02 At his home in Washington DC 03 Snowshoeing in Grand Teton National Park, WY 04 Hiking to Patagonia
03
JAVIER SAADE Javier Saade is Founder & Managing Partner of Impact Master Holdings and Partner at Fenway Summer Ventures. He is Chairman of the Board of a private equity-owned financial services firm and serves on the Boards of Trustees of The Nature Conservancy and The Organization of American States’ Pan American Development Foundation. Saade also holds seats on the Global Board of Advisors of DocuSign, the Corporate Social Responsibility Board of Univision, and the Board of Advisors of Harvard University’s Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship. He is a founding member of Fast Company’s Impact Council and a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and the Latino Corporate Directors Association (LCDA). Previously Saade was one of the highest-ranking Latinos during the Obama administration and the SBA programs he oversaw have invested over $128 billion into more than 300,000 companies. Before his White House appointment he spent time at organizations that include McKinsey & Company, Booz Allen & Hamilton, Bridgewater Associates, Global Emerging Markets and Abbott Laboratories. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS from Illinois Institute of Technology, and a BS from Purdue University.
His first manager at Booz, one of the only Latino partners at the firm, encouraged him to pursue his MBA. As Saade puts it, “to this day I still believe I was an admissions mistake at Harvard Business School, but when they knock on your door, you answer it”. After his MBA Saade joined another top consulting firm, McKinsey & Company. What he found was that the more competitive the environment, the more intense his drive became. “In places like Harvard and McKinsey everyone is at least as smart as you think you are and in environments like that, you find yourself struggling to keep up”. He adds, “it provided me with fuel to push hard and learn.” Pushing appears to in Saade’s nature but being one of few Latinos in boardrooms, business deals and Ivy League schools he slowly realized he needed to constantly prove he belonged. “I don’t do that anymore, but I feel like people always wonder.” Saade reasons that if you get to these places based on effort and merit, not connections, it means you had to run twice as fast. After Saade left McKinsey he had a chance encounter that offered a new path. He was advising on a biotech M&A and during that spent time with the chairman of the board, who happened to be a growth capital investor. “I don’t know exactly what he saw in me 20 years ago, but he offered me the chance to learn what makes our economy go around – capital.” This was the start of his career in finance and while at Paradigm Group, he also co-founded Air America Media. This gave him another window into our wealth creation machine – entrepreneurship. Between Paradigm/Air America and his eventual White House appointment to oversee tens of billions of dollars, he spent time as an investment professional at a $160 billion macro hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates. Later he became partner at Global Emerging Markets, a firm that capitalizes private and public companies around the world. Today he invests in startups at Fenway Summer and Impact Master Holdings. Saade’s perspective is somewhat unique because he’s had experience investing private equity, venture capital and hedge fund capital. When asked why Latinos and other minorities as so underrepresented in the financial services and investment world, he remarks, “Conceptually and empirically all the markers are there - Hispanics are getting more college degrees, starting more businesses, are digitally savvy, have the power of numbers, on and on”. He goes on, “Latinos start businesses at twice the rate of the general population, Latinas are 3 times more likely to start a business.” This entrepreneurial spirit may be borne out of necessity – and the flip side is on stark display today. If you couple energy with time, the macro trends point to Latinos attaining more success. Saade points out that “youth is on our side and youth equals time and time is good for compound interest to build.” The median age in America today is 38 years old, while the median age of Latinos is about 27. He states that it is important for Latinos to take risks, and sometimes these leads to failures but the experience is invaluable. Saade also stresses that Latinos need to educate themselves on government resources because “we pay for them.” Latinos should be aggressive connecting
TIPS FROM JAVIER SAADE:
Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn get involved.
04
dots on path to ownership because that is what ultimately leads to wealth creation. “Invest in yourself and your ideas so you can invest in others.” Saade is optimistic, even during the current devastation our community is going through, that we will see more and more Latino millionaires in the coming years. “If you can’t envision a world where you have a million Latino millionaires in the United States by 2040, I think we have a problem. Even though the march is slow, Latinos are on their way.” “We are going through a tough time and your readers have a significant role to play in our recovery.” Future Latino Leaders can follow the road taken by Javier Saade, but everyone’s mileage may vary. MARCH / APRIL 2020 LATINO LEADERS 43
JavierSaade.indd 43
6/2/20 11:39 AM