We are pleased to welcome Andres Ruzo to the RevTech Ventures Mentor team!
Andres Ruzo is the Founder of LinkAmerica.
Born and raised in Lima, Peru, Andres came to the United States in 1980 and earned an engineering degree at Texas A&M University. After working in Houston in oil exploration and then commercial real estate, he moved to Dallas in 1992 to pursue his career as an entrepreneur, and founded LinkAmerica in 1994 as a firm that sold refurbished equipment within the communications industry. From 1994-2001, business boomed. Then, due to extended reductions in the capital and expense budgets in telecommunications industry, business experienced a sustained decline. By 2007, Andres was close to putting LinkAmerica into bankruptcy.
In the midst of this period of intense challenge to his spirit and capabilities, he recognized the importance of “thought leadership” and innovation in creating measurable value for LinkAmerica’s customers in metrics important to those customers. With this new direction, Andres transformed the company from one that focused on the end of life management of mature network technology to one that focused on providing innovative logistics solutions and a suite of technical professional services. The success of this strategy led to LinkAmerica’s ranking in 2011 as the second fastest-growing Hispanic company in the U.S. (Hispanic Business Magazine’s “100 Fastest-Growing Companies”).
Thanks to Andres’ visionary and innovative reinvention of the company, LinkAmerica has sustained double-digit percentage annual revenue growth from $12 million in 2008 to $214 million in 2011. The revenue outlook for 2012 is $250 million. According to Andres, “In the business world, it’s about persistence, commitment and faith.” Despite his direct impact on the company’s success, Andres believes it is not about him, but rather, how he is using the talents and opportunities God is continuously providing. He believes the actions that have made him a strong leader are due the positive influence his faith has had on his life. His motto, which he has taught his own children since their infancy, is: “Choose your faith and live it on a daily basis, aligning your thoughts, words, and actions around it.”