🦩Meet DC's Chief Geek🤓

Can you name a top CTO in our area? Our guest is at the forefront of AI, cybersecurity, supply chain management, and IoT. You could say he's our local Elon Musk.

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we're featuring prominent Latinos in our area.

Watch the video intro and read the interview below. Let's flamin-GO!

F60 Interview Luis Ibarra, Chief Technology Officer, PingWind, Inc.

1. What drives you? I'm driven by my team 🧑🏾‍🤝‍🧑🏿🧑🏾‍🤝‍🧑🏿. I'm always curious about what my team is working on and how they're solving problems creatively, especially as we integrate AI. My team comes up with the craziest solutions and I can’t wait to hear what they’ve come up with. I remind them, "Forget the box even exists and do your magic." 2. What's the mistake that taught you the biggest lesson? I'm comfortable with making mistakes, acknowledging when I've made a mistake, admitting my mistakes, and using it as an opportunity to learn from my mistakes. I measure life by how many people I can help succeed. I like to take care of people, but sometimes in my eagerness to help, things don't always go as expected, as I experienced recently.

3. What excites you the most about the future?

Not knowing what the future holds. While we know that AI is shifting the business landscape, quantum computing will turn our world upside down. Tech has a good side and bad side. We may predict what's coming up next but don't know how it will affect us. Tech is never boring, a moving target, and we have to learn to adapt.

4. What advice would you give to a fellow Latino or Latina just starting out in his or her professional career?

I give this advice to my own son. Find your niche. Specialize and then focus on becoming a master. Money will follow.

5. What do you enjoy the most during HHM?

I prefer that we celebrate Latinos all year long 💃🏾💃🏼💃🏿. To a lot of people outside of the Hispanic community, people think everyone is limited to Mexican, which I happen to be. But we're a very diverse community. 6. What book are you reading?

I am always reading. The one I'm reading right now is:📕The New Abnormal: Reshaping Supply Chain. Even if you don't think this book is relevant. Just think, every machine is connected to supply chain. Machines to machines are interconnected and make it more affordable for manufacturing to come back to the US. 7. Your favorite dish (or Restaurant) Favorite Dish: Pork Chop 8. Favorite music artists: Vicente Fernandez and Pink Floyd 🎵 9. Favorite place to travel to: I travel a lot so it's hard to choose. Europe is a lot of fun. Outside of Luis's busy work schedule, he is also part of the prestigious Forbes Technology Council and serves on the Advisory Council for the American Latino Veterans Association (ALVA).