Board Leadership

Raul was born in Mexico City and, after marrying a woman from San José del Cabo, they moved with their 3 children to Los Cabos, 15 years ago. He is an Industrial Engineer from Universidad Iberoamericana and then got a Diploma degree in Finance at ITAM in Mexico City. He worked in several manufacturing companies until he moved to Los Cabos and became an entrepreneur in the construction supply chain industry as well as the food and drink supply to hotels and restaurants. During his professional career he has always been an active member of the gremial organization of the industry and has always been supportive of associations, such as Educa Mexico and World Vision. Since he moved to Los Cabos along with all his family, they became active participants in Casa Hogar Cabo San Lucas with the Padrinos del Corazon program; helping, entertaining and taking care of kids for more than 5 years. He then joined Boys and Girls Club of Mexico as a board member and started the Club in Los Cabos to then evolve into Boys and Girls Club of Baja California Sur. He believes that kids are the most needed group to support and guide, which is his motivation to serve the club.

Born in the Netherlands, Wim spent his youth and early adulthood in Europe. He served his mandatory military service in the Navy’s Intelligence Department. His studies centered on mathematics, computer science, accountancy and economics along with four languages, graduating with the US equivalence of an MBA.
His career began as an accountant with clients in The Netherlands and Germany. After he had joined international companies, and traveled in Europe for business, he was eventually recruited to the United States for his international experience.
In the US, his career migrated from Finance to Manufacturing, then to Marketing and Sales, eventually to general management and finally as CEO for a small semiconductor laser company.
In the early 1990s he was asked to become a National Trustee for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. He learned firsthand how amazingly the BGCs programs transform the lives of kids for the better.
In the late 1990s he visited a charity in the outskirts of Tijuana. He was appalled by the lack of opportunities for disadvantaged children to overcome the looming poverty in their life. Soon he learned that nothing effective like the BGCs existed in Mexico. He vowed to try and change that.
When he retired from business in 1999, he began the effort of bringing the concept of Boys & Girls Clubs to Mexico, beginning in Tijuana. After recruiting some friends in the US to help, they began an effort to try and convince high caliber business leaders in Mexico to take upon them this Hercules task of which they believed would, down the road, benefit Mexico significantly, and even its neighbors. They encountered a fair amount of resistance from the US and Mexico. It took quite a number years until business and government in Mexico came together, and the building of the first club could begin. Lacking a national support organization, it was important for the first club to be far more than just a club; it had to be a model club from which others could be copied, both the building lay-out, as well as the organization. The first club in Tijuana opened in 2008, an enormous accomplishment thanks to the amazing Tijuana Board of Directors. He remained involved with advice until after a national organization was established and was up and running. In 2020 he resigned from the Mexican national board.
He is still a national Trustee of the BGCA, recently named ‘Life Time Trustee’.