Ricardo Elizondo Guajardo earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Administrative Computer Systems from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) in 1987. He also earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Master of Public Administration (MPAII) from Harvard University in 1997.

 

He founded Apolo Constructora y Servicios, SA de CV in February 1988. During such time, the company went from making remodeling, and small works to building housing developments and road and sewerage infrastructure works. Ricardo was the CEO  and lead more than 450 employees and hundreds of contractors, before leaving in 1994 for his graduate studies.

 

Afterward, Ricardo was hired by Grupo Reforma, the publisher of the Reforma newspaper, where he acted as Chief Operating and Financial Officer from 1997 to 2000. In this position, he headed the treasury, accounting, procurement, warehouse, human resources, security, computer systems, administrative, organizational development and editorial independent board councils. Likewise, Ricardo led the development and commencement of operations of the Mural newspaper (November 1998) in Guadalajara. He was also responsible for implementing Reforma's control and management systems.

 

In 2000, Ricardo was promoted to Director of Editorial Development, where he led the development of new products and participated in editorial activities. In the year 2004, he became Editorial Co-Director, responsible for the editorial department in Mexico City.

 

Concurrently with his career at Grupo Reforma, in 2005, Ricardo became an angel investor, and during the following seven years, he invested in nine projects, which include Proteak, a company that had its IPO in 2010 in the Mexican Stock Exchange, where he was a board director until 2016, and from February 2019 to date. Other investments were Open English, EnKontrol, QC Capital, Phunware, Pecan Grove Farms and Magic Trek.

 

Given the results and experience obtained in management positions, and as an angel investor and board director, Ricardo founded in 2012, jointly with Xavier Ponce de León, Ideas y Capital. As a Managing Partner, he implemented the fund’s strategy and its policies and procedures based on international best practices. 

 

Currently, he participates as a director in 11 companies, including CFEnergía and CFE Internacional, he was a board director and chairman of the Venture Capital Committee of the AMEXCAP, and a director in the México-United States Entrepreneurship and Innovation Council (MUSEIC). He is a member of the Technological Innovation Fund Evaluation Commission (Comisión de Evaluación del Fondo de Innovación Tecnológica) of the Conacyt. He is also a professor of Innovation and New Business Development in the Executive MBA of ITAM.