Fidel Vargas

Vargas is President and CEO of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF), the nation’s leading provider of scholarships and services designed to give Latino students full access to the opportunities a college education can provide. Prior to joining HSF, Mr. Vargas was a founding partner of Centinela Capital Partners, a private equity asset management firm that focused on investing and managing nearly $1 billion in minority-owned, emerging-manager funds. Prior to joining Centinela, Mr. Vargas was a Managing Director with TMG Advisors, an investment/consulting firm specializing in business development, strategic planning, and government affairs. He was also a Founding Principal and Managing Director of Reliant Equity Investors, a private equity investment firm. Mr. Vargas also served as Mayor of Baldwin Park, California, a city of 75,000, twenty miles northeast of Los Angeles. In addition to having served on HSF’s Board of Directors prior to taking the helm as President and CEO, Mr. Vargas has served on several public and private sector boards, including: the Latino Theater Company of Los Angeles; the New America Alliance; Sponsors for Education Opportunities; Operation Hope, Inc.; President Clinton’s Advisory Council on Social Security; President Bush’s Commission on Strengthening Social Security; and President Bush’s Commission on Presidential Scholars, on which he continued to serve through the early years of the Obama Administration. Mr. Vargas graduated with honors from Harvard University with an A.B. in social studies and received his MBA from Harvard Business School, with a concentration in entrepreneurship and general management.