Fidel Vargas: vice president: Reliant Equity Investors: staying close to home

Latino Leaders: The National Magazine of the Successful American Latino, April-May, 2003 by Anita Savio

Baldwin Park is a working-class, pre dominantly Latino community in the Los Angeles area. Like many similar communities, it struggles with problems of gangs, crime, school dropouts, and poverty. This is the city where Fidel Vargas grew up and where he became mayor at the age of" 23, serving two terms before he left to finish his education at Harvard Business School. Now in his early thirties, lie is vice president of the private equity fund, Reliant Equity Investors. But he and his wife and three children continue in live in Baldwin Park. Whatever for?

"When someone gets an education and becomes successful," explains Vargas, "their net worth increases, and they become more able to live where they want. They should, and they do. The problem is, the community loses the direct link to the role models. That's why we wanted to move back, so the kids in the community would be able to see there's a path they can follow."

From an early age, Vargas, son of working-class Mexican immigrants, knew he wanted to do something "to make a difference." That was the philosophy he practiced when he decided to run lot mayor of Baldwin Park. It all started because there was a wall on his street with graffiti. He began calling City Hall hut got the runaround. Finally a city councilman, impressed with Vargas' commitment and intelligence, nominated him for appointment to the local planning board. But the mayor rejected his appointment, saying he lacked experience.

"That got me mad," says Vargas. "I felt I could make a difference, or at least contribute, and I jokingly said, 'Maybe I'll run for mayor; then I'll have some experience.'"

That joke turned into a serious campaign, and an amazing win.

Making a difference was also Vargas' motivation for joining Reliant Equity. Still in the start-up phase, the fund's objective is to invest in minority- or women-owned companies, or com panics that target those groups, and that need access to equity capital and management expertise in order to grow.

"There are more and more Latinos and people of color who have worked their way up the corporate ladder and are in positions of influence," he explains, "but they may not be considered for CEO or chairman, because there's a logjam: there are several people ahead in line. So what do you do? Do you wait your turn for the next 10 years, or do you go out and do something on your own? We pride ourselves on identifying and working with executives--Latinos, Asians, African Americans, women--who have the experience and the entrepreneurial temperament to capture the brass ring on their own."

And it is an extension of that same philosophy that prompted Vargas to join the New America Alliance, where he is now chair of the Angel Investment/Finance Boot Camp Committee. "I'm proud to be part of a leadership organization," he says, "one that's focused on making an impact today and into the future."

Let's hope the Vargas family never moves out of Baldwin Park.