Richard Vazquez is a senior vice president at Pahara Institute. Prior to joining Pahara, Richard was an entrepreneur who started a consulting firm, Fintegy Consulting. Richard’s consulting firm provided accounting, bookkeeping, and fractional-CFO services to nonprofit organizations, including charter schools, private schools, after-school care programs, and churches. Richard sold his consulting firm in 2022.

Before starting Fintegy Consulting, Richard worked two years at Excellent Education Development where he served as vice president of school finance. Richard oversaw all financial aspects for his charter school clients including bookkeeping, payroll processing, bill paying, budgeting, forecasting, cash flow analysis, financial reporting, audits, and all other accounting functions.

Prior to making the transition to the nonprofit world, Richard worked at Lehman Brothers where he provided corporate finance and advisory services to companies ranging from pre-IPO to Fortune 500. While at Lehman Brothers, he was a vice president in the Mergers & Acquisitions group in New York and a senior vice president in the Global Financial Sponsors group in Los Angeles. During his seven-year tenure, Richard helped companies solve their financial and strategic challenges. He completed transactions totaling over $100 billion in value during his investment banking career.

Richard started his career as an assistant vice president at Sanwa Bank where he provided commercial loans to middle market companies.

Richard received his BA in economics and rhetoric, with a minor in business administration, from the University of California at Berkeley. He also received his MBA, with an emphasis in accounting and finance, from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. While in business school, Richard was awarded a Toigo Fellowship and NSHMBA scholarship. He has also completed the Riordan Fellows and INROADS programs.

Richard, originally from La Puente, California, has two daughters and enjoys playing sports, reading, and traveling in his spare time.