Alumni Profile: Ricardo Uriegas 91

From MMA Cadet to Knighthood ALUMNI PROFILE

For Ricardo Uriegas ’91, MMA was the launchpad to an exciting career on three continents.

Ricardo Uriegas has traveled the world but his heart remains in Mexico — both the country that is home to his family and the mid-Missouri home of his alma mater. Uriegas, a member of the MMA class of 1991, has enjoyed a successful career in international business for the past quarter century, a professional life he says has its foundation in Mexico, Missouri, at Missouri Military Academy. “I was fortunate to attend MMA and make something of myself,” Uriegas says. Mischief in Monterrey He freely admits he came to MMA because “I was a mischievous. My widowed mother couldn’t handle me by herself. And I had cousins at the academy — they turned out all right.” Uriegas notes he never felt that leaving his home in Monterrey, Mexico, to attend MMA was a punishment, but there were adjustments. “I grew up in a prosperous home; I had a lot of access to many things,” he says. “As a kid, you sometimes think you can do what you want. But when you become a recruit at the Academy, suddenly your hair is gone and you look like everyone else. You

Ricardo Uriegas ’91 and his wife, Karla Wynter, on their citrus farm in Montemorelos, Mexico

have to earn rank, you have to earn privilege. You work your way up the ladder. It’s something I took into adulthood and into my professional life. Thank God my mother was able to send me to MMA!” After graduation in 1991, Uriegas attended Universidad de Monterrey in Mexico and earned a degree in international relations. An internship at the U.S. consulate in Monterrey led to a job in the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control. His background paved the way; born in San Antonio, Texas, to parents of Basque descent — his father emigrated from Spain and his mother was from Yucatan, Mexico — Uriegas grew up in Monterrey near his family’s citrus farm. His parents owned property and businesses on both sides of the border. Fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese, he holds citizenship in his native United States, Mexico and Spain. For six years, Uriegas investigated money-laundering schemes and represented U.S. interests in property seizures of sanctioned narcotics traffickers in Latin America. In Brazil that sixth year, he met a man who would profoundly affect the direction of the rest of his life. “We were playing golf,” he recalls. “He was the president of GNP, a Mexican insurance company, and a good friend of my father.”

Risk & Reward In the 1990s, Grupo Nacional Provincial — one of Mexico’s largest insurers — was carving out a niche in the special risk market. The company formed the brokerage firm Profinamex that partnered with American International Group, or AIG, to develop global insurance policies covering such crises as kidnapping and ransom, extortion, assault, illegal detentions and disappearances. As a result of this relationship, “I was offered a job at AIG and developed a network of AIG agents and brokers,” Uriegas says. “I was responsible to the brokers. Clients trusted their brokers and brokers trusted us. I’m told I have a trustworthy face,” he adds with a laugh. Family Ties Retired from AIG since 2017, Uriegas is now a special risk consultant for a variety of global insurers such as London-based Hiscox and worldwide health insurer Global Benefits Group, known as GBG, training brokers and helping individuals prepare for crises and risk. Other business interests have shifted his focus back to Mexico and the family’s 480-acre citrus farm,

From left, Cadets Oscar Uribe ’92, Chris Petersen ’91, Ricardo Uriegas ’91, Ian Wolfe ’91, Michael Federici ’91 and Gregg Center ’91 pose for a photo with faculty member Lt. Col. Henry Matlosz.

Rancho Camarillo, in Montemorelos, which he took over after the death of his mother in 2017. “You know, citrus growing was my father’s trade. I never thought I’d follow him into business but I went into the insurance business,” he says. “And I never wanted to have anything to do with the family farm. My mother ran it and she was a very strict woman. Summer vacations from MMA meant lots of chores that kept me busy. I liked being at the Academy better than home with all those chores! Yet here I am, transitioning into less consulting and more farming. We have 60,000 citrus trees — tangerines, grapefruits, oranges and lemons. Montemorelos has become a second home.” He has also found time to give back to MMA, helping with student recruitment whenever he can. “It’s a brotherhood and we are all connected,” he says of his fellow alumni. “The Academy is still forging young adults into men.” Knighted by the Pope Uriegas and his wife, Guadalajara native Karla Wynter, split their time between homes in Houston and McAllen, Texas, and Montemorelos. He proudly notes his wife, whose grandfather came to Mexico as Queen Elizabeth’s special envoy for mining operations, is part of Princess Diana’s Spencer family and is related to Winston Churchill as well. Uriegas can boast his own noble European lineage as a knight of the centuries-old Order of St. Michael Archangel. Tracing its roots to the Knights Templar, a medieval order that protected pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land, the Order of St. Michael Archangel formed in the 12th century as advisers to the pope to protect and hold in perpetuity the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ. “We are soldiers in an army,” Uriegas says. “Our general is the archangel Michael.” Uriegas was nominated for the selective order in 2013, eligible through his father’s membership that traces his ancestors in Spain and Portugal back to the Knights Templar. The Vatican’s approval

“ “ "MMA gave me the foundation I needed. It gave me an identity." — Ricardo Uriegas ’91

Back, from left: MMA Mexico Admissions Coordinator Paul Petit ’85, Ricardo Uriegas ’91, International Admissions Coordinator Elven Sang. Front, from left: Juan Manuel Cardenas ’90 and Jose Vega ’91.

Uriegas and his date at the 1991 Valentine Ball

process is rigorous. “Your whole life is scrutinized by the church,” he says. “You have to be a good guy. My dad was a good guy.” The scrutiny included confession with Pope Francis via Skype. In 2016, Uriegas traveled to Rome where he was knighted by the pope. “It’s funny,” Uriegas recalls. “When I was at MMA, we had to march to church on Sunday — even in the snow. I’m Catholic so, of course, I went to the Catholic church. It was so far from the campus. When the cold weather arrived that first year, I thought, ‘I need to change churches and find one closer.’ The Methodist church was only half as far, so I forged my mom’s signature for permission to switch and started going to the Methodist church (although she actually knew about it because my mom and I never had secrets and she agreed that the church was way too far out and no time for breakfast, so it made sense to her). Then I discovered the Lutheran church served breakfast, so I switched again.” He laughs at the memory. “In my junior year, the priest at St. Brendan’s saw me one day and asked, ‘Aren’t you Catholic?’ I confessed to him and went back to the Catholic church and took the sacraments. And I’ve stayed in the church — even went to a Jesuit college.” It was one of many lessons learned at MMA — honor God and your parents — that often surfaced as he negotiated life’s twists and turns around the globe. “MMA gave me the foundation

I needed,” he says. “It gave me an identity. My parents came from Basque Country in Spain. They never lost their identity of where they came from but when they got to America, they embraced the American way of life. When I arrived at MMA, I was already an American, but when I stepped on campus that first day and breathed the air, I truly became an American.”