Journeys of Entrepreneurs

Dario Marquez I am comfortable with risk Anyone knowing Dario Marquez during his youth could be forgiven if they did not think he would become successful in life. Having been abandoned by his father early in life and living in Dover, New Jersey where there were only a few Puerto Ricans, Marquez was raised by his mother during the final years of WWII, who, he said, worked in a factory to support her family. Indeed, he told me that “the values that I carried and the spirit came from my Mom.” Despite the less than satisfactory economic circumstances in his early years, Marquez said he believed that his mother “carried the entrepreneurial spirit and the gene” because her father was a business owner. Moreover, Marquez had what he called “a dream” at a young age to become an entrepreneur. “I would sit in my mother’s car,” he said, when asked about his early life, “and day dream of what I thought I would become.” Marquez believed that his dreams would help liberate him from his social and economic environment. One day, he said, “I had an image of a man with his back to me, carrying a clipboard and wearing a perfectly laundered shirt with French cuffs as he walked down the middle of what was a manufacturing plant.” What was evident, he added, “is that his attire and demeanor indicated that he was in charge.” As the years advanced, Marquez read much about American industrialists who became his heroes and role models. These included Henry Ford, J. C. Penney, Andrew Carnegie and, very importantly, Napolean Hill, who worked his way through Georgetown Law School and is the author of “Think and Grow Rich” and an early pioneer in the studies of personal-success literature. Marquez was struck by Hill’s famous statement: “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve,” which was appropriate to this young New Jersey boy’s thoughts as he sat in his mother’s car pondering his own future. Marquez said Hill worked his way through college by writing. One particular story that he has not forgotten was Hill’s interview with Andrew Carnegie which, he said, lasted for three days as opposed to an anticipated time of one hour. Moreover, what impressed Marquez was Hill’s belief that “everything starts with an idea” because, he says, “it is real.” These images, Marquez told me, provided hope for his own future. Moreover, he said that he developed the “Lee Iacocca fire in the belly” idea to get to become an entrepreneur and be successful. Following college and graduate school, Marquez searched for an idea that would provide the impetus to become a successful leader, comparable to the man in his dreams. First, however, he had to find a job. A friend suggested that he apply for a position at the United States Secret Service which was in the process of seeking new recruits. Thus, from 1972 to 1979 Marquez began his professional career with the Secret Service as a Special Agent where he served under the Administrations of Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter. He was also assigned to provide protection for not only heads of state, but Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former New York Governor and Vice-President, Nelson Rockefeller as well. But to prepare for a career in security and become an entrepreneur as well, Marquez completed the United States Secret Service Law Enforcement Training Institute in 1972, finished graduate studies in Criminal Justice at Long Island University in New York as well as received a B.S.in Business Administration at Southeastern University. During his nearly eight years at the Secret Service, Marquez mastered and implemented the fundamental principles of personal and physical security and logistics management. As an agent, he said that he attended presidential conventions, one of which in Miami was marked by riots. Marquez also worked with many other agents, a few of whom were later assigned to protect former President Ronald Reagan on the fateful day of March 30, 1981 when he was shot by John Hinckley following his departure from the Washington Hilton where he delivered a speech to AFL-CIO representatives. According to Marquez, Secret Service agent, Tim McCarthy, who trained with him and attended classes that led to his job as a secret service agent, received a bullet in his abdomen as he fell across Reagan’s body to absorb any further shots that may be intended for the President from Hinckley’s Rohm RG-14.22 caliber blue steel revolver. Following the attempted assassination, another Secret Service agent or detail leader, Jerry Parr, who had been assigned to protect the President, discovered that a bullet had punctured Reagan’s lung, prompting Parr to divert the presidential motorcade to nearby George Washington Hospital rather than return to the White House. According to Marquez, Parr’s quick decision saved Reagan’s life. Furthermore, said Marquez, “the agent (Parr) had the power to lead the President of the U.S.” Importantly, he concluded, the agent “took control” of events and made decisions that saved the life of the most important leader in the world. “It is amazing the amount of power an agent can really have and how really boring the job can be,” on some occasions, he said. During his career as a Secret Service agent, Marquez said that most agents spend their days performing investigative work, which may not be known by the public. However, he added that “the most exciting, fun and challenging times” in his career were the early days when he worked in New York City as an undercover agent in the counterfeit squad. His ability to speak Spanish was an enormous benefit in this aspect of his career. “When you work with a counterfeit squad there are also drugs that are linked to terrorist activities,” Marquez added. In his 8 years as a Secret Service agent, Marquez, according to his company’s website, had “mastered and applied the principles of personal and physical security and logistics management, which are the hallmarks of the United States Service” and “which meet the needs of private and public sector clients in the areas of security personnel management, security training, executive protection, criminal and civil investigations, technical security and security risk assessments and studies.” Marquez told me that he saw his years as a secret service agent as an important step on his journey to become an entrepreneur, the type of entrepreneur that he longed for since the days as a young boy when he sat in his mother’s car on Crystal Street in Dover and dreamed of his future. Because he really desired to own his business, in 1979 he founded and became CEO of his own company, MVM, a large and privately- owned security company that employs 3500 security professionals worldwide and is based near Dulles Airport. MVM is very fortunate to have two Senior Vice-Presidents—David Westrate and Louie McKinney—who bring many years of experience in the security industry and add real depth to its top management. Dario Marquez is a very articulate, disciplined and determined man, and like his boyhood visionary, heroic leader who walked along the factory floor, he also wears distinctively French laundered shirts and is in charge of a large growing company. His story is remarkably similar, in part, to the journey of the 19th century American folk hero, Horatio Alger, who worked his way to the top of the ladder and motivated other entrepreneurs in their journeys through life. In the beginning, MVM attempted to work for mostly large companies in the private sector. However, to gain a wider market share and become more effective, MVM has grown into a diversified governmental contractor on a global basis. Since terrorism and threats to security can and do occur anywhere regardless of national boundaries, MVM seeks to respond to challenges at anytime. Accordingly,