When you talk about hispanics in the United States who are igniting change, it is impossible to leave out the name Juan Enríquez.
Although hispanics make up about 18% of all of the United States population, only 2% of all companies have a hispanic C-class executive on their board. Juan Enríquez now makes up part of that 2%. Starting his career in Mexican politics, Enríquez played a crucial role in reforming many of Mexico’s domestic policies and negotiating a cease-fire with Zapatista rebels. After some years on the job, he decided to migrate to the United States and get his business degree in the Harvard Business School, bringing with him many innovative ideas.
The first of these ideas to come into fruition was the Life Sciences Project Enríquez founded for the Harvard Business School. This project is a yearly reunion between Harvard undergraduates, graduates, postdoctoral fellows, and other researchers in order to discuss and interchange their experimental ideas. Through this, most students claim to find an “investor” (lab to work in) in which they can further pursue their scientific endeavors.
To follow in the spirit of helping, Enríquez founded and headed Biotechonomy and Excel Venture Management, LLC. Although he is not currently with Biotechonomy, his goals with this company were to come up or invest in ideas that would further connect the vast worlds of biology and economy through technology. A big project they started to take on while he was in charge and continue to do so today has to do with 3D printing. Wanting to provide affordable printers for homes around the world, Biotechonomy has invested a large portion of the $6.5 million raised by New Matter to start developing the technology. Having a printer at home can make it more accessible for people to print things that would enhance their health and make treating medical conditions more convenient.
Enríquez also started and is currently working with Excel Venture Management. Though this, he invests in other companies that apply transformative life science technologies to solve problems in healthcare and beyond. The Excel investment portfolio is balanced across healthcare IT, services, and medical devices on top of life science platforms. These devices have a trickle-down effect on other adjacent markets including energy, chemicals, defense and agriculture. The majority of the companies’ prior investments, which include some of the world’s premier healthcare and life science companies, are exceeding initial expectations and over half have generated over a billion dollars. It is clear to see that Enríquez has focused most of his work on evolution (specifically gene work) and its effects on other markets.
On top of his corporate work, Enríquez is also a public speaker and best-selling author. Focusing mostly on how life sciences will drive the global economy, domestic/international politics, and of course evolution – Enríquez has given many TED talks and been published by Harvard Business Review, Foreign Policy, and the New York Times.
As highlighted in his book, As the Future Catches You: How Genomics and Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health, and Wealth, advances in genetic engineering will blur boundaries between industries like agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and computing, and form a massive life-sciences industry. It is because of this that Enríquez is so passionate about genes. In fact, he finds them so important that he claims genetics a language and says that those who learn it will prosper in the world economy. Due to his incredible contributions to the field, Enríquez has been given the name “Mr. Gene,” by Fortune.
As for what is next for this man of the gene(ration) no one really knows. All we can expect is great success and much change.
Gerardo Parraga – IQLatino