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Who's who: Jorge Fernandez

Being ejected from his house by soldiers was a pretty scary experience for 9-year-old Jorge Fernandez. However, few things have scared the founder of Capture Systems LLC since, in business or in his private life.

August 13, 2003

Being ejected from his house by soldiers was a pretty scary experience for 9-year-old Jorge Fernandez.

However, few things have scared him since, in business or in his private life.

"Most Cubans who leave the country learn to live with adversity and to not be afraid of anything," said Fernandez, the president and chief executive of Capture Systems LLC. The company, which Fernandez founded in 2000, manages some 1,000 ATMs throughout Latin America, a region notoriously unfriendly to independent deployers.

His family left Cuba in 1969, after several years of waiting for their visas to be approved. They lived in Spain for five years, all the while planning a move to the United States.

Jorge Fernandez

In 1974, when he was 13, the family relocated to New Jersey. Fernandez looked to his father for lessons in coping with the new culture.

"My dad had to leave everything he knew -- family, friends and possessions -- and emigrate not once but twice. Adversity and lack of knowledge never stopped him. He never said 'I can't' or was afraid of anything," he said. "From nothing, he overcame language, culture, contacts, influence and know-how to be a successful business entrepreneur."

Inspired by his father's example, Fernandez attended Seton Hall University on a partial baseball scholarship. "Like most Cubans, baseball has been very, very good to me," he joked -- but he quickly realized that baseball would never be a career for him.

He took Manhattan

He earned a degree in marketing and computer science in 1983, and was accepted into an intensive training program (now defunct) called Opportunity with NCR. Somewhat ruefully, Fernandez admits that his second choice was Microsoft.

"NCR was offering a position in downtown Manhattan with all the glamour," he explained. "Microsoft was offering half the salary and stock options. We were all asking 'Microwho?' and 'What are stock options.'"

Some of his friends who signed with Microsoft are millionaires today -- but Fernandez has few regrets. He remembers his stint with NCR in New York as one of the most exciting times of his life.

"I was in my '20s, single and making money in Manhattan. I loved it," he said.

In 1987, Fernandez had to decide whether to stay with NCR and relocate to Dayton, Ohio, for three years of training that would result in a district manager position or accept an offer from Verifone, then a little-known start-up.

"I had learned my lesson from Microsoft, not to dismiss somebody just because they were small," he said.

He remembers making his first Verifone sales calls and hearing, "You work for who? No, we already have a phone system." Within two years, however, the company grew to become one of the top point-of-sale manufacturers and was looking to expand into international markets.

Miami move

The company tapped Fernandez. "My qualifications for the job were that I had been successful in the Northeast and I was the only person in sales who spoke Spanish," he said.

He moved to Miami where he fell in love -- both with the city and with his wife, Maury. His friend, a serial matchmaker who had arranged several failed blind dates, pestered Fernandez to give him one more chance.

"He said, 'This time I know I'm right. This is the girl you're going to marry.' One day, I went to his office and he put her on the phone. I told her we needed to meet just to get (the friend) off our backs," Fernandez said.

Two weeks later, they got engaged. "Thank God for persistence," Fernandez said.

In 1992, while preparing for their wedding, the couple also built a house. Three days after the house was finished, Hurricane Andrew leveled it. Later that year, Fernandez's father spent nearly a month in the hospital.

"They say whatever does not kill you makes you stronger. I felt very strong then," he said.

Deluxe Data Systems (now eFunds) recruited Fernandez in 1994, to help with Latin American expansion. He welcomed the opportunity to learn the software and processing sides of the business. "I was a little tired of selling gear," he said.

After his stint with Deluxe, he accepted a position as vice president of international sales with IVI (now Ingenico). He logged three million American Airlines frequent flyer miles traveling the globe, an experience he said was made easier by the experiences of his preteen and teenage years.

"When you are a nomad, you learn to adjust quickly and make friends easily," he said. "Traveling and seeing different cultures and ways of doing business is the best education a person can get. The Discovery Channel only takes you so far; the rest you need to see with your own eyes."

In 1998, Fernandez learned about an opportunity with Triton Systems, a company that he said reminded him of Verifone. "They took an industry that didn't exist, and they created it. It wasn't just about selling widgets. It was about selling an idea, a concept that just happened to use widgets."

Fernandez lost his job at Triton when the manufacturer downsized a quarter of its staff in a 2001 cost cutting effort. "I was done being an employee. I had a million ideas and wanted to do a million things," he said. "Triton made the decision easier for me."

With support from Triton, Fernandez founded Capture Systems, an independent ATM service provider that now has about 1,000 machines throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Introducing the retail ATM concept to a region unfamiliar with it has been exciting - and a little frustrating - for Fernandez. "It should be three or four times that (number)," he said.

In early 2002, Capture Systems teamed with Costan Rican software developer TII-Smart Solutionsto establish a third-party transaction processor called Procesa in Mexico City.

Also in 2002, Fernandez created Electronic Transaction Systems, LLC, a company to capitalize on what he sees as niche opportunities in the U.S. A provider of ATMs as well as credit and debit card processing, among its services are the Offering Machine, which allows churches to collect donations via a scrip terminal, and the Kwik-Pay Station, a payment product targeted to fast-food restaurants.

Fernandez has found his own entrepreneurial niche, said Ivan Torres, president and chief executive of ITS Systems, one of his partners in the Caribbean. "He's very creative about matching solutions to markets, and he works hard to create opportunities."

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