Executive Vice President, Treasurer & Chief Financial Officer, EVERTEC INC

Joaquín Castrillo cuenta cómo se convirtió en CFO de Evertec, una compañía pública, a los 36 años.

🎥 Oct 12, 2023 📺 Raúl Palacios ⏱ 58m 👁 580 views

Imagínate tornarte en CFO de una compañía pública con apenas 36 años de edad en una industria tan compleja como lo es el ...

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About Joaquin Castrillo-salgado

Joaquín Castrillo-Salgado, Executive Vice President, Treasurer & Chief Financial Officer at Evertec, discussed his career path and the company’s strategy in two recent interviews. He said that when the CFO position opened at Evertec, he was asked if he was willing to participate in the process and accepted, despite feeling fear about taking the leap and doubting his readiness for the role’s exposure. Castrillo-Salgado credited Mac, the CEO of Evertec, for advising him to be proactive rather than reactive, and he recommended that others meet people, demonstrate their work, and pursue opportunities aggressively. He described becoming CFO of a public company at age 36 as a unique experience, noting that he did not plan to pursue that path when he graduated high school. Castrillo-Salgado highlighted Evertec’s focus on profitability, stating that the company maintains margins among the best in the industry, including compared to larger U.S. competitors. He said the electronic payments industry is constantly changing and that Evertec must continue innovating to stay competitive. He noted that the company has been active in inorganic growth, including a recent acquisition in Brazil, and that Latin America presents opportunities as more people enter formal banking systems. Castrillo-Salgado added that over half of Evertec’s employees are outside Puerto Rico, with offices in several Latin American countries, and that retaining talent is a challenge, requiring a strong culture where employees understand the company’s goals. He said the CFO role has evolved to require knowledge of technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain, and that he dedicates time to studying these tools. He defined success as happiness, citing family and work as key components.

Source: AI-verified profile updated from Joaquin Castrillo-salgado's recent appearances. Browse all interviews →

Transcript (91 segments)

Raúl Palacios0:00

What is your definition of success? The answer is not cliché, but happiness. At the end of the day, if you are happy, everything around you feels like a success. What makes you happy?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado0:14

My family, my family, and work is also an important part for me. I like what I do.

Raúl Palacios0:28

Welcome to another episode of La Maestría with Raúl Palacios. Today we are joined by the principal executive financial officer of Evertec, the great Joaquin Castrillo. How are you?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado0:41

Very well, very well. Thank you for the invitation. Thank you for receiving us today in the fantastic office here at Evertec, which is a bit more dynamic than I expected. So I appreciate you providing us this space. I wanted to ask you: when you were five years old, were you ever saying, 'I want to be the CFO of a public company someday'?

Raúl Palacios1:01

No, nothing like that. When I graduated from high school, I didn't know what I wanted to do. Obviously, you see your friends deciding which university to go to and what to study. I had no idea. I was indecisive. I asked my dad to go see a counselor to help me figure out what to do in college. So I really didn't have a very precise goal. In the end, I studied business because I applied to several universities, got into good business schools, and said, 'I'll go this way.'

Did you have an influence or a role model from a financial perspective?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado1:49

I've always liked numbers, so it came easily to me and attracted me. But my parents, they both worked and were in the insurance industry, but they weren't accountants or financiers in that sense.

Raúl Palacios2:02

What two or three lessons did you learn from your parents that you would say are relevant today?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado2:13

I would say that most of what I do today is based on what I learned from my parents. Both of them working hard for what they wanted, for their careers, balancing family, which is complicated. Now with my own family and working, I see that. But that drive—if you want something, you have to work, be disciplined, do things well—is something I apply every day of my life, and it comes from the example they set.

Raúl Palacios2:42

You mentioned you studied abroad. I know you studied at Villanova. How do you compare that experience? Did you ever have doubts about staying in Puerto Rico versus studying abroad? What lessons did you learn from being out there that helped in your formation?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado3:00

Even though I wasn't decided on what to study, I was very sure I wanted the experience of living somewhere else. University in the United States was the first opportunity to venture into something totally different. That was a clear driver for me. I think when you are away and when you travel, you learn a lot of things that aren't necessarily in books. It's more about culture, how people live, how different people process experiences and perspectives. At the end of the day, that's very important. Not everyone sees the same things the same way. In work, you realize that all the time. So for me, studying abroad was that first exposure to being with people very different from you, who see things very differently, who speak another language. That in itself is enormous. Later, I went to Spain while at Villanova. My biggest regret is not having done the exchange. It was a blast, mostly because of the people and culture. That was the main driver, and what I took away most, beyond my diploma.

Raúl Palacios4:33

From there, I think you started working in New York, right?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado4:41

Yes. When I got to university, I entered through finance, still indecisive. I said, 'Let me start seeing what things within the business world I like.' I started to really like the area of finance. At that time, I remember having a conversation with my mom, and she told me, 'You should study accounting. An accountant is always needed. You'll never be without a job if you study accounting.' My mom told me the same thing. So literally, I remember where I was. I said, 'I have to take all the electives in accounting.' In the end, I did that and graduated with finance and accounting. Through the university, I got a job with PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York. At that time, it was the next opportunity to do something different in New York. I thought it would be a tremendous professional experience, also from the perspective of getting to know things. So I decided to stay in New York. My first job out of university was in New York.

Raúl Palacios5:40

You were in New York almost five years?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado5:46

I was in New York almost five years, doing mostly auditing. Since I liked finance and didn't want to lose that financial aspect, I asked to stay in the banking group at PwC in New York. They had verticals where you could focus on a type of industry, and I wanted to be in finance and capital markets. I was there for five years, seeing different financial companies, which obviously came full circle as I ended up in a fintech company. So that was my first employment incursion.

Raúl Palacios6:18

It's interesting because the Wall Street Journal was reporting that the accounting profession is seeing a decline in candidates who want to study accounting compared to other professions that take less time to study, like computer engineering or data analytics, mainly due to compensation. How do you see that? Are you experiencing a similar situation when recruiting candidates?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado6:47

Yes, I think obviously when you read it in the Wall Street Journal, they're talking about it in much broader terms. We see it in Puerto Rico too. The compensation issue is real. When you compare it, at least when you're at a firm, with the hours you're working, the reality is that today, to become a CPA, you need a number of credits beyond what you usually graduate with. So there's an additional cost to get the necessary credits to become a CPA, which I think is problematic from an economic perspective for some people. Then you go work a lot of hours, and the compensation might not be the best when compared to other jobs in the financial world where you either work the same number of hours but the compensation is excellent, or you have good compensation and don't have to work the same number of hours as a CPA at a firm. I think that's something the industry has always struggled with, and I know you know it well, we lived it. Hopefully, that brings some changes that create interest in that pool of accountants, because the truth is they are super important in running a company.

Raúl Palacios8:02

I've always thought that accounting is like a language. You learn the language of business. You can't pretend to be a leader or position a company for leadership if you don't master that financial aspect of accounting, because you'll always lack that foundation.

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado8:35

In my opinion, all university concentrations should have required basic courses in finance and accounting. At the end of the day, when you end up in a company or as an entrepreneur, maybe that's not your base or your favorite thing, but it's basic and fundamental in decision-making, in how you go here or there, and what resources you have to execute what you're trying to do. Here at Evertec, we promote that a lot. We see it every day, even people in products or technology areas have to have financial conversations.

Raúl Palacios9:16

How interesting is that cross-pollination between groups? When you were working at PwC, I know you returned to Puerto Rico and worked in the audit team at Banco Popular for a few years. When did you make the decision to jump to Evertec, which at that time was already a public company but not what it is today?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado9:43

When I came, it wasn't a public company yet. I joined in 2012. At PwC, I was a manager and had reached a point where I didn't necessarily love what was coming next. I liked being in the field doing analysis, trying to solve problems. At the firm, you reach a point where it's more interpretation of accounting guidelines. I wasn't very sure if I wanted to continue that path. The firm was going very well, it gave me brutal opportunities. I think the firm was the best unit I've had in my career in terms of how to work, work ethic, relationships with people and clients, difficult conversations. But at that moment, I received a call from the then-CFO of Evertec with an opportunity to help take the company public. They were basically revamping the entire finance group because it wasn't designed to run independently. At that time, Apollo, a US investment group that owned 51%, was basically running the company. I saw it as an opportunity for something totally different, exposure to how these people handle this type of investment, which you don't see every day. They weren't there to run this for 20 years; they were maximizing it as quickly as possible and then moving on to something else. I saw it as a super experience to go through a process of a company going from private to public. Almost nobody has that experience.

Raúl Palacios11:42

When you made that decision, were you thinking this might open the door for something better or different in the future?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado12:05

Looking back, I wasn't visualizing that I would enter and want to be CFO. I made the decision honestly under the premise that this would be two or three years. The company goes public, Apollo exits, a new team comes in, and they set up their own structure. I saw it as an experience to go through a process in Puerto Rico. If I wanted to do this, I could get on a plane and go to New York and maybe have the same experience of being in a private company that goes public, but I was in Puerto Rico and wanted to be here. So for me, it was an opportunity that came my way, and I said, 'Let's try it.' My plan was for the company to go public and then see what happens. Maybe I'd have some nice experiences I could use in another job. Obviously, things started to align, I stayed with the group, continued growing my responsibility within the finance group, and little by little, I loved everything we were doing. Nobody showed me the door.

Raúl Palacios13:17

There are several lessons I take from that. When evaluating opportunities, you have to have a certain flexibility, like you did. You don't necessarily lock into one end goal. You have a vision of something more immediate you want to achieve, but at the same time, not be afraid to take that leap. Many people, especially in Puerto Rico, fear those radical changes and stepping out of their comfort zone.

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado13:52

Yes. The reality is that when you make that kind of decision, you don't know what the outcome will be. You might be deviating from your north. But as we were talking off-camera, and this is something I say a lot with my dad, life is what happens when you plan. If you plan too much, the reality is that nothing is linear. If you're only focused on where you're going, you miss a lot of nice things passing in front of you. In my case, instead of having a clear end goal, I've been much more attentive to the opportunities that come my way. So far, I've never said no. Whenever someone has said, 'Raise your hand,' I've said yes. I'm very curious. I love that. 'Okay, this is something new. Let's learn about it.' I get a lot out of it because I learn. That's how I saw it. As opportunities have come my way, I've always said, 'Okay, let's try it.'

Raúl Palacios14:57

Tell me a bit about making the leap. The company goes public. How did that period lead to the opportunity to become the principal executive officer, the CFO?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado15:16

I had been here since 2012, about four or five years, six years at Evertec. I was basically the right hand of two CFOs—the person who brought me to Evertec, who later left, and another CFO who was with us for a few years. So I had a lot of exposure to the role and what it entailed. I was carrying a lot of the day-to-day of some of the most important aspects of the CFO role. When that CFO left Evertec and the position opened up, they asked me if I was interested. They didn't say it was mine; they asked if I was willing to participate in a process. I said yes. Speaking a bit about that fear of taking the leap, it wasn't easy. It's a big role with a lot of responsibility. You doubt yourself a bit, whether you're ready for that kind of exposure. But at that moment, I said, 'If I'm not ready now, at some point I will be. And if I let this opportunity pass, I don't know when another one like this will come where they tell you you can participate in the process.' So I said yes. It was a formal process, which was uncomfortable for me because I'm not a person who talks much about myself or sells myself. But it involved having to sell myself to the people evaluating whether I was ready and if it was the best decision for the company, which is the most important thing.

Raúl Palacios16:54

Did you have an ally who helped you, or any advice you were given in that process that you would tell a young person with a similar aspiration?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado17:05

Definitely. Mac, the CEO of Evertec, was a person who gave me a lot of advice on how to handle the process—to take the process head-on, be proactive, not reactive. Don't wait for the process to come to you. In this type of opportunity, if you don't know when it will come again, you have to go hard at it. Meet with people, let them know who you are, demonstrate what you've done, and be super proactive in the process. That was something I honestly hadn't thought of. I thought, 'At the end of the day, they know me, and my work speaks for itself,' which is the most important thing. But there are other little things that help move the needle. That advice was key, in my opinion. There were other people who obviously also influenced and gave the necessary support, saying, 'Yes, we've worked with him, and this is a tremendous opportunity for the company and for Joaquin.' So in the end, there were many components of advice that I used.

Raúl Palacios18:22

When the opportunity was given to you, I imagine there was euphoria, and then the reality check of the great responsibility. What are the good and bad parts of that responsibility that you didn't know when you raised your hand?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado18:46

The reality is, I was nervous from the beginning. Positive nerves, not from the point of view of euphoria, but I had already prepared myself over time for what this means. There are a lot of things that come with the role that create uncertainty and that sense of 'Wow, maybe I'm not ready.' But something I've been consistent with is always preparing myself. If I have something in front of me, even this interview, I prepare and read. That gives me a sense of comfort or security, which gives me many more tools to handle different topics. That's something I've continued doing. But it doesn't take away that I also like, to a certain extent, that feeling of being in something that isn't necessarily what I do every day, where I feel I'm learning and don't know everything. That gives me more fuel. 'Okay, I have to get into this. I have to learn, I have to read.' Then you can use all that to execute. So it's mixed feelings.

Raúl Palacios20:06

What I've read on the topic is that that type of stress is good, in the sense that you want to prove you can perform well because you take pride in what you do. Sometimes people don't have a good fit with what's asked, maybe they don't have the skills. In that case, you have to be honest with yourself and see how you can learn from it to continue.

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado20:53

100%. Life doesn't end there. It's not linear. You sometimes arrive at the same place by an alternate route. You have to be attentive to that. Also, when you get to certain roles, you depend on a team. You don't do these things alone. You have to have the humility to say, 'Maybe I'm not very good at this, so I'm going to bring someone to the team who is very good at it.' At the end of the day, it's all teamwork. If you have a good group and the ability to identify good people who will support you in areas that aren't your strengths, you put yourself in a super position to keep moving forward.

Raúl Palacios21:39

What are the two or three skills that someone in a financial role, or any executive role in a company like yours, must have?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado21:58

One, I think realizing that the job, when you get to certain roles, is really about problem-solving. You're there to identify the obstacle and the best way to remove it so the rest of the team can execute. That intangible part of figuring out the best way to listen and then execute a solution is super important. Another thing is the ability to articulate complex things in a simple way. In my opinion, that's paramount. It's something that isn't talked about much, but you get into many complex things, and at the end of the day, you have to explain them to many people so they understand and execute towards that objective. If you don't have that ability to synthesize complex things and put them in simple terms, many things get complicated. So for me, those are two non-technical skills that are necessary when you get to those roles.

Raúl Palacios23:05

Speaking of non-technical skills, I know you like sports. What professional coach would you say most closely resembles the leadership style you have or aspire to have?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado23:23

I like sports, but I don't follow any coach so closely as to tell you that's the style I follow. I've been very surprised by the coach of the Miami Heat. A guy who has consistently taken a team without a superstar very far in the seasons against teams that, on paper, are significantly better. That's powerful because you realize that if you move the pieces you have in the right way, not all being superstars, you can get there. There's a level of preparation, culture, something that guy has in that team that makes them consistently compete. For me, that's fascinating. I try to bring that to Evertec. My teams will laugh, but I'm always using sports analogies because I think sports and how teams are managed is very similar to how you manage day-to-day in the office. You have many personalities, people with different skills, very good at different things. You're trying to see the best formation or the best way to organize the team for a project to get the best performance and outcome. I'm constantly thinking and trying to use sports analogies. I'm reading Phil Jackson's latest book, which talks about his entire time as a coach. He talks about how the most common style tends to be the more authoritarian, fear-based type of leadership, more about avoiding pain and scolding. He always tried to give the teams a lot of freedom and peace.

Raúl Palacios25:41

You could say, 'Well, you had Jordan and Pippen, that helps.'

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado25:46

That's easy. But before Jackson arrived, the team hadn't won. His first year there, they won. It's a different style and philosophy of moving the ball more as a team, which is interesting because sometimes in practice it's difficult to execute. Most leaders you interact with tend to be more like the style he mentions. But if you achieve that balance and implement a bit of empathy, you win people over more.

Raúl Palacios26:30

Has that been your route?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado26:35

100%. We're not going to lead by fear. All the books say that's not the way. The reality is you don't want that either. You've had bosses, I've had bosses. You don't thrive when your boss is like that. It doesn't lend itself to a productive long-term relationship. As a leader, you have to be decisive. At the end of the day, the group has to feel they are part of the decision or the input. The final decision might not be the one you or someone in the group brought, but once the decision is made, everyone has to support it. How you get there is where I think the difference lies. Sometimes people confuse being very sure and direct in how you execute versus how you arrived at that decision. 'Hey, we all sat down, I listened to all the different perspectives.' Great point. But at the end of the day, the decision is mine. That's not necessarily very different from you arriving and saying, 'This is what we're going to do, and that's it. I don't want to hear opinions.' That's very different. If you go around thinking that what you say is always right and will work out, at some point you'll hit hard.

Raúl Palacios28:15

I think the same. Now, entering a bit into the electronic payments industry. Everyone knows Evertec in Puerto Rico, but Evertec has a lot of growth in Latin America too. How do you see the industry growing? According to statistics, the market is about $80 billion and is estimated to be $180 billion by 2026. How do you see the industry, and what challenges and opportunities do the players have?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado29:05

First, I love the industry we're in, maybe because of the challenges and the fact that it's constantly changing. Electronic payments worldwide is a point of much innovation. I think that's the biggest challenge. There are many trying to get into how you pay. Today you can pay with your phone, with your watch, enter websites and one-click pay. There's certainly a lot of innovation in the industry, which means we also have to constantly look for ways to maintain our competitive advantage and continue bringing innovative products and services that withstand what's coming. The world continues to evolve. In Puerto Rico, we have a very well-developed economy. But when you start going to some Latin American countries, there are still brutal opportunities where much larger economies don't have the same number of people in the formal banking systems. Evertec benefits from that because as people enter the formal banking system and have a credit card, that facilitates electronic payments. That's the opportunity we are constantly pursuing, and why we continue to expand into Latin America. The opportunity is big there.

Raúl Palacios30:47

Is the growth there a mix of organic and transactions, or is it more strategically driven?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado30:54

We have a mix of both. We have quite good organic growth from relationships we continue to cultivate. All these trends of people moving little by little to more formal banking systems and card issuance help us organically in the countries we're in. But we've also been very active in the inorganic part. We generate good free cash flow, and we put it to work mostly through acquisitions. We've been acquiring companies lately.

Raúl Palacios31:36

I saw you announced a transaction recently in Brazil.

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado31:43

Yes, we just announced a transaction about two weeks ago in Brazil. That transaction is a bit outside of payments. It's the largest transaction we've done at Evertec so far. We're super excited about what that can mean for Evertec in the future. It's a company that provides technology services to financial institutions. They've made their business providing and facilitating access to the technologies that different verticals of financial institutions in Brazil use to run their businesses, but they don't have payments. We see this as an opportunity to enter and attach all our payment experience to those clients and continue growing that opportunity.

Raúl Palacios32:28

Now you'll have to speak a bit of Portuguese. In the macroeconomic world, interest rates have shot up. The Fed has raised rates to try to calm inflation. That obviously causes technology company values to drop. Have you felt any pressure from investors or in the scrutiny of quarterly financial reports to push profitability?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado33:17

Honestly, not much. If you look at Evertec, it's very profitable. We have margins that are among the best in the industry, including some of the much larger players in the US. We've always had a big focus on profitability, even before this situation. Obviously, the stock price is impacted, and every now and then you have an investor who wants to make sure that beyond market movements, there's nothing fundamental that happened at Evertec that they're not clear about that caused the stock to drop. But at the end of the day, we can't control much how the market will react. What we can control is having a very clear strategy that we communicate constantly and then demonstrate how we are executing. That should, over a much longer period, reflect what Evertec is really worth. In a world where news is in your hand 24/7, any news can move the price up or down. But the theory is that's momentary. In the long term, the value should reflect itself because we continue to execute, continue to grow, continue to be very profitable. That's the hope.

Raúl Palacios34:50

Within the strategic plans you're mentioning, how do you see the team's goals for the next five years or the next year that you're working on?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado35:02

I think obviously the number one priority now is to finish closing the transaction we announced in Brazil, which is big. We have a great team and have been super focused on what we've been doing in Puerto Rico, which continues to be our most important market, with things like ATH Móvil. But now that we're venturing into perhaps larger transactions from an inorganic growth perspective, these are complex transactions that come with integration, entering a market with a different language, different regulations, different clients. So one of the priorities is to do these integrations well because they are a very delicate part. No matter how good a transaction we've done, if we don't integrate it well, there's a lot of risk. The other thing is to continue positioning ourselves in these countries outside of Puerto Rico so that the organic pipeline continues to take us where we want to go. There's a big focus on continuing to keep Puerto Rico performing as it always has, while at the same time trying to expand what Latin America means for Evertec.

Raúl Palacios36:25

Puerto Rico is a company that has ventured out and is doing very well outside of Puerto Rico. That's one of the best cases of companies born in Puerto Rico that have been able to scale internationally. How do you think you're managing that development of relationships? What approach has helped when entering a market?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado37:02

Honestly, there are many things. We obviously have a lot of people outside of Puerto Rico now. More than half of our employees are outside of Puerto Rico. We are going to countries where we have a real presence. When you have a real presence in these countries, as we were talking about, you learn about the different cultures, and that helps a lot. You have people who know the payment systems, know how the regulator works, have direct relationships with clients. Clients also appreciate that you're not a company that got on a plane, signed a contract, got back on the plane, and calls them on the phone. We have people in Santiago, Montevideo, Bogotá, San José who live there, who are local. As Latin Americans, that's important. That relationship part has been very important for us, and it's something we continue to execute.

Raúl Palacios38:10

I read you were in around 26 countries?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado38:16

Over 26 clients. That local presence is a strategic and competitive value. At the end of the day, yes, we are a Puerto Rican company, but the people going to the client or having coffee are there. You can call them and have a coffee.

Raúl Palacios38:42

Right now, for many CFOs, one of the biggest challenges is how to retain talent in a war for talent everywhere. With inflationary effects, more people are asking for salary increases and compensation. How do you manage that slow slip between being competitive in compensation while wanting to retain the best talent?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado39:08

I don't think this is new. I know the pandemic accelerated turnover for many different reasons. You see peaks in different groups of professionals. During the pandemic, the technology part was incredible—the competitiveness, how difficult it was to retain good technical people. Now we have the issue with accountants. There aren't many, so the good ones are in high demand and will receive good offers or counteroffers. You have to be very attentive to what's happening in the market and ensure you're keeping those groups at competitive levels. But I think a lot also has to do with culture. It's complicated and takes time, but having a good culture where people understand the company's objective, everyone is invested in what you're trying to do, and employees see that the company is looking out for their best interests is also very important. It's a mix of many things. I don't think it's something that is necessarily resolved. It evolves. Today it's this, tomorrow it's for that reason. You have to be willing to adapt.

Raúl Palacios40:46

In terms of technology, I know as a financier you might not have had that preparation, but I understand the CFO role has changed dramatically. You have to be more up to date with artificial intelligence, blockchain. How do you see those topics in terms of preparation? Do you dedicate time to them in your study routine?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado41:12

Some things more than others. The topic of artificial intelligence, which is obviously the flavor of the month, yes. The reality is that it works. Going back to the part about curiosity, I spend time on OpenAI and use Google's tools personally. You realize how powerful they can be and how much they can help people be better, faster, more efficient. At the same time, we have teams here constantly trying to understand these technologies and how we can apply them, either to make ourselves more efficient at Evertec or to see if there are ways to integrate some of that technology into our products. As we've been saying, it's constant. If there's something that is constant, it's change.

Raúl Palacios42:13

For a young person who wants to specialize or break into the fintech industry, which is small in Puerto Rico, what advice would you give them?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado42:32

Call us. Honestly, in Puerto Rico, fintech isn't very big. There's Evertec and our competitors. But when someone wakes up and says, 'I love payments,' that person should call us.

Raúl Palacios42:55

I want to do a quick ping-pong with you about your routine. What is a non-negotiable that you try to do every day?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado43:07

I have to tell you, I don't have a non-negotiable. My routine, beyond organizing myself every night based on my list of important things for the next day, I have young children. So that's a constant change. I adapt every day to what comes. I would say that's my routine: constant change.

Raúl Palacios43:41

Do you have a favorite book you recommend, or one you've read recently?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado43:48

I haven't read a formal book in a while. But since we're doing this a lot, I listen to many podcasts. There's a podcast called 'Wisdom from the Top' where they interview people who have gone very far in their careers, to the highest levels in enormous companies. It's about their trajectory, decisions, why they made certain decisions, what led them to where they are today. You realize it's not linear. Many times, to get where people are, they made decisions that from the outside you'd say, 'Why on earth did they make that decision?' but it turned out to be important. I love non-fiction, learning from people who have gone through experiences. There's a guy named Naval Ravikant. He talks a lot about if you want to acquire wealth in your career, you have to position yourself in opportunities where there is radical responsibility. I think that's interesting.

Raúl Palacios45:19

Your story is an example of what he's saying. When you have to answer for the decisions you make, you'll distance and differentiate yourself in your niche or industry. That's what executives are paid for: better decision-making. If you develop that skill set and create a track record, it will definitely go better for you.

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado45:56

Exactly.

Raúl Palacios45:56

Is there a story that happened to you where at the moment you thought, 'Damn, I don't like this,' but over time you saw it was good that it happened?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado46:07

Not as such. Obviously, in the professional realm, you always have to do things that the first time you do them, you think, 'Okay, after doing this ten times, I don't want to do it every day.' But I consider myself a very positive person. I'm always looking for something good in whatever situation, no matter how negative. 'This will help me with that. I can improve this here. There's an opportunity to improve a process.' When you see the task, it might not be the most attractive or sexy, but if I go with that mentality that I can extract something from this situation, I handle it. At the end of the day, you put yourself in a situation where you didn't say no. Eventually, you use it and pass it on to someone else who might be coming in the same train behind you. 'Look, I did this, now it's your turn.' Little by little, you move towards the things that interest you most. But you also have to do things you don't like.

Raúl Palacios47:21

In your role now, how do you manage the division between work and family?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado47:33

That's very difficult. Work-life balance for me, I know they are two different words, but it's like one single thing. I have a brutal support group with my family, my wife, who understands the work commitments I have and gives me that support. In the same way, they know that work is important to me, I like it, it's an important part of my life. So I have to find a way for them to understand that work will be part of what I do day-to-day with the family. And the same with my work: I try to have the flexibility to ensure I go to the things that matter. But I also think it's a bit up to you, what you're trying to achieve. It's not easy to say, 'I want to be at this level,' but also have the best flexibility in the world, because that's not the reality. It's very difficult, but the support group I have around me, my family, is excellent, and that helps significantly.

Raúl Palacios48:50

Do you have a particular schedule, a standardized day?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado48:55

It varies. I wake up around 6:00 or 6:30 AM because I have to help with the kids and take them to school. Once I drop them off, my day formally begins. Many times by that point, I've already read and sent several emails. Mornings are much more predictable than afternoons. Things come up every day that you thought you could leave at a certain time, but that's not the reality. Going back to work-life balance, today you're connected all the time. You have to find the moments where you have to disconnect because you're at a family activity or something with your kids, but you're connected all the time.

Raúl Palacios49:58

What lesson did you learn recently as an executive that you wish you had known at 22?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado50:11

Good question. I would say the importance of people skills. The reality is that when you leave university, you're very focused on what you learned: how to execute, the technical parts. But as you grow, in any role, you leave the technical part to other people. You become a leader of people. Learning to handle situations with people who are very different from you, who handle pressure differently, communicate differently, receive or perceive information differently than you would like to receive it, is complex. You have to dedicate time to learn it. It's not necessarily taught in university. When you're 22, you say, 'If I'm good at something, I'll get to the end.' Little by little, you realize that being very good technically will take you to a point, but from there on comes all this other set of soft skills: how you motivate a group, how you give expectations, how you guide them. That's something that, if I had known at 22, I would have dedicated much more time to that aspect of life.

Raúl Palacios51:50

It's ironic because accounting is a very technical profession, but as you evolve in any company, you're basically a coach.

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado52:10

Exactly. The technical part is important because when you're going to make a decision, you have to have that technical foundation to challenge and ask the necessary questions to be comfortable. But you have all this other aspect that has to do with your team and colleagues supporting you and giving you what you need. If you don't have the people skills for them to understand what we're looking for, why, by when, expectations, how you communicate it, then it doesn't arrive. I think universities should give much more of this interpersonal communication, team building. At first, you say, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah,' but when you start executing, you realize it's very important.

Raúl Palacios53:23

What do you think is lacking more in people, specifically in Puerto Rico?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado53:29

I think maybe it's generational. I'm a millennial. We came from a school where at PwC, you had to work for what you wanted and demonstrate. I think now we have a lot of the word 'entitlement.' I don't say that in a negative way because each generation has its own thing. I imagine those before me looked down and said, 'You don't know what you're doing.' But I think there are certain realities of life that have to be based on foundation. Sometimes we lose that and come with a defined notion of what I need or what I have to have without a foundation. Then conversations become superficial because there's not much behind what people sometimes ask for or believe they need.

Raúl Palacios54:47

Instant gratification is also cultural, with phones and apps. That doesn't help either.

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado55:00

Right.

Raúl Palacios55:05

What are you most proud of from your time at Evertec?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado55:11

I think the trajectory the company has had, at least since I've been here. It was slow at first, going public, and what we've done in the last 7 or 8 years is a lot. The company is totally different from the one I joined. Being able to say I'm part of the positive change of something like Evertec, and what that represents for all Evertec employees, is a source of pride for me. I love talking about the company because I'm very proud of what we've done and what we're trying to achieve. It's not a specific thing. Obviously, I loved the moment I received the position I'm in now. More than anything, I feel that I contribute to the decisions that lead us to what we're achieving, and that gives me pleasure.

Raúl Palacios56:13

By the way, I read that the average tenure of a CFO at a public company is 3 years. I think you've surpassed that by now.

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado56:25

Yes.

Raúl Palacios56:25

Are you as meticulous with your personal finances as you are as a CPA?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado56:31

I would say yes. Those who know me know I'm meticulous with many things. I'm meticulous with everything, even the tables in emails. So it crosses every line in my life.

Raúl Palacios56:54

Great. Joaquin, this is the last question of the interview. What is your definition of success?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado57:07

I think the answer is not cliché, but happiness. At the end of the day, if you are happy, everything around you feels like a success. So I think being happy is everyone's goal. What makes me happy? My family, my family, and work is also an important part. I like what I do, and that's why I do it with the dedication I do. It's a combination of those things. That balance we talked about is difficult, but if you achieve it and are doing something you like while dedicating time to the important things and manage to balance it, I think you're very close to feeling successful.

Raúl Palacios58:00

I couldn't have said it better myself. Joaquin, I want to thank you for giving us the time today. I know your time and schedule must be busy. Thank you for having me. Is there anything you'd like to add about a project you're working on?

Joaquin Castrillo-salgado58:19

No, thank you for this. I'm not very public on social media, but thank you for the time.