Nearly 30 years of learning what makes a financial foundation hold

I was born and raised in Quito, Ecuador.

My path to financial guidance began in a field, not a boardroom.

In 1997, I earned my B.Sc. in Agronomy in Honduras — a discipline that weaves together agriculture, food science, animal science, and economics. What surprised me was how quickly I fell in love not with the soil, but with the numbers beneath it: the financial and economic principles that shape whether a farm, a family, or a nation thrives or fails.

That lesson arrived early, and hard.

In 1999, Ecuador’s economy collapsed. Banks froze. Institutions closed. Ordinary people lined up to withdraw savings that simply weren’t there anymore. The country eventually dollarized its currency to stop the freefall — but for many families, a lifetime of careful saving had already vanished. I watched it happen. I never forgot it.

That experience gave me something no classroom could: a deep, lived understanding of what financial fragility looks like — and what it costs the people who least deserve to bear it.

What I saw in Ecuador still shapes the way I approach financial advice: protect the foundation first, understand the risks, and make sure every recommendation is clear to you before you decide.

From that foundation, I built a career in the field.

I worked as a consultant in Ecuador in economic development, business planning, and financial analysis. I pursued an MBA there, followed by specialized graduate work at UC Berkeley studying how carbon-capturing ecosystems generate measurable economic value — a reminder that the principles of sound stewardship reach far beyond personal finance.

In 2007, I arrived in Canada, and in 2009 enrolled in a Master of Science in Planning at the University of Guelph, deepening my understanding of how economies, communities, and individual financial decisions are all connected. The academic foundation was strong. But something was still missing.

For all the economics and planning theory I had studied, almost none of it explained how financial products actually work — or what role they play in a real family’s life.

That gap troubled me. I had seen what happens when people make consequential financial decisions without truly understanding what they’re signing. I had witnessed a national financial crisis firsthand. And I had spent nearly two decades helping families and businesses think more clearly about money.

Becoming a financial advisor was the natural next step — not to sell products, but to close that gap.

Today, I bring nearly thirty years of accumulated knowledge to every conversation.

An agronomist’s appreciation for long cycles. An economist’s understanding of risk. A planner’s view of how decisions compound over time. And the perspective of someone who has seen what happens when financial foundations are not built carefully.

My approach is shaped by Biblical principles of stewardship — the conviction that what we have is entrusted to us, and that we are called to manage it wisely, faithfully, and with generosity. That is not a marketing line. It is how I have tried to live and work since 1997. You don’t need to share my faith to work with me; clients of every background are welcome and treated with the same honesty and respect.

I am not here to impress you with jargon or rush you into a decision. I am here to educate, explain, and walk alongside you — so that whatever you decide, you decide it with clarity and confidence.