Rodriguez also relayed his career trajectory, which began in 1989 at buyout firm Joseph Littlejohn & Levy. Despite an initial lack of industry knowledge, Rodriguez worked his way up to Partner, gaining experience as a deal-maker and leader before launching Palladium. With Palladium now a well-established and respected firm, Rodriguez provided insight into what he hopes his legacy will be – helping democratize an industry so that asset management firms led by talented women and people of color manage more than the current 3% in total AUM.

An industry veteran who leads one of the oldest diverse-owned private equity firms in the U.S., Rodriguez shared his early experiences growing up in a family that fled Cuba to reside in a small one-bathroom apartment in the Washington Heights area of New York. From those beginnings, he earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University, an MBA from the Wharton School and an M.A. in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.