Hometown: Houston, TX

Graduate School: Johnson School/Cornell University
Expected Graduation Year: 2012

Undergraduate: University of Houston
Graduation Year: 2005

Bio: Carlos started his professional career at Anadarko Petroleum Corporation where he participated in the controller leadership rotation program contributing to eight different segments of the company, assisted in the integration of two peer acquisitions, and was senior analyst for the Ghana Jubilee discovery.  Most recently, Mr. Castro developed an access to angel and venture capital strategy for Ezra Pharmaceuticals – a startup that discovered preventive care for blindness caused by diabetes.

Mr. Castro is in the first year of the MBA program at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management focusing on entrepreneurship and private equity.  He operates the Cornell incubator, eLab and is a manager of the BR Venture Fund.  Mr. Castro has served on the boards of ALPFA and the Hispanic Business Student Association, two prominent national non-profits.  He is in the initial pilot stage of launching a non-profit focused on educating immigrant entrepreneurs on business accounting and revenue tracking metrics.

This summer Mr. Castro will join Agora Partnerships as a summer associate working with portfolio company entrepreneurs on business model, strategy and coaching for the investor conference in Granada, Nicaragua.  Carlos will also look to scale Agora’s Accelerator into Mexico and potentially Colombia for future classes through deal sourcing and fund raising.

In his spare time, Carlos enjoys spending time with family, playing the guitar, participating in sports leagues, riding his motorcycle on long Texas country roads and is a yellow-orange cord capoeirista.  Carlos is a member of Lakewood Church, a Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) fellow, a Consortium for Graduate Studies in Management (CGSM) member and a Springworks fellow.

Venture Interest: Private Equity and Venture Capitalist
Sector Interest: Impact Investing

Springworks Project Title: VC Primer, Venture Capital Diversity Benchmark

Springworks Project Description: VC Primer – designed to reach a younger audience, the VC primer intends to pool together industry resource and information for High School and early undergraduates.  The VC primer will expose and educate a younger generation to the industry and career paths involved in the venture ecosystem.  The goal is to reach an audience that may not have had the access to theses careers and bridge the gap in diversity in the venture investing community.

Diversity Benchmark – a study conducted to gauge and measure venture firms’ diversity professional employment makeup.