Richard Carrión

Infobox Person
name = Richard L. Carrión


caption =
birth_date = November 26, 1952
birth_place = San Juan, Puerto Rico
occupation = President and CEO, Popular, Inc.
salary =
networth =
spouse =
children = 5


website = [http://www.bancopopular.com/ Banco Popular Website]
footnotes =

Richard L. Carrion (born November 26, 1952 in San Juan, Puerto Rico)cite web |url=http://www.senorboriqua.net/Famous%20Puerto%20Ricans/Richard%20Carrion.html |title= Richard Carrion (Biography)|accessdate=2007-09-12 |author= |date= |work= |publisher= Señor Boricua.net] is the current President and CEO of Popular, Inc., the largest company in Puerto Rico, and parent company of Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, Banco Popular North America and E-Loan.

Early life

Carrion was born to one of the richest families in Puerto Rico, his grandfather being one of the founders of Popular, Inc. (BPPR). He received a bachelors degree from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce in 1974 and an MS in Management Information Systems from the Massachuttes Institute of Technology in 1976.cite web |url=http://www.puertorico-herald.org/issues/vol4n34/ProfileCarrion-es.html |title= Puerto Rico Perfil: Richard Carrión|accessdate=2007-09-12 |author= |date=August 25, 2000 |work= |publisher= The Puerto Rico Herald] After the Master’s Degree, Mr. Carrión joined Banco Popular in 1976. After his father's death, Carrion became the leader of that banking corporation.

Popular, Inc.

Richard L. Carrión is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Popular, Inc., a publicly traded financial holding company with more than $45 billion in consolidated assets. Today, Banco Popular, a wholly owned subsidiary of Popular, Inc., is Puerto Rico's leading depository institution, the largest Hispanic-owned bank in North America, and one of the 30 most important financial institutions in the Americas. As CEO, Carrion has led the way through numerous innovations in the company such as its expansion through the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States.

While Mr. Carrión was President of Banco Popular, Popular completed the acquisition of various financial institutions, including Banco de Ponce, Banco Roig, Seminole Bank, First State Bank of Southern California, Gore Bronson Bancorp in Chicago and Aurora National Bank. At the time of the acquisition, Banco de Ponce was the second largest bank in Puerto Rico. Recently, he also headed Popular’s recent acquisition of Quaker City, a savings and loan holding company for Quaker City Bank, based in Whittier, California, and Kislak National Bank, a Florida-based commercial bank.

In the information technology arena, Mr. Carrion’s vision brought the first network of ATMs to Puerto Rico and many other Latin American countries, and also spearheaded the successful migration from paper to electronic transactions. In 1999, after the acquisition of GM Group, Inc., the largest data processing center in the Caribbean, Popular consolidated its leadership role in the technological arena, thus creating EVERTEC, a new leader in information technology.

Philanthropy

For almost three decades Mr. Carrión has divided his time between Popular and philanthropy, placing particular emphasis on education and sports. He is the founder and trustee of the Banco Popular Foundation; which, among other charities, has donated scholarships to over 1,000 students through the Rafael Carrión, Jr. Scholarship Fund. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company and Verizon. Since 1992, Carrion has also been involved in the production of music videos that highlight Puerto Rico's musical culture and history. In 2007, he was appointed a member of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Finance Commission.

International Olympic Committee

He has been a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 1990 and currently chairs the Finance Commission and is a member of the IOC’s Marketing, TV and Internet Rights Commissions. Mr. Carrión led the negotiation team for the U.S. broadcast of the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games - generating $2 billion in revenue - and was elected to the IOC Executive Board in 2004. He was one of the torch carriers for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy.

From 1987, he and the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee led a fight to try to bring the 2004 Olympic Games to San Juan. That bid failed, however, when Athens was voted in 1997 as the city to host those games.

Personal life

Mr. Carrión, a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, is married to Conxita Martorell and has five children: Io Ana, Richard, Ceciliana, Ana Sofía and Rafael Luis. Carrion is the cousin of famous Puerto Rican actress and radio talk show host Camille Carrion.

References

ee also

*List of famous Puerto Ricans