition to having served on HSF’s Board of Directors prior to becoming its President and CEO, Mr. Vargas has served on a number of public and private sector boards, including: the Latino Theater Company of Los Angeles; the New America Alliance; Sponsors for Education Opportunities; and Operation Hope, Inc. He served on President Clinton’s Advisory Council on Social Security; President Bush’s Commission on Strengthening Social Security; and Presidents Bush and Obama’s Commission on Presidential Scholars.
He currently serves on the boards of the California Community Foundation, the Latino Donor Collaborative, and The Los Angeles Theatre Center. Mr. Vargas has been recognized for his accomplishments by numerous organizations and media outlets, throughout his career. Time Magazine named him as one of the Top 50 Young Leaders in the United States, Hispanic Magazine named him one of the Top 30 Young Hispanics in the United States, and he was named one of the country’s 100 most influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business Magazine. Mr. Vargas graduated with honors from Harvard University with an A.B. in Social Studies and received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
What you’ll learn
- Fidel’s American dream
- How Fidel became the youngest elected Mayor of a major city in the nation at age 23
- What Fidel learned at Harvard Business School
- How Fidel became a successful private equity investor of a $1 billion minority-owned fund
- The large and growing Latino investor and entrepreneur base
- How the Hispanic Scholarship fund is helping thousands of Latinos and Latinas go to college and thrive after college
- Fidel’s keys to success
- “You can’t accomplish nothing on your own”
Resources & Links
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