LATINOS IN SEARCH OF CAPITAL & CAPITAL IN SEARCH OF LATINOS
MEET ILLINOIS’ NEWEST LEADER Daniel Sanchez Torres
Courtesy
Carlos Cuevas
From birth, it was clear that Joe Aguilar would possess the tenacity of hard work and commitment. Aguilar is the Chief Investment Officer for the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer and one of the youngest of his peers to hold such a role. BORN ON the Northwest side of Chicago to Mexican-American father his mother worked at a school district in computer programing while his father – who recently retired, and passed on the profession to his brother – spent his career as a union electrician. With his mix of white and blue-collar upbringing, it’s no surprise that Aguilar understood that hard work can beget opportunity and success. His parents were invested in his and his brother’s education and made a move to Batavia, Illinois a suburb of Chicago. It was a small town, but it had a great public education system, which is exactly what his parents were looking to provide their children. After Aguilar finished high school, he spent a stint at nearby Waubonsee Community College before transferring to Aurora University. While Aurora University may not be the typical university that comes to mind when thinking about getting an education in finance and investment management, Aguilar favored the smaller college setting because it allowed him to be close to home. He balanced a job throughout college and eventually graduated, becoming the first in his immediate family to earn a bachelor’s degree. After graduation, Aguilar would go on to secure a fulltime job at the Treasurer's Office in Illinois, but his ambition continued and he made the decision to attend the University of Miami and received his Masters in Finance, graduating as one of the top students of his class. When reflecting on why Aguilar would pursue finance as a career, he recalls a conversation with a friend who
asked a similar question and how it unlocked a memory of how he fell in love with numbers. “I used to read the paper,” he says. “I would always read the box scores of sporting events…and I loved those numbers and dissecting them.” As he recalls the conversation it unlocks another memory, “I watched the financial news networks [CNBC] – still do. And it fascinated me seeing the tickers go by. Wondering what that meant. What is this? And then, to come to find out these are financials, and it’s part of the world of finance. That’s what really sealed my fate.” “I’m extremely lucky, that this was my first career aspiration. And that it really took off for me and just snowballed into a life of continuous learning,” Aguilar says. There’s a clear excitement for what he does. Aguilar understands that success does not happen in a vacuum, though. He is quick to name-check Margarita Perez, who founded Fortaleza Asset Management, Inc. and offered him the opportunity to intern going into his senior year of university.
46 LATINO LEADERS JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022
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