Meet the Board: Carlos Marquez

Carlos Marquez was born in Venezuela. His father is from Spain, and his mother is of Ukrainian descent. He moved to the US when he was 16 to try his luck at professional tennis. He played pro for a couple of years and then decided to go to college with a tennis scholarship. He graduated with a double degree in finance and economics from Florida Atlantic University. He also has an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He currently works for a startup based in San Francisco as a director of finance. He is married, and they have a cat. He and his spouse both love to travel, so they try to do it as often as we can. He is super excited to join us as a board member for Prismatic.

How did you get involved with Prismatic?

I heard about Prismatic through Claudia Muscle, another board member. She used to be the VP, and one of the functions I used to cover finance point of view at Land's End. I met her when we both worked at Lands’ End. And I have followed her since I left Lands’ End. She posted on LinkedIn that she was looking for a new finance-focused board member for Prismatic, and I applied.

Why is Prismatic’s mission critical to you?

I'm an immigrant. I came from Venezuela. I didn’t have a ton of resources, and education has been something that has helped me move up. In my quality of life and career, education. I understand that many parts of education in this country need to be improved, but the most neglected, in my opinion, is EQ training. It’s not part of the curriculum; very few schools have specific initiatives to address these issues.

I'm not in a position to become a teacher right now, but I wanted to help foster education and development for people in underserved communities, which aligns very well with Prismatic’s mission. 

How important is EQ in building a startup in smaller teams? And how have you seen it manifest itself in how your teams work?

In startups, it’s super, super key to have the right hires with the right experience and EQ. Startups, unlike bigger companies, don't always have structured processes. There are a lot of gray areas in startups. Sometimes, people who are good at what they do related to the startup's goals get promoted but are not experienced as managers. So, new management startups are often new managers who have never managed someone. 

Suppose you're not experienced enough with modern intelligence development as a person or manager. In that case, you can promote the wrong person who might be a great worker, but they might create a toxic work environment for their teams.  

What excites you most about working with Prismatic?

From a selfish point of view, I'm very honored and humbled to be part of the Prismatic team as a board member. They're all very accomplished individuals, and it is nice to learn from all the other board members of Prismatic. 

I'm excited to interact with like-minded people who care about their careers but also about the communities they live in. Regarding Prismatic’s goal, I'm passionate about EQ, educational development, and helping underserved communities. Being from Venezuela, I am very familiar with how hard it can be to escape poverty and move up. Whatever I can do to help, it's a worthwhile investment.

What core moments as a young adult helped shape your EQ skills?

I was just being exposed to a lot of different situations. My parents were divorced when I was 15, and my younger siblings saw me as a father figure when that happened. It wasn't very easy, and I had to grow quickly to be able not to fulfill their role because I couldn't do it but be there for my siblings as they needed me. 

Then, I moved to the US just before I turned 17 to play tennis on a tennis scholarship. I lived in the US alone and at a tennis academy with professional, ambitious tennis players. Again, I had to adapt to a new language, culture, and work environment to fulfill my goals. It was a great experience learning from people older than me and different coaches who had different experiences; being involved in sports helped a lot. Being part of a team at a school also enables you to develop that kind of leadership trait and some of those intangibles in emotional development.

There have been a lot of different circumstances. I was also a finance, economics, and math tutor for student-athletes in school. Dealing with football players and basketball players who didn't care a ton about school and trying to find ways to make them understand why it would be essential to develop those skills also helped me grow as a communicator, coach, and leader. There have been a lot of moments, and it’s hard to pick out one specific moment.

Why is it essential to teach EQ skills to Young Adults?

EQ helps them make better decisions early on, right? EQ will allow them to step back and see their future careers from a strictly professional point of view and how it will improve their lives. It'll also make them better prepared for navigating the current work environment. 

There are a lot of changes happening in the way we work, where people are going remote and always being able to make connections like we did before when we all worked in an office and learned from each other by proximity. Knowing what to look for when they're feeling uncomfortable and how to approach mentors or leaders the right way to get what they need to succeed are skills that I see only develop through no EQ or very, very tough, hard lessons. If you can avoid hard lessons by training, that's better.

What is your favorite self-care or community care practice, and why?  

I (still) love playing tennis and try to do that a few times a week. I also love going on long bike rides with my wife, and we enjoy cooking and traveling.

Ready to make a meaningful impact? Discover how you can contribute with Prismatic’s Turning Point Fund.