about Rodrigo
Rodrigo Garcia is a highly analytical and detail-focused C-level executive with proven leadership ability in financial services including institutional asset management, corporate finance and strategy. This includes 20+ years of progressive leadership experience directing investment stewardship, new product development, full lifecycle project management, banking, payments, and financial operations.
Industry leaders turn to Garcia to lead organizations with complex business activities and/or in need of transformational change, financial and investment expertise, technology innovation and new product development, corporate strategy and M&A, and sustainability. Garcia is qualified to serve as an SEC Audit Committee Financial Expert and is fluent in English and Spanish.
Garcia is an insightful lifelong learner and authentic leader with high emotional intelligence building meaningful relationships, bringing teams together with diverse views and skills, driving organizational growth, and profitability within fast-paced environments.
Garcia is the global chief financial officer and U.S. president for Talipot, a global investment enterprise and multinational conglomerate holding company with dozens of control holdings and non-control investments across various sectors and industries. Executive leadership of company’s investments, corporate and financial operations including P&L leadership, corporate strategy and M&A, and enterprise innovation. Director - corporate and subsidiary boards. Executive, finance and investment committees.
Garcia is the former deputy state treasurer and chief investment officer for the 5th largest economy in the U.S., the State of Illinois. Serving in that role from 2015 to 2021, Garcia directed the Illinois treasury’s combined $52 billion investment portfolios, $275 billion in related banking operations and payment services, and a $3.2 billion agency budget and financial reporting unit.
Garcia also held roles for BeDoWin360 Capital, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc., the United States Marine Corps and has served as the Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs and as a member of the Illinois Cabinet.
Garcia was an Adjunct Professor in Public Finance at Northwestern University and is a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP®), an Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF®), and holds SASB’s ESG credential. Garcia is a frequent contributor to financial innovation, corporate governance, executive leadership, and the capital markets.
Garcia holds an undergraduate degree with a major in finance from Northeastern Illinois University, two post-graduate degrees, one with a focus in finance from the University of Illinois and one with a focus in public policy from Northwestern University and has also completed senior executive programs at Harvard’s Kennedy School, Penn’s Wharton School, and Tec de Monterrey’s EGADE School.
Garcia sits as an independent director on the corporate boards of The UBS Funds and Canela Media, Inc., and as an affiliated director on the corporate and subsidiary boards of Talipot. Garcia is a member of the Latino Corporate Directors Association, Independent Directors Council, Private Directors Association, Angeles Investors, National Association of Investment Companies, Milken Institute Global Capital Markets Group, and the Aspen Institute’s Global Finance Leaders.
