Rafael Madrigal - SVL Cultura Ambassador

July 01, 2014

Rafael Madrigal is the International Sales Manager for Network Video Technologies (NVT) located in Menlo Park, CA whose responsibility encompasses directing all the affairs and the company’s efforts into Latin America, Asia Pacific, the Asian Subcontinent and Oceania. Rafael was born and raised on the peninsula of Mexican decent and categorizes himself not only as Latino, but more specifically Chicano (Mexican-American.) “Traveling extensively throughout Latin American and the Caribbean visiting most capitals, secondary and tertiary cities, there are certain aspects that bind everyone together from Tijuana to Tierra Del Fuego, but when you break it down, there are clear distinctions between those individuals bread and raised not only in each country, but regionally as well with in the same country. In my case, born into a Hispanic household with parents originally from Jalisco in the San Francisco Bay Area with all the typical religious, cultural and economic blessings (or condemnations, depending on the perspective and day of the week); and formally educated in English in an Anglo-Saxon culture doesn’t happen anywhere but in the US, hence the term Chicano. ‘Ni de aquí, ni de allá’.”

Rafael Madrigal - SVL Cultura Ambassador

Rafael before starting his career with NVT, started officially working part-time at the age of 16 through High School and through college for a couple of auto-shops focusing on installing electrical equipment that converted factory cars into emergency vehicles, namely patrol cars, undercover police cars, ambulances and fire trucks. This helped subsidize his personal expenses while living at home and paying for college. “Despite learning responsibility, discipline, working in a team, managing time effectively, managing full projects at an early age, dealing with school and my social life; I was immersed in the world of electrical equipment which at the time I thought was just really cool. Who doesn’t like loud noises, bright lights and sometimes driving such vehicles to be delivered to their owners as a kid!” After graduating with a Bachelor of Science from San Jose State in International Business in ’96, Rafael was hired at NVT when it was still a six person enterprise (from a stack of resumes he was later told.) “There where only three of us in the Marketing and Sales team at the time; however being such a small company I confirmed my suspicion that acquiring a job with a small company was a chance to learn many different tasks, see how things worked from a birds’ eye view and grow quickly as a professional. Joining this small team afforded me the opportunity to take part in most daily tasks; everything from operations, finance, marketing and sales.” A year and half later, Rafael was offered the chance to take NVT overseas into Latin America and the Caribbean. “At the time I was the entire marketing and sales department, customer service, tech-support, collections, etc., for the region. I was handed this enormous task with no predecessors that had initially paved the way, I was literally blazing a new path.” Nevertheless, given the success of the endeavor, several years later once again the opportunity for Rafael to develop from scratch the territories of Asia and Oceania presented itself. Again, Rafael stepped up to the challenge. “Having a Bachelor degree from an institution based in the heart of Silicon Valley, with no disrespect to others; I like to say I received my Masters in Business Development, Sales and Fiscal Austerity on the streets and seminar rooms of México City, Bogotá, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Lima, Caracas and Santiago; and my Doctorate Degree in Negotiation, Distance Management, Culture and Relationship Building in the back alleys and C-suites of Seoul, Shanghai, Macão, Bangkok, Delhi, Singapore and Sydney.” Today NVT is known globally for its world class transmission products in the Electronic Security Industry; and in many regions that Rafael is responsible for, the name NVT is a top recognized brand, well known for creating industry nomenclature and whose company’s products are referred to as an eponym. NVT to this day is a private organization with people located worldwide and completely funded organically. The regions developed and currently managed by Rafael in the early days represented less than 1% of sales, in 2013 sales where 25% of all revenue generated for the company. “Besides the success NVT has had over the years and continues to experience, one of the things I’m most proud of is having met and dealt with such a vast array of individuals who would have never in their lifetimes even seen a Latino, much less interact and deal with a Chicano from humble beginnings ‘con ganas y sin miedo al trabajo’.” Rafael continues to live in the Bay Area with his wife and three children and is based out of the Global Headquarters for NVT at the Menlo Park office in California. Rafael welcomes the opportunity to connect via his personal email address at madrigalralf@yahoo.com or you can find him on LinkedIn.