No borders
by Jennifer R. Lloyd (M.B.A. ’16)
Overcoming barriers. Closing deals. Rowing oceans. Whatever phrase you want to use for persisting through all manner of strenuous challenges, Andy Vargas-Hernandez (B.B.A. ’14) has done just that, though his favorite wording might be removing borders.
The first-generation Mexican American grew up in El Paso with busy parents, spending much time with his entrepreneurial grandparents, one side in the restaurant and golf course business and the other owning a leather moccasin company.
From that early training in curiosity, Vargas-Hernandez honed his career in various industries: big tech, venture capital, energy and financial services, before incubating No Border Ventures while wrapping up his MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania earlier this year. He will return to St. Mary’s to speak at the Business Week Experience on Oct. 23.
Finding financial management
During high school, Vargas-Hernandez felt drawn to engineering and the soccer field. As the first in his family to attend college, his parents were reluctant to let him venture far. However, during a college tour in his junior year, he fell in love with San Antonio and St. Mary’s University.
With both Jewish and Catholic backgrounds, he found appeal in the faith-based education of the Hispanic-Serving Institution, along with the small class sizes and the access to professors.
“When I sat in one of their classrooms, I remember the small ratio of students to faculty immediately drew me,” he said. “The Hispanic heritage of the University made it feel like a second home.”
“When I sat in one of their classrooms, I remember the small ratio of students to faculty immediately drew me. The Hispanic heritage of the University made it feel like a second home.”
— Andy Vargas-Hernandez (B.B.A. ’14)
Vargas-Hernandez participated in the Faculty Academic Mentor program that clustered first-generation college students with a faculty member. During his first year, Vargas-Hernandez was connected with a busy upperclassman who gave the freshman the option of sitting in on his capstone course in Corporate Finance or waiting until after class for a tour. Vargas-Hernandez picked the class in the Albert B. Alkek Building and found himself staring at a stock ticker for the first time and taking in snippets of the material. He got hooked on the combination of human financial behavior with quantitative analysis.
While pursuing his bachelor’s in Corporate Financial Management, he earned a coveted internship on Wall Street.
“When you’re a first-generation college student, every semester is a defining moment because every experience is new — starting from my freshman year with declaring my major as Corporate Financial Management, which served as the North light for the rest of my time at St. Mary’s,” said Vargas-Hernandez, who was also a President’s Ambassador and found time to do an exchange program at the University of Dayton and study abroad in Italy and Malta.
St. Mary’s Professor of Finance David Sommer, Ph.D., said Vargas-Hernandez has illustrated the Greehey School of Business vision of transforming lives and building a better world.
“During his time at St. Mary’s, Andy grew tremendously both personally and professionally,” Sommer said. “Now, he is doing his part to build a better world with No Border Ventures. I could not be prouder of him, and he would be the first to credit St. Mary’s for helping him build a foundation for his success.”
Affecting change through capital
Vargas-Hernandez has continued to maximize his professional and personal experience in his subsequent career. He worked at UBS in New York and Tesoro in San Antonio before being recruited by Amazon in Seattle, first managing cash operations in North and South America and, later, executing the largest private pricing deals for Amazon Web Services. While in Seattle, he co-founded the Pacific Boys Rowing Club, a nonprofit helping underrepresented children in the community with resources and clothing. He also followed his rowing passion, preparing to race 3,000 nautical miles across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to Antigua. However, before the race, he left the team to pursue his MBA at Wharton.
“I’ve always been someone who prioritized growth, purpose and evolution. You have to be curious about the world,” he said. “This collection of experiences has been incredible. Now, it’s time to bring it back to the region and do some good work.”
Now splitting time between El Paso and Mexico City, Vargas-Hernandez co-founded No Border Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in the Southwest and mountain region of the U.S. and parts of Latin America. These areas have historically received less venture capital funding than New York and Silicon Valley.
“We know that we can affect change,” Vargas-Hernandez said. “I would love to see a world where we have our first successful company incubated by an undergrad from St, Mary’s to start that train of being more entrepreneurial and taking risks.”
