A dynasty of leaders: if you aren't familiar with Richard Carrion, chances are you soon will be. As President and CEO of Popular Inc. and its related banks, Richard Carrion is at the helm of one of the fastest growing and deeply rooted financial institutions in operation today

Latino Leaders: The National Magazine of the Successful American Latino, June-July, 2005 by Wendy Pedrero, Lara N. Santiago Renta

Created in 1893, Banco Popular de Puerto Rico was founded in what was then still a Spanish colony. The initial concept was to provide a means by which to allow the less advantaged portions of the population access to banking services. What began as a small institution dedicated to local service has since evolved in step with the cultural and economic changes and expansion of Puerto Rico. Today the bank has four major operation units: Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, Banco Popular North America, Popular Financial Holdings (loans and financing), and the transactions branch known as Evertech. With over one hundred years of presence in Puerto Rico, BPPR is poised to continue its reach into the US mainland and Latin America, and much of this success is directly linked to one extraordinary family: The Carrions.

Richard Carrion, who was educated at the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and later earned a master's degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, uncle, and father. The Carrion family has been an intricate part of BPPR since its inception. His grandfather's older brother was one of the bank's initial founders, and his grandfather, Rafael Carrion Pacheco, took control of the bank in the 1920's. His legendary father, Rafael Carrion Jr. and his uncle Joe also occupied the leadership position at BPPR. Despite this strong family link, Carrion views his continuation of the tradition as more coincidental: "I was finishing my master's at MIT at the time, and that summer I needed a job, I really needed a job. So my uncle Joe said 'you should work at the bank this summer.' At that point in my life, I didn't think I was coming back to live in Puerto Rico, much less to work in the bank ... I was a programmer at the time, and so I started working in programming that summer of 1976. It turned out I just loved it." By the end of the summer, Richard Cam6n had embarked upon a career he once thought was unlikely: "My brother "always said he never wanted to go into the bank, really none of us wanted to go into the bank ... It was difficult to have a famous father and we thought if we go worked in the bank, we wouldn't be anything but our father's son ... we had no desire to work in the bank." Despite the initial misgivings, it is now his father whom Carrion credits for his memorable tenure at BPPR.

Known by everyone as "Don Papi" or simply as 'Junior;" Rafael Carrion Jr. was the venerable father figure of the institution, the unifying glue of a family-run multi-national corporation. A well-known and much loved figure in Puerto Rico, Rafael Carrion Jr. played an even greater role in his family's life than he did at BPPR. When questioned about his father's role and importance within the company as well as on a personal level, Carrion response is both emphatic and reverent. "My first couple of years he was the toughest critic I could have had. Without a doubt he was the most important person in my life, not only as a father but "also as a mentor as a boss as a coworker, just an extraordinary man." Putting a human touch on a very public figure, Carrion continued his description of his father: "I can't tell you how much I miss him; I would love to have him see all the things we have done. I would love to have have see the organization today. Many times I think, "What would he have done?" I have almost ... these mental conversations with him sometimes. He was a very patient man, just an extraordinary guy. He was conservative in many ways, but he could make very audacious decisions. People loved him; he was just a very charismatic individual." In keeping with his father's celebrated personal approach; Richard Carrion's views on the expansion and development of BPPR continue to be founded upon the idea of "being the best community bank."

While in 1976 BPPR was still a fundamentally Puerto Rican based bank, Richard soon realized that the market base in Puerto Rico would be limited. Following the market trends, Carrion soon sought to consolidate and diversify. Puerto Rico became the firm base upon which to expand to familiar and quickly growing markets. "In terms of where we wanted to expand, we looked at the fact that the Hispanic population was growing, and while we're not purely you know, a Hispanic bank ... in fact it shocks most people to learn that over half our customers in the US are non-Hispanic ... we certainly do have a very good name and a very good position in areas of high Hispanic concentration. So we looked at the [United] States and the cities with the highest Hispanic concentrations, and that is what we began to target ... Again, we don't see ourselves as a bank only for Hispanics, we are really a community, bank." With expanding markets in communities of varying ethnic backgrounds and new ventures into Costa Rica, El Salvador, Venezuela, and Panama to name a few, Carrion prefers to keep it simple. He maintains a steady focus on growth in established areas, while maintaining the key customer service and trustworthy reputation that his father defined. It is this key element of integrity that soon leads any discussion to the unpleasant, albeit unavoidable, reality of BPPR's history: a recent money laundering scandal that tainted the bank reputation.