San José, Costa Rica → the world
The story
Thirty years, seven companies, three operations built from the ground up, and one country. This is the route, told in order.
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1993 – 1995
A headset, a question and a second language
I finished high school in Santa Ana in 1993 and spent 1994 as an exchange student at Coast Union High School in California. I came back with the English that would open every door afterwards and with a habit I never lost: asking how things work.
In July 1995 I took my first technical-support call for Acer in San José. Two months later I was a Level 2 resource; by October I was managing a customer-service team. I was also starting Systems Engineering studies at Universidad Latina. The pattern was set early: learn the job, then learn to lead the people who do it.
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1999 – 2006
The first contact center
SYKES was part of the first contact center established in Costa Rica's services industry, and I grew up with it: customer-service team manager, leader of the critical-escalation team, then client services supervisor. Those years taught me that service quality is a people system before it is a process, and that a country can build an industry out of talent and trust.
“Service quality is a people system before it is a process.”
What SYKES taught me -
2006 – 2012
Operations at scale: IBM and HP
A year managing client operations at IBM, then five and a half years at HP: training manager, business operations, customer operations and finally Total Customer Experience Manager for the Americas. The discipline of metrics, forecasting, contracts and service levels across many countries became second nature. So did a conviction: numbers matter because of what they let you do for people.
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2012 – 2017
VMware: from a founding team to Latin America's largest VMware center
In December 2012 I joined VMware Costa Rica in its founding stage as Managing Director and legal representative. In June 2014, during President Luis Guillermo Solís's first tour of the United States, VMware announced its expansion and I was the company's voice in Costa Rica. In December 2015 we inaugurated a new five-floor site in America Free Zone; the Presidency called it "the largest VMware operations center in Latin America".
We widened the centre's scope to shared services, IT and technical support and specialised sales support, with Free Trade Zone expansions approved in 2014 and 2016. As Global Site Operations lead I helped standardise how VMware's sites in Costa Rica, India, Ireland, Bulgaria and the United States worked together. The culture the team built was measured with Great Place to Work from 2016 and ranked first in Costa Rica and eighth in Central America (100–1,000 employees) in the 2018 edition.
“El centro de operaciones de VMware más grande en América Latina.”
Presidency of the Republic of Costa Rica, 10 December 2015 -
2018 – 2022
Palo Alto Networks: building through a pandemic
In November 2018 I started again from zero, this time for a cybersecurity leader. We built a global-support and corporate-functions operation, entered the Free Trade Zone regime in 2020 and then, weeks later, sent everyone home. Leading through the pandemic meant safety first, continuity second and inventing new ways to keep people connected. In 2022 we held the site's first own job fair.
“Es importante que las empresas den el valor necesario al ser humano.”
El Financiero, April 2020 -
2022 – today
Databricks: Costa Rica as a platform for Latin America
In November 2022 I incorporated Databricks' Costa Rica entity; in January 2023 it entered the Free Trade Zone regime, in February the arrival was announced with COMEX and in April the operation opened. In May 2025 we moved to a new office in America Free Zone, announced alongside COMEX, CINDE and PROCOMER, as the company expanded in São Paulo and opened in Mexico City.
As Director of International and LATAM Operations I coordinate the International Steering Committee that takes Databricks into new countries and I hold operating responsibility for Latin America. In June 2026, in Silicon Valley, I presented the Costa Rica case to investors and technology leaders at the gathering PROCOMER organised during the Data + AI Summit. Each year I also talk with ten to twelve companies, in technology and other industries, that are weighing Costa Rica.
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Always
Family, poems and random acts of kindness
None of this happens alone. I am married to Karen and I am the father of Santiago and Jimena; their testimonials on this site are the ones I am proudest of. I write poems, badly and happily. I dance. I believe we change the world with one random act of kindness, one person at a time, and I try to run every operation I lead as if that were a key performance indicator.
Giving back takes the form of teaching: culture, leadership and employability sessions in companies and universities, among them Universidad Latina and the HR Summit in 2026, and the mentoring and keynotes of InspireWorks Lab, part of Morandi Corp, the holding I founded together with EXPANDio, which helps companies land operations in Costa Rica.
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What's next
Keeping Costa Rica chosen
I have seen, from the inside, how a multinational chooses a country and what it needs to stay and grow. Cloud, cybersecurity, data and AI are changing those decisions in every industry, and the advantage is shifting from cost to capability. I have also seen the people I worked with go on to build the next operations in this country. The next chapter of this route is about that: more operations, more capability, more Costa Ricans growing with them.
What I carry
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People first
Teams that feel they matter build operations that last. Culture is measured, not assumed.
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Build to stay
Entity, regime, site, suppliers and the relationship with authorities, done properly the first time.
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Give it back
Every lesson from thirty years is worth more shared: in a classroom, a mentoring session or a keynote.
Let's write the next chapter
Operations, leadership, investment decisions or building something new in Costa Rica: I'd love to hear from you.