Alvaro Rodríguez co-founded IGNIA in June 2007 and has served as managing partner since that date. Alvaro has been working with entrepreneurs for 15 years as the first venture capital fund in Mexico. IGNIA is a cross-border early-stage venture capital firm based in the US and Mexico investing in tech entrepreneurs from around the world who are solving pain points faced by the emerging middle class in Latin America. Alvaro led the investments in Rapyd, Tiendanube, Abra, Arcus, Credijusto, Lentesplus, ProducePay, UnDosTres and Sr. Pago.

Alvaro is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School. As member of the HBS faculty he teaches the first year MBA required course The Entrepreneurial Manager (TEM). 

He is the former Chairman of the Board of Compartamos Banco (Gentera), America’s largest microfinance institution, and formerly served as Chairman of the Board of ACCION International, a 60 year old U.S. based global non-for-profit leader and pioneer in microfinance.

Alvaro formerly served for 10 years in the C-Suite of NYSE publicly listed companies as Chief Financial Officer of Vitro; Chief Executive Officer of Farmacias Benavides and Chief Financial Officer of Grupo Elektra.

Alvaro also participates in the following: Board Member of Harvard University’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (Advisory Board); Harvard Business School Latin America Advisory Board; the Social Progress Imperative (founding board member); ITAM Epic Entrepreneurship Center (Advisory Board); Oxford University Saïd Business School Global Council and Duke University CASE Initiative on Impact Investing (CASE i3 – Advisory Board)

In 2005 Alvaro was named Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Forbes named Alvaro as one of the 30 Top Social Entrepreneurs of the world. In 2012 the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) awarded Alvaro with the SEN Sustainability Award on Economic Justice/Community Impact. In 2014, the President of Mexico honored him with the National Entrepreneurship Award. In 2019 he received the Alumni Achievement Award from Harvard Business School, the highest honor presented to an Alum of the School.

He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.  He did his bachelor’s degree in Economics at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), where he has also been named as a distinguished alum.

In his college years, he was part of the Mexican Rowing National Team having won medals in the US nationals and Panamerican and Central American Games and eighth in the World University Games. He continues to row at a competitive level.