Dan Hernandez Bio

Dan Hernandez grew up in the small steel town of Pueblo, located in southern Colorado. Both of his parents were first generation U.S. citizens whose families had come to the United States from Mexico to work as migrant farm workers. Like most of the children growing up in his lower eastside neighborhood, Dan faced several social-economic challenges and less than productive diversions including times of poverty, homelessness, and educational failure. Yet, through these experiences, he has found the power to ignite a “Personal Passion” for success within himself and others that propelled him to serve as an executive leader for Fortune 100 Companies by the age of 31. “I have found that the key catalyst for individual, organizational, and leadership success, is the ability to evoke the passion to act! You must dream big and inspire the confidence to passionately pursue those dreams regardless of the obstacles in front of you! When matched with a spirit of innovation and the desire to quickly adapt to succeed, all things are possible!” Dan is an entrepreneur and currently serves as Operating Partner for Cadiz Capital, a private equity firm. He is also the owner of Parallax Fitness, a gym specializing in high energy group fitness, and he also serves as a business consultant and advisor to capital investment institutions. Prior to his current roles, Dan served as Executive Vice President of Global Strategy for Sykes Enterprises, Inc. In his role, he oversaw corporate development, including mergers, acquisitions, strategic partnerships and alliances, in addition to product development, marketing, public relations and community service. Sykes Enterprises, Incorporated is a business process outsourcer focused on call center service solutions with 56,000 global employees. Prior to working with SYKES, Dan served as President and CEO of SBC (now AT&T) Internet Services, a $1billion business that he lead to become America's leading provider of high-speed DSL Internet Access services, and one of the nation's leading Internet Service Providers. This 4,000-employee SBC subsidiary served SBC’s consumer, business and government Internet and broadband customers. For the two years prior to his position at SBC Internet Services, he served as Vice President and General Manager of Ameritech Interactive Media Services, Inc. As vice president, Dan was responsible for leading the operational and information system strategies for Ameritech’s start-up Internet product portfolio. His accomplishments included leading Ameritech.net to a number one rating as the best regional Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the nation two consecutive years. Dan began his career with US WEST Communications (now CenturyLink) as an engineer in. His career has included a variety of leadership positions in engineering, project management, information technologies, business development, technology selection, and operations. A native of Colorado, he graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with degrees in electrical engineering and computer engineering. Dan has served on the Board of Directors for the University of Colorado’s College of Engineering, the Minority Engineering Program at the University of Colorado and the Mathematics Engineering and Science Achievement Program (MESA), and the Inroads Program for the State of Florida. He has also served on the Board of Directors for the Spanish Coalition for Jobs, the Minority Engineering Program at the University of New Mexico and as a member of Minority Engineering Advisory Council at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dan is a sought after speaker and has been recognized through many awards including being recognized as a finalist for the Minority Business Leader of the year, and being awarded the prestigious Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award from the University of Colorado for his many business accomplishments and community service dedication.