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Ariel Vargas

Experience

30+ years in Costa Rica's services and technology industry: from a technical-support desk in 1995 to the global leaders in cloud, cybersecurity and data + AI.

  1. 2022 — Present

    Databricks

    Director of International and LATAM Operations (Managing Director, Nov 2022 – Jan 2023)

    Incorporated the Costa Rica entity and coordinated its Free Trade Zone registration (January 2023), infrastructure and launch (April 2023); legal representative and liaison with authorities. Built a multifunctional operation that moved to a new America Free Zone office in 2025. Lead international expansion through the International Steering Committee, with operations responsibility for Latin America during the São Paulo expansion and the Mexico City opening (2025). Presented the Costa Rica case at PROCOMER's event in Silicon Valley during the Data + AI Summit (June 2026).

  2. 2018 — 2022

    Palo Alto Networks

    Managing Director and Legal Representative

    Led the establishment and growth of the global-support and corporate-functions operation, including its entry into the Free Trade Zone regime in 2020: IT, technical support, marketing, market intelligence, project management and human resources. Led the operation through the pandemic, prioritizing safety, continuity and team connection; strengthened the employer brand with the site's first own job fair in 2022.

  3. 2012 — 2017

    VMware

    Managing Director & Global Site Operations

    Led the operation from its founding stage until it became VMware's largest operations center in Latin America, as the Presidency of Costa Rica highlighted at the 2015 inauguration of the new five-floor site. Broadened its scope to shared services, IT and technical support and specialized sales support; Free Trade Zone expansions approved in 2014 and 2016. Represented the company before the President of Costa Rica, COMEX and CINDE in 2014 and 2015. Culture measured with Great Place to Work from 2016; #1 Costa Rica and #8 Central America (100–1,000 employees) in the 2018 edition. Standardized a site-governance model across Costa Rica, India, Ireland, Bulgaria and the United States.

  4. 2007 — 2012

    HP

    Americas Total Customer Experience Manager; Customer Operations, Business Operations and Training Manager

    Led customer-experience, operations and training functions for HP's services organization in Costa Rica and the Americas.

  5. 2006

    IBM

    Client Operations Manager

    Client operations within IBM's Costa Rica delivery organization.

  6. 1999 — 2006

    SYKES

    Client services supervision and team leadership

    Part of the first contact center established in Costa Rica's services industry. Led customer-service and critical-escalation teams: the foundation of a career in customer experience and operations.

  7. 1995 — 1999

    Acer

    Technical support and customer-service team leadership

    Where it started: technical-support agent in July 1995, Level 2 resource two months later, customer-service team manager from October 1995.

What I bring

  • Investment attraction, set-up and expansion
  • Free Trade Zone operations and legal representation
  • Global and regional operations (LATAM)
  • Government, institutional and media relations
  • Budget, contracts and suppliers
  • Multi-country governance
  • Talent, culture and leadership development
  • Cloud, cybersecurity, data and AI applied to operations