News
8.24.09
The will to succeed: The story of Rudy J. Alvarado.
Anyone can succeed in this world it’s just a matter of connecting the dots. Everyone is born with basically the same potential. Genetically our possibilities of achieving any set goals are astronomical. We can do anything we put our minds to. Failure belongs to those that never attempt anything. This is the philosophy of Rudy Alvarado, a man that once you meet him, is difficult to ignore, impossible to forget. He is an engineer by education and an entrepreneur by choice. When he talks to you about business he sounds more like an artist craving an empty canvas to deliver from it a masterpiece. Those who desire the same, heed his words of wisdom.
In the business world, not everything that you touch turns to gold, but for Rudy it’s more often than not. Rudy Alvarado was born in Laredo, Texas, but was raised across the river, in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. He was barely five years old; still he remembers how the two towns were divided, on one side the Anglos, the other side the Hispanics (mainly Mexicans). After graduating from high school in 1950, he went on to Laredo Junior College for one year. Later on he transferred to Texas A&M, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and two minors, in Electrical Engineer and Thermodynamics.
While attending college, he became part of the ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) where he graduated as a Commission Officer in December 1954. Immediately he went to work for Chance/Vought Aircraft, the manufacturer of the WWII famous Navy F4U Corsair fighter, in Dallas, Texas. This company has been recognized as a leader in aerospace technology for almost 60 years. Forging new ground is not new for Alvarado. While working for Chance Vought he was activated by the US Air Force and loaned to NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to work on the secret X-series experimental aircraft, a two-year project in the Mojave Desert, California.
“NASA was in dire need of engineers and 35 of us were selected from 2,500 officers commissioned that year. There were no other Hispanics in that group,” Alvarado said.
Later on Alvarado joined the corporate world as an engineer once again. “The company started sending me out to demonstrate our products. I was able to assist in closing several deals, only to find out our sales people were making a great deal of money. Then and there, I decided to become a salesman,” comments Alvarado. Years later he was able to convince a former employer, Square D Company, to grant him a license to manufacture their electrical products in Costa Rica. He also raised capital, from investors and the World Bank for the company named, Industrias Delta. “I picked Costa Rica because of several factors such as; 92% literacy, 65% bilingual, flexibility in laws, incentives and a friendly political climate. The company’s name was based on something with ease of pronunciation and recollection, both in English and Spanish,” Alvarado said.
Two years later, Alvarado sold the company. Today the company continues in operation with 550 employees and is very successful. Later on in the mid 60’s, after working for General Electric, Alvarado moved to Oklahoma, to start a new company. He founded Interscan, Inc., a company specializing in hard disk memory products. After four years with this company, Alvarado was successful in selling it and it was time to seek the next challenge.
Responding to a challenge
A Saturday morning coffee conversation led a friend to challenge Alvarado to grow a high technology company in Oklahoma. “I was lamenting the fact that there were few high technology companies in Oklahoma and that our children were leaving Oklahoma to find these jobs,” said Alvarado.
Advancia Corporation was the answer. Alvarado acquired a company in Lawton, OK, in 1982, then changed the name to Advancia. Advancia started with one office location, 17 employees and just enough work for 9 months and few prospects on the horizon. Now, based in Oklahoma City, the company currently provides technical services, such as training, testing and evaluation, documentation and environmental health and safety, pollution prevention, risk management, and occupational safety and health services to government clients in the defense, homeland security and aerospace industries. The company manages federal government clients from 26 locations nationwide. Today the Company has grown to 180 employees, 80% of which have college degrees.
Today, the landscape of technology-related companies in Oklahoma is rich, with more than 900 technology-related companies. Alvarado says the company’s success can be attributed to several factors; moving the company from Lawton to a more accessable location like Oklahoma City and gaining nationwide credibility. Alvarado sold Advancia in January 2007, to a Wisconsin Native American tribe, which now operates as a subsidiary of Pottawatomie Business Development Corporation.
Rudy J. Alvarado serves as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board and served as its President until January 2008.
Prior to Advancia, Alvarado founded several high-tech companies through his career, including Quatro II Corp., Trexel Corp., Interscan Inc., and Industrias Delta. He also served as regional marketing manager for the Information Systems Division of General Electric. Alvarado has many years of senior management experience in the tech industry, including working for two Fortune 500 companies.
Alvarado has followed a repetitive pattern of creating and selling high tech companies, five of them so far. In addition to his more than a 40-year career in technology-related companies, his involvement with many Oklahoma community organizations is the main reason he was elected as Chairman of Oklahoma’s State Chamber. While this background alone makes him unique among chamber Chairmen nationwide, he was the only Hispanic State Chamber Chairman in the United States. Alvarado is only the second Hispanic Chairman ever to lead a state chamber anywhere in the country, according to a survey conducted by the Oklahoma State Chamber. Nonprofit boards on which Alvarado has served include Oklahoma’s Science and Technology Council, the Oklahoma Technology Development Corp., and the Research Institute for Economic Development.
He was a trustee of Oklahoma City’s MAPs for Kids, a $692 million public school construction project. Rudy has proved to have vision, determination and know how, necessary ingredients to succeed in any business endeavor. He’s a sharp businessman and revered in the technology field, perhaps some of the very reasons why he is sought after and regarded so highly by the business community, inside and outside of Oklahoma. Alvarado has worked for two Fortune 500 corporations - General Electric and the Square D Company and eventually founded several high-tech companies.
“I started a Technology Council and the State Chamber bought into it. It is an acknowledgement by the Chamber to the growing technology, biomedical and bio agricultural sectors in rural and urban Oklahoma,” Alvarado said. Alvarado was chosen as chairman by earning success serving as chair of the Technology Council and through his proven leadership, such as his consecutive, three terms as Chairman of the Oklahoma Technology Development Corporation, a non-profit organization that has helped over 60 new technology companies gain access to nearly $300 million in financing.
The true essence of leadership
With his dedication and ambitious attitude, Rudy has made an impact in the Hispanic and non-Hispanic communities, especially the business sector, that through dedication and know how, many things could become a reality. He even admits that his involvement in the high-tech industry isn’t typical of Hispanics in Oklahoma. The State is better known for agriculture, cattle, and oil and gas production than the high-tech industry, meaning that his presence in the Oklahoma business arena has been a great blessing, a tremendous asset to Hispanics, as well as others.
“I approach my role from a business point of view. I ask myself if it is good for Oklahoma, good for this generation, good for our children’s generation and good for generations yet to come,” Alvarado said. With this philosophy, Alvarado led the State Chamber’s board of directors in 2002, which consists of business and community leaders from every region of the state who represent rural and urban Oklahoma, small and large business from virtually every sector of the economy from manufacturing to service and technology.
“As chairman, I helped frame a five year plan to focus the initiatives of the State Chamber. These make it easy for business people to understand the goals, what is funded and easy for the full-time chamber staff to articulate,” Alvarado said. Mr. Alvarado serves on numerous other civic, public and private boards including Oklahoma’s Science and Technology Council, the Oklahoma Technology Development Corporation, the Research Institute for Economic Development, and he is a Trustee of Oklahoma City’s MAPs for Kids, a $692 million public school construction project.
Alvarado possesses what most people could call ‘over the horizon instinct’. He can see into the future and convince other people of the opportunities and the paths they can follow. He’s probably one of a few experts with immense business and technological insight that people would regard as a real leader.
“My passions are education and economic development. Education is a lifelong endeavor, which enriches the community. Greater economic growth comes from the knowledge gained through education. I am an entrepreneur who shares this vision with others. An entrepreneur who happens to be Hispanic,” Alvarado said. Rudy added that no one single incident greatly impacted his life but many experiences have added to what he calls, ‘his foundation, the source of his bits of wisdom. “I still remember one of several summer jobs I held while in high school, but my fondest memories come from working in an ice plant. There I was, a skinny little fellow at barely 135 lbs., moving 300 lbs. blocks of ice. One slow Saturday, I saw this woman with a crying infant, a coworker’s wife; she came to find out if he had received his paycheck, because she needed money to buy milk for the baby. The reality of the responsibility of having to provide for a family hit me hard. It was then I decided to go to college,” Rudy said.
Become the “you” that matters
Many different situations impacted my life. I do believe that you are born with certain abilities, of course what you do with it is entirely up to you”. According to Alvarado, his parents were extremely supportive and encouraged the enormous power of education, something he believes is essential inside and outside the business world. “My dad used to tell me, you can be whatever you want to, as long as you put enough time and effort behind it. If you believe in yourself, the whole world will open up,” concludes Alvarado.