Ruben Hernandez
Founding Partner at devlabs
Ruben Hernandez
Founding Partner at devlabs
Oakland, California
Overview
Work Experience
Partial Chief Investment Officer
2023 - Current
As the Partial Chief Investment Officer (CIO) for the Perinatal Power Foundation, IKIAM Foundation, and Uncommon Wealth Endowment, I guide the investment strategies for these diverse organizations. My role is focused on driving financial growth while ensuring our investments deliver significant social, environmental, and spiritual impact. Key Responsibilities: Strategic Investment Leadership: Develop and implement investment strategies tailored to each foundation, aligning financial goals with their unique missions—advancing maternal health, supporting Indigenous communities in the Amazon, and empowering spiritual entrepreneurs. Portfolio Diversification: Oversee diverse investment portfolios, ensuring optimal asset allocation that maximizes returns while staying true to each organization’s goals. Risk Management: Establish and maintain risk management protocols tailored to each foundation, ensuring investments are secure and aligned with long-term missions. Stakeholder Collaboration: Engage with board members, donors, and community leaders to ensure investment decisions are both financially prudent and ethically responsible. Key Achievements: Holistic Investment Frameworks: Developed customized investment frameworks for each foundation, ensuring alignment between financial goals and social impact. High-Impact Projects: Led investments in groundbreaking maternal health technologies, sustainable Amazonian projects, and innovative spiritual ventures, generating measurable outcomes. Cross-Organizational Synergies: Leveraged synergies across the three foundations, enhancing the overall impact of our investments. Skills: Impact Investing & Portfolio Management Maternal Health & Global Health Initiatives Indigenous Rights & Environmental Sustainability Spiritual Entrepreneurship & Ethical Investments Risk Management & Stakeholder Engagement
Board Member and Treasurer
2023
As a Board Member and Treasurer of Birth Detroit, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing maternal health and midwifery care in Detroit, I play a crucial role in overseeing the organization’s financial health and guiding its strategic direction. My responsibilities ensure that Birth Detroit remains financially sustainable while fulfilling its mission to provide equitable, high-quality care to mothers and families in the community. Key Responsibilities: Financial Oversight: Manage and oversee all financial activities, including budgeting, financial planning, and reporting. Ensure that Birth Detroit’s financial resources are effectively allocated to support its mission and programs. Strategic Planning: Collaborate with fellow board members and the executive team to develop and implement strategies that advance the organization’s goals. Fundraising & Resource Development: Lead efforts to secure funding through grants, donations, and partnerships. Develop and execute fundraising strategies to increase financial support for Birth Detroit’s programs and services. Compliance & Governance: Ensure that all financial practices comply with legal and regulatory requirements. Work closely with auditors, accountants, and legal advisors to maintain transparency and accountability in all financial matters. Financial Reporting: Provide regular financial reports to the board, donors, and stakeholders, offering insights into the financial health of the organization. Facilitate informed decision-making by presenting clear and accurate financial data. Key Achievements: Strengthened Financial Stability: Implemented financial strategies that have significantly improved Birth Detroit’s financial stability, enabling the organization to expand its services and reach more families in need. Enhanced Financial Transparency: Introduced improved financial reporting processes that have increased transparency and accountability, building greater trust among donors and stakeholders.
Founding Partner
2013
At devlabs we identify, select, and invest in high impact tech entrepreneurs of early stage start ups across the Americas. Devlabs supports tech entrepreneurs who are solving problems in HealthTech, EdTech, FinTech, AgTech and EnterpriseTech
General Partner
2016 - 2021
Devlabs Ventures S.A. is the management company for the first Venture Capital Fund based in Southern Chile. The CHILE OUTLIER SEED FUND I is investing in early stage software based companies domiciled in Chile.
Founding Partner
2019
Responsible for designing, planning and managing full spectrum capital funds. A full spectrum capital fund is comprised of grants, debt, private equity and venture capital.
Limited Partner
2015
Devlabs Ventures is an international micro VC fund focused on investing in early stage start ups founded by outlier tech entrepreneurs that meet the following criteria: 1. Teams of 2 or three co-founders. At least one of the co-founders must be a technical co-founder (the builder) 2. Teams must be solving a global problem in their local context using web/mobile applications. Devlabs Ventures is particularly interested in solutions around education, health care, transportation, agriculture, real state, finance. 3. Teams are looking to grow globally, keep their headquarters in their country and eventually have a presence in Silicon Valley
Director of Business Development
2012 - 2013
Responsible for developing new business opportunities in Latin America, Indonesia and the Caribbean. Developed business leads and prospects in the higher education space looking to offer hybrid/blended learning solutions.
Chairman of the Board
2009 - 2012
As Chairman of the Board, Mr. Hernandez handles strategic partnerships globally and supports the CEO of the organization to implement various strategies for international trade development. Developed a business model for sustainable economic development in emerging economies and maintained relations with US Government agencies responsible for international business development such as the US Department of Commerce, US State Department (MCC, USAID), US Trade Development Agency, EXIM Bank, OPIC, and SBA. Supported the creation of five companies and the development of a social venture fund focus on investing in economic development projects for sustainable communities requiring at least $1 million in initial investment Developed and implemented the Global Leadership Training Program that has trained dozens of small business owners and entrepreneurs to grow their businesses through global trade and investment. Developed a $1 Billion pipeline of trade and investment opportunities for the members of the chamber. Over 50% of the opportunities are in renewable energy generation for sustainable communities in emerging economies in Latin America, Africa and India. Developed marketing strategies to recruit approximately 25% of the chamber’s membership and raised nearly 30% of all current contributions–significantly increasing the number of members in renewable energy and clean tech fields. Negotiated over 40 memorandums of understanding and agreements with international business associations, investment promotion agencies, multilateral aid organizations and chambers of commerce in Europe, USA, Latin America, and India. Led ten trade missions to over 10 countries in Latin America, Europe, India and South East Asia and organized meetings with high level government officials and business executives; most missions had a focus on renewable energy generation and information technology for the development of sustainable communities in emerging countries
Business Development and Project Manager
2005 - 2006
TUMIS is company focused on developing web solutions for leading non-profit and foundations in the United States. Ruben was responsible for overall business development and project management of all web development projects.
Manager
1997 - 2005
Worked in five different countries in Europe and North America managing thousands of man-days with multidisciplinary and multi-ethnic teams in major transformation projects for large gas and electricity companies. Supported partners and senior executives in the development of proposals for gas and electricity clients in USA and Europe. Managed hundreds of man-days to implement SAP-ERP and Siebel-CRM systems for major utility companies in United Kingdom, Mexico, Spain, Ireland, and USA. Worked with senior vice-presidents of a major California Utility company to deliver a 5-year roadmap funded by $600 million capital investment for a Modular, Protection, Automation and Control sub-stations. Worked with senior directors to develop a service delivery model for commercial and industrial customers of a large utility company in California to enhance Demand Side Management and Energy Efficiency programs, which would deliver millions of dollar in benefits to the utility company Managed the customer service design and interface teams for a business unit created by major utility company in the UK that would deliver over $7M in benefits per month, utilizing Siebel as the CRM front end and SAP CCS IS-U as the consolidated back end billing system for their primary service offerings. Designed and delivered end-to-end business process flows and functionality necessary for a leading Mexican gas company to be able to create, schedule, dispatch and complete new installations, service connections, investigation orders, meter orders, and outage management orders. Developed and executed the application testing strategy for one of the leading retail electricity in the electricity-deregulated market of Canada Delivered gap analysis, end-to-end business process flows, performance metrics, test plans, test scripts, programming and coding to major transformation projects in leading gas and electric utilities in Illinois, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania and California.