BizLEADERSHIP
Building a Company Ramirez Leads by Helping People
PHOTO: BRENT G. MATHIS
By David Pittman Robert D. Ramirez, president and CEO of Vantage West Credit Union, has spent his life building things. As a young boy, he loved building model airplanes and model cars. At the age of 5 he recalls going to work with his father, employed by a locally owned Capin Mercantile Corp. department store in Nogales. Young Robert’s first job was working at that same store assembling bicycles, tricycles and other toys. Since graduating from Nogales High School and the University of Arizona with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, Ramirez has built an extraordinarily successful career.
He has been a driving force in building the largest credit union in Southern Arizona and the third largest in the state. And he has helped build a better Tucson, not only by investing in the community, but also by giving back through charitable, philanthropic and civic endeavors. Ramirez has lived the American dream, rising from humble beginnings to become the leader of a $1.5-billion company. Inside Ramirez’s corner office at Vantage West corporate headquarters, a framed “Eisenhower” jacket hangs from a wall behind continued on page 76 >>> Winter 2016
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