Richard L. Carrión Rexach (born in November 26, 1952) is the executive chairman of Popular, Inc., the parent company of Banco Popular de Puerto Rico and Popular Bank. Prior to assuming his current position in July 2017, he served as chairman and chief executive officer of Popular, Inc. for over 20 years. He is on the board of directors at

Verizon Communications Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

and Centro Financiero BHD and the supervisory board of NIBC Holding N.V. Carrión is currently a partner at J.C. Flowers & Co. He served as a director of the

Federal Reserve Bank of New York The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is one of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the United States. It is responsible for the Second District of the Federal Reserve System, which encompasses the New York (state), State of New York, the 12 norther ...

from 2008 to 2015.>

Early life

Carrión was born and raised in San Juan,

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

. His grandfather was one of the founders of Popular, Inc. (BPPR). He received a bachelor's degree from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce in 1974 and an MS in Management Information Systems from the

MIT Sloan School of Management The MIT Sloan School of Management (branded as MIT Sloan) is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree progra ...

in 1976. After the master's degree, Mr. Carrión joined Banco Popular in 1976. After his father's death, Carrión became the leader of that banking corporation.

Popular, Inc.

While at the helm of Popular, Inc., Carrión led the way in bringing technology innovation to banking in Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and several countries in Latin America. Carrión's vision brought the first network of ATMs to Puerto Rico and many other Latin American countries. He also spearheaded the successful migration from paper to electronic transactions and the establishment of the largest data processing center in the Caribbean, a regional leader in information technology.

Philanthropy

For almost three decades Mr. Carrión has divided his time between Popular and philanthropy, placing particular emphasis on education and sports. He is the founder and trustee of the Banco Popular Foundation; which, among other charities, has donated scholarships to over 1,000 students through the Rafael Carrión, Jr. Scholarship Fund. He currently serves on the board of directors of Verizon. Since 1992, Carrión has also been involved in the production of music videos that highlight Puerto Rico's musical culture and history. In 2007, he was appointed a member of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Finance Commission. Mr. Carrión has also contributed to improving Puerto Rico's public education system. He participated in Sapientis Week, an initiative sponsored by the non-profit Sapientis which brings distinguished public figures into classrooms in order to raise the public's awareness of the education crisis in Puerto Rico.

International Olympic Committee

He has been a member of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

(IOC) since 1990 and currently chairs the Finance Commission and is a member of the IOC's Marketing, TV and Internet Rights Commissions. Mr. Carrión led the negotiation team for the U.S. broadcast of the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games – generating $2 billion in revenue – and was elected to the IOC executive board in 2004. He was one of the torch carriers for the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, Italy. From 1987, he and the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee led a fight to try to bring the 2004 Summer Olympic Games to

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

. That bid failed, however, when

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

was voted in 1997 as the city to host those games. In 2012, Carrión awarded Javier Culson with the bronze medal for the 400 m hurdles and Jaime Espinal with the silver medal for wrestling freestyle 84 kg at the

2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. Culson and Espinal were the first Puerto Ricans to win Olympic medals outside of boxing.

2013 Candidacy for IOC President

On May 22, 2013, Carrión confirmed that he would run for

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

of the

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based in L ...

. At the

125th IOC Session The 125th IOC Session took place at the Buenos Aires Hilton in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 7 to 10 September 2013. On 7 September, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) elected Tokyo as the host city of the 2020 Summer Olympic ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, Carrión secured 29 votes in the final round of voting, but lost the election to

Thomas Bach Thomas Bach (born 29 December 1953) is a German lawyer, former foil fencer, and Olympic gold medalist. He has served as the ninth president of the International Olympic Committee since 2013, the first ever Olympic champion to be elected to tha ...

FIBA

Carrión is a current member of the FIBA Central Board, the highest executive body of FIBA.

Personal life

Richard Carrión is currently married to Isabella Heseltine. He was previously married to Conxita Viñamata Martorell, with whom he had a son, Rafael Luis. Carrión has 4 children from his first marriage, Io Ana: Richard Jr., Ceciliana and Ana Sofía. Carrión is the cousin of Puerto Rican

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

and radio talk show host Camille Carrión.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carrion, Richard Puerto Rican businesspeople Puerto Rican International Olympic Committee members MIT Sloan School of Management alumni Living people 1952 births