Héctor Padilla

Diseñador de Videojuegos / Consultor

Extracto
Trabajando en medios interactivos desde 1996, he ido enfocando mi desarrollo profesional hacia el estudio de
la diversión y diseño de juegos (ludología). Enfoqué mis estudios de maestría en experiencias de usuario y
realidad virtual, además de que pude participar en un proyecto piloto entre Bioware y la Universidad de Alberta
en Canada.

Desde que regresé a México he estado involucrado en la IGDA México para apoyar el desarrollo de la industria
en el país. Así como proveyendo servicios de consultoría para universidades con interes en tener programas
de desarrollo de videojuegos, y con organizaciones gubernamentales que buscan apoyar esta industria. (Itesm,
UAD, Canieti).

Me encanta dar charlas sobre diseño de videojuegos, la última fué en Creanimax 2008 y fúe muy bien
recibida. :-)

Specialties: Diseño de videojuegos, diseño visual, desarrollo para web (flash). Liderazgo.

Experiencia
Coach and Consulting - Team Management and Process Pipeline Optimization en Independent
Consulting
octubre de 2016 - Actualidad (3 meses)
Helping teams work better together, and Team Leaders find their true voice and leadership potential.

Focus on Game Development and Tech Industries.

Studio Director en GameHouse

febrero de 2015 - octubre de 2016 (1 año 9 meses)
GameHouse has a great tradition not only publishing hundreds of third party titles over the years, but
also creating some of the most loved Time Management games of all times. Emily's Delicious series has
delighted players over many years, engaging them not only with fun game mechanics but also with rich
storytelling.

I am now proud to be working on GameHouse's newest Time Management franchise leading the Eindhoven
team in the Netherlands.

Director of Engineering en Lively

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mayo de 2013 - octubre de 2014 (1 año 6 meses)
Lively brings dignity to how we care for our elders, and adds creativity to the ways families share their lives
with each other.

Very interesting and engaging engineering challenges, working with sensors tracking and sharing activity,
Python, Django, AngularJS, etc.

Senior Engineering Manager en Zynga

marzo de 2012 - abril de 2013 (1 año 2 meses)
Senior Engineering Manager in CastleVille, a game within the StoryVille organization. I manage 2 teams,
and have had up to 9 direct reports. My focus is on team efficiency to meet business goals and career
building for the people in my teams. I take a lot of pride in helping people level up and grow up as engineers,
I like coaching and mentoring.

Main responsibilities are to define and design a roadmap with the product team based on business goals and
team capacity, then architect our code and features development to maintain production quality. I work
across disciplines (with art, game design and product teams) to align goals for each of our releases, then
work on execution with the engineering team. Each team releases a new feature once per month, so I release
and manage the development of two new core features per month.

I am involved in cross company technical recruiting efforts, and active in internal leadership groups.

Principal Software Engineer en Zynga

enero de 2010 - abril de 2012 (2 años 4 meses)
Day to day activities include game design meetings, software architecture planning, and new feature
development. As a Principal Software Engineer a key responsibility is to mentor and help more junior
developers level up their skills and understanding of software development, as well as helping architect
features so that they are developed in the best possible way depending to the needs and time frames.

Teams in which I have worked:

YoVille, Zynga Poker, Mafia Wars 2 and CastleVille

+ Zynga RockStart Award achieved - Q4 2010

+ Zynga Green Beret Award achieved - Q2 2011

Extra training I've gotten during this time:

+ Peer Mentoring Workshop, by Steve Trautman - http://amzn.com/0137143680
+ Engineering Communications and Public Speaking two day workshop - Bold Echo
+ ManagerVille 4 Day Management Workshop

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Lead Games Designer en Kaxan Publisher
noviembre de 2008 - enero de 2010 (1 año 3 meses)
When I joined Kaxan, the company was a dream with a solid goal (foster game development in Mexico).
I am proud to have helped scale the company into what it is today. In the early stage my main goal was
defining what we needed and wanted out of our hires, and then interview hundreds of people to make sure
we accepted only the ideal initial team.

As Lead Game Designer, I led the development of multiple games, one of them a Wii Party Game (Chavo del
Ocho), and a series of iPhone games including Taco Master which became a top seller in Mexico and Latin
America.

Due to the nature of the project and size of the team I often helped in the roles of a Lead Producer since no
one else could step up to the challenge back then.

Training in Game design:

+ Applied Game Design / Level Design Workshop: Matthias Worch
+ Game Mechanics Workshop: Noah Falstein
+ Interactive Storytelling Workshop: Lee Sheldon

Administrador de Proyectos en RadicalGolem - Interactive Media Consulting

julio de 2007 - enero de 2010 (2 años 7 meses)
I was in charge of a team of up to 14 engineers, working in multiple projects and a variety of problem sets /
clients.

I decided to scale my freelance business into a full company (because thankfully I was getting a lot of
contracts and projects request from different clients based on recommendations), so instead of turning
projects down I decided to hire people that could tackle the projects with me.

We became a solid engineering group based on RIA development with a focus on social game development
(Facebook, OpenSocial, Twitter). My main responsibility here was to hire the best engineers for the job, and
make sure the engineering team executed on time and on budget.

My key role in this team was to be a Lead Developer / Executive Producer. I kept the team focused on
what needs to be done (SCRUM), handle communications with the clients and publishers in four different
locations (USA, Canada, Mexico, France), and get my hands dirty with coding and software engineering.

Some of our clients during this stage are:

ArcanaComics (Clockwork girl) | Slide.com | PureSafety | Bouchard Consulting | Casacor | Zynga.com |
ITESM | UofA

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Member, Board of Directors en IGDA-Mexico
octubre de 2007 - diciembre de 2009 (2 años 3 meses)
Our goal in IGDA Mexico was to kickstart the video games development industry in our country. We already
had a lot of Software development firms in Mexico, but we wanted to take this one step further and foster
video game development.

My main role here was to give talks in Universities and different Events about game design and game
making, creating a "sparkle" of interest in young people and allowing them to see they have the tools and
means to create great fun experiences and to make a demo that could land them a job in the industry.

I loved the mentoring and coaching aspect of this role.

Consultor en el desarrollo del programa de Ingeniería para Desarrollo de Videojuegos en Universidad

de Artes Digitales
abril de 2008 - abril de 2009 (1 año 1 mes)
The Universidad de Artes Digitales (University of Digital Arts) approached me because they wanted to open
a program for Video Game Development. This was a very exciting opportunity that enabled me to do a lot
of research into what would the best Video Games Program look like, borrowing from models all around the
world and IGDA White Papers.

This was an exciting project that required me to do a lot of research, contact potential faculty members and
industry professionals all around the world. I helped create a full Bachelors curriculum that the government
approved, and allowed me to shape a generation of Video Game Developers in Mexico.

Chair of Digital Arts Department en ITESM Campus Guadalajara

julio de 2007 - enero de 2008 (7 meses)
As Chair of the Digital Art Department, I was in charge of the University curriculum of "Bachelor in
Animation and Digital Art". My main role consisted on creating joint ventures and projects with both
companies and universities worldwide to develop the Digital Arts industry in Mexico.

I helped coordinate our teaching staff, making sure they were in line with our Mission, and our promotional
efforts among high school students to get them interested in our program. A big challenge of this role was
to find teachers with the right credentials since this area of professional development was so new in Mexico
back then.

This position was interesting and I learnt a lot from it, but it was little "too academic" for me back then. I
decided to let it go and focus on creating my own company and products.

Computer Science Graduate Student en University of Alberta

agosto de 2005 - julio de 2007 (2 años)

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 I studied a Masters of Science in Computer Science at the University of Alberta in Edmonton Canada. During
this time I was the Teacher Assistant in an interdisciplinary video game development class.

I focussed my studies in Human Computer Interaction, Computational Neuroscience, and Automated Test
Generation (based on certain rules and templates create multiple choice based tests for different sciences).

Close to the completion of my degree I got a very good job offer back in my home country, and I decided to
accept it. Unfortunately once I became fully engaged on a full time position I was never able to finalize my
thesis / degree.

Thesis / Diploma pending.

Flash / ActionScript developer - Freelance contracts en Self - Employed (Special Projects)

junio de 2002 - julio de 2007 (5 años 2 meses)
I kept getting requests from different people to work on interesting projects, at first I started working on
these sort of things as "side projects" but quickly I realized that I could make a full-time living out of
this. I worked from 3 different locations (Mexico, Canada and France) having clients in Mexico, the US
and Canada. My job consisted on keeping track of all the projects I was involved on, the clients, budgets,
deliverable / milestones dates, and then working and executing on the project's goals, making sure that things
were delivered on time and on budget.

Learnt a lof about working with remote clients, using the proper tools for project tracking, budgeting. My
tools of trade during this period were PHP, Lingo, ActionScript (Flash), PhotoShop, CSS, JavaScript,
and HTML mostly. But as well I used Audio Editing and 3D modeling tools for projects such as the ones
PureSafety required.

During this period I gave several workshops about games and flash (ActionScript) development in general. I
worked with many clients and projects, from small to large. Some clients I worked with are: SLIDE.COM,
PURESAFETY and BOUCHARD CONSULTING.

Teaching Assistant - Game Development en University of Alberta - Support from Bioware

agosto de 2005 - abril de 2007 (1 año 9 meses)
Interdisciplinary class in which students from different departments would get together to make a game. The
class was focused on game design in general: the students would learn about story telling, conceptual art,
audio editing, 3D modeling, etc.

I really loved working on this, the relationship with the students and the creative atmosphere. It was great to
help them get along with each other, give them tools to communicate properly with people with completely
different backgrounds, and see the great things they came up with at the end of the term.

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 To put together their games students used the Aurora Toolset from Neverwinter Nights (BioWare), several of
the students got jobs at Bioware right away after their demos!

Lead Interactive Media Developer en ITESM

mayo de 2004 - julio de 2005 (1 año 3 meses)
I took on the role of lead developer in the "Center of Technological Innovation in Education" in this
University. I coordinated a team of 6 developers, making sure our business goals were met.

A big part of my role was having conversations with our clients (both internal and external), understanding
what they wanted and what they needed, and then work with the team to create concepts and prototypes for
them. The technologies that we used were web (HTML, PHP, JavaScript, CSS) and Flash (ActionScript).
Once a prototype was approved we would work to make sure we deliver on time and on budget.

Most of our deliverables were towards educational games and media, but the department had as well outside
projects and clients mostly around training materials and interactive marketing packages.

Co-Founder - Comic Book Arists en KaraOkulta

noviembre de 2003 - mayo de 2005 (1 año 7 meses)
I decided to follow a life long passion and become a Digital Artists, putting together a team of talented
individuals and creating what would become one of the largest and strongest professional networks in Digital
Arts in Mexico.

Back then I did writing, inking and coloring of comic books, we had government projects and some contract
work for digital illustration in the US and Canada.

The project of KaraOkulta kept growing and took a life on its own, now a days the KaraOkulta group has
hundreds of members and there are regular meetups all across Mexico. It became more of a professional
network were people help each other grow in their Digital Arts and Video Games career in my country.

Co-Founder / UI - UX Lead en Innox

mayo de 2003 - junio de 2004 (1 año 2 meses)
Member of the founding team of this successful Mexican tech company. I was invited to lead the UI and UX
departments, defining the direction that our products would have in that regard.

Since very early we had a strong focus in usability, accessibility, and making sure our products looked well
across different devices and resolutions.

To become more and more efficient we developed a JS/CSS/HTML framework and rules that we could apply
to a large variety of products.

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Multimedia Developer en ITESM
agosto de 1998 - julio de 2003 (5 años)
Develop interactive media applications for both the web and CD ROMS. Most of our clients and projects
were focussed towards education, so we would do a lot of educational entertainment applications.

As we were creating a lot of multimedia and on-line materials for a numbers of courses in the University, part
of my job was to coordinate with professors and understand what they want, their goals, and find the best
way to transfer that into an online course.

Part of my responsibilities was to train professors into the use of new technologies so that they could leverage
them in their classrooms.

These projects got me working on Macromedia Director (Lingo) and Flash (ActionScript) applications since
the very early days.

Idiomas
English (Competencia bilingüe o nativa)
Spanish (Competencia bilingüe o nativa)
French (Competencia básica limitada)
Japanese (Competencia básica)

Educación
Tecnológico de Monterrey
Bachelor, Computer Systems Engineering, 1998 - 2003
Actividades y grupos: Plastic Arts Group (drawing), Ensamble (music performance), African percussions
ensemble, Camerata (Singing - Opera), Kung Fu Shaolin group
University of Alberta
Masters, Computer Science, 2005 - 2007
Western Illinois University
Exchange Program, Computer Science, 2000 - 2001
Actividades y grupos: Vice-President Olson Hall, Representative in the Inter Hall council

Intereses
illustration, digital art, video game design, game design, game production

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Héctor Padilla
Diseñador de Videojuegos / Consultor

30 personas han recomendado a Héctor

"Hector and I worked together on the technical recruiting council at Zynga, which was the equivalent of a
20% time project, only without actually being given the 20% to work on it. While we never worked together
in the same codebase, we both trained new interviewers on how to look for the important qualities in an
engineering hire, and it could not be clearer that Hector is experienced, talented, and perceptive when it
comes to technical interviewing, mentoring, and analyzing difficult problems."

— Jess Loeb, ha trabajado con Héctor.

"This is a challenging recommendation to write. Not because there isn't much to say but because Hectors
capabilities far exceed my ability to put this down on paper. Hector is an exceptionally diverse and talented
Engineer. He has an ability to rally a team to get behind a vision and is fierce when it comes to protecting
that same team. By the same token he gets involved in the technical aspect of projects, hes a great mentor and
leader who is able to solve issues faster than anyone I have ever met. I would highly recommend Hector and
hope we get to work together very soon."

— Priya Khokhar Cutts, ha trabajado directamente con Héctor.

"Hector is a goal-oriented manager who is very easy to work with. He has an innate ability to protect his team
from thrash and being overworked while still maintaining a high quality of product."

— Marcus Rupley, ha rendido cuentas a Héctor.

"Hector is a talented engineer who's drive and commitment to quality shines in the work that he produces.
He's worked on some of our most technically challenging features with great success. Hector is a great leader
on the team, with and encouraging and positive attitude, and his presence makes people around him better. I
hope I keep getting opportunities to work with Hector on many projects to come."

— Matt Salazar, ha trabajado directamente con Héctor.

"I joined Hector's team on CastleVille six months ago and he immediately made me feel right at home. Apart
from being a great engineer, Hector is a great mentor and a manager. He is constantly giving his team, an
opportunity to grow as engineers. He is detail oriented, dedicated and an amazing leader. All in all, I know
Hector for more than 2 years now and I thoroughly enjoy working with him."

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— Ajinkya Apte, ha rendido cuentas a Héctor.

"Hector was a visibly hardworking manager during my summer at Zynga. He was constantly looking for
ways to improve his managerial skills whether it be attending (and taking seriously) company workshops or
receiving feedback from his coworkers. His priorities were the well-being and advancement of those he was
in charge of which led to high work satisfaction and a feeling of being looked out for by those above you.
He is a great manager and I can only imagine the improvements he's made in the few short months since I
worked with him. Hector was an absolute pleasure to work with!"

— Nick Van Hoogenstyn, ha rendido cuentas a Héctor.

"Hector was my team lead, and I have rarely come across someone who so fearlessly assesses technical
challenges, patiently and diligently works through tasks and the obstacles to complete them, and does so
while maintaining such an even head and optimistic outlook. He is truly a pleasure to work with, and I grew
a great deal as an engineer with his guidance. His teams are always rock solid because he makes them a
comfortable and inspiring place to get stronger."

— Nathaniel Ford, ha rendido cuentas a Héctor.

"Working with Hector over the past few of years has been a very pleasurable experience. We have
collaborated on several projects where we both brought a different skill set and had to integrate with each
other. Hector's grasp of his domain is portrayed in the concise and informative way that he communicates. I
learned a good deal while working with him and he absorbed new skills very quickly. The best part of Hector
is the attitude he brings to a team. He single handedly (his dog helps too) will lift the spirits of an entire 100+
org. I've seen this on multiple occasions. He's an amazing person and after working with him for these last
few years I'm lucky to call him a good friend. I hope to work with Hector in the future."

— John Ejike-Nwogu, ha trabajado directamente con Héctor.

"When you work in any industry for a good measure of time, you sometimes get the opportunity to work with
some truly exceptional people. But it's a rarity to be able to work with an individual who is truly great at what
they do. Hector is one of those truly great people with passion and exemplary focus in his work. Intelligent,
insightful, and a true team player. Hector is an extremely valuable asset to any team that is lucky enough to
have him. I wouldn't hesitate at the chance to be able to work with him again."

— Paul Kite, ha trabajado directamente con Héctor.

"Hector is an exceptionally bright and hard working engineer. Beyond producing high quality code on a tight
schedule he has great leadership and communication skills. Hector is a pleasure to work with and has my
highest recommendation."

— Thor Alexander, ha supervisado a Héctor .

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"Hector is a talented developer and mentor of others. As an interface designer it is a relief to know when
Hector is assigned to implement an interface. He is diligent to execute a design perfectly and brilliant on
suggesting improvements. He is never lacking technically and does not cut corners even during the toughest
of timelines. Working with him is a pleasure, and hope to work with him often. I know the his results will
be excellent and the path getting there — a pleasure. I recommend Hector for any contract or employment
position."

— Jeff Anduza, ha trabajado directamente con Héctor.

"What makes building a game so difficult is that you need to bring together many different types of
disciplines to build a cohesive product. Art, sound, design, engineering, psychology all need to intersect
beautifully to build something great. Hector is one of the few people that has the skill set to make that
happen. The engineers who can do that are the most important people to have on your team, making Hector
indispensable. As if that weren't enough, there's the added bonus that Hector is also a great manager so when
your team grows he can help lead it. Whenever I'm given the chance, I would always work with Hector again
without a doubt."

— Justin Waldron, ha supervisado a Héctor .

"Hector is an incredibly organized and motivated developer who sees the big problem and solves smaller
pieces through to completion. He has keen interest in improving his technical skills continuously and learning
more about technologies. He is very passionate worker and a valuable asset for our team. I have learned a lot
form working with Hector."

— Anshul Dhawan, ha trabajado directamente con Héctor.

"Hector is among the most hard working, and creative developers I've worked with at Zynga. He goes to extra
mile to make sure his features are well designed, and more than that, well architected. He is quick to give
suggestions on how to make a feature or game mechanic more fun, and he is always a collaborative team
player who is willing to take and give guidance when needed. He always puts the user first and has been
instrumental in releasing some of the best features in our games."

— Brian Chu, ha trabajado directamente con Héctor.

"Hector is a consummate professional with a wide ranging skill set. His proficiency level is high when it
comes to leading team projects, coding, art, or audio. Most importantly, he has a discerning eye for creating
great user experiences. I had a lot of fun working with Hector and look forward to doing so again in the
future. Even though he has this incredible skill set, he doesn't have an ego about it. He is always seeking to
learn new things, has a passionate work ethic, communicates well with team members, and has a great sense
of humor to boot. Any team or company would be lucky to have Hector on board."

— Damon Pidhajecky, ha supervisado a Héctor indirectamente .

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"Que puedo decir? Le gradezco demasiado a El Héctor, gracias a él tengo este trabajo y fue un mentor para
mi en muchos aspectos aparte de ser un excelente diseñador de videojuegos y lider nato. Le deseo lo mejor
como profesional y como amigo y lo recomiendo al 100% What can I say? There's too much to thank Héctor,
thanks to him i got my job and he was a mentor to me in many ways apart from being an excelent game
designer and natural leader. I wish him the best as a professional and as a friend. Liable 100%."

— Rodolfo Magallón, ha rendido cuentas a Héctor.

"Hector is a talented team player who has a great leadership ability, i worked directly with him and he always
had a positive attitude and enjoying time while he was working having all that effective brainstorms ideas.
His ability of mix the technological-artistic skills always impress me. His work always recommends by itself.
I would like to happily work with him again."

— Elizabeth De la O, ha trabajado con Héctor.

"Hector created great games for us to develop; they were fine tuned, original, and fun. He teched us a lot, not
only of game design, but of his experience in game development. It was always a pleasure to come by to ask
for a particular game and find all the reasoning behind the design decisions. He is a natural leader and a great
human being."

— Daniel Rodriguez, ha trabajado con Héctor.

"Hector know perfectly how to drive since the first concept to the final delivery documents the elements of a
game design. The dynamism he express give him the opportunity to manage one important team as a leader
without failures. He is one precious contact for any possible futur productions in the area of the Video Game
development."

— Dorian Mastin, ha trabajado directamente con Héctor.

"Héctor is a one-in-a-kind game developer: great game designer, excellent programmer, true leader, super-
creative, self-motivated, with excellent communication skills, always cheerful, always positive, always
passionate. I highly recommend Héctor. He is a multi-talented professional and a great human being."

— Jesús Cochegrus, ha trabajado con Héctor.

"I’ve hired Hector and his team on a couple of projects in the social games space, his work is always top
notch. I’ve enjoyed working with Hector and his team, they are technically skilled and willing to go the extra
mile to get the project done. I would happily with him and his team on projects in the future."

— Rob Carroll, ha sido cliente de Héctor.

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"I worked with Hector on four projects, two of them where big and complex where the client kept changing
requirements and he did a wonderful job at focusing our efforts in the right direction. Altough we where in
different cities, he was always available, always open to new ideas on how to solve problems and had a strong
grip when required to keep the project in track. Working with him was a pleasant opportunity and would
gladly do it again in the future."

— Pedro Meza, ha rendido cuentas a Héctor en RadicalGolem - Interactive Media Consulting.

"Hector has been an excellent resource for us at PureSafety. He's super nice to work with, follows all of our
production processes in detail, does great work, communicates well, and can be trusted to finish the work on
time! Highly recommended without reservations."

— Rob Blackford, ha sido cliente de Héctor.

"I have worked with Hector on numerous occasions over the years and I regard him as one of the most
talented and most dedicated multimedia developers. On top of that, he is able to successfully complete
multiple tasks with excellent results despite deadline pressure, providing a much needed sense of reliability.
He is outgoing, outspoken and self-motivated, with excellent communication skills and an enjoyable
personality. It has been both a pleasure and a privilege to work with him and I would not hesitate to
recommend Hector to anyone considering his services."

— Erik Ynigo, ha trabajado directamente con Héctor en RadicalGolem - Interactive Media Consulting.

"I've worked with Hector a number of times in the past. His work has always been of excellent quality. He is
one of the most talented designers I know, and a great programmer too. Hector also has a contagious upbeat
attitude, and gets along easily with pretty much anybody."

— Sergio Villarreal, ha trabajado directamente con Héctor en RadicalGolem - Interactive Media Consulting.

"Hector is a talented worker and project leader who can handle multiple projects at various stages of
development. With experience as a designer and implementer, he has a rich and varied toolset. To top it all
off, he's a nice guy."

— Matt Bouchard, ha sido cliente de Héctor.

"Héctor is an outstanding programmer who achieved our objectives on time, every time!"

— Chris Laughary, ha sido cliente de Héctor.

"Hector is a reliable contractor who develops quality work, delivering all tasks on-time, and is a pleasure to
work with due to his high-energy and enthusiastic attitude."

— Robi Lynn Griffin, ha sido cliente de Héctor.

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 "Look for the word "Noble" in the dictionary or google it.... you might be surprised when you find Héctor's
photo in one of the descriptions of the concept. I have spent all my life wondering around searchig for
partners to achieve an enterprise that would leave some passive income in our concience. Héctor was the
one responsible to motivate, put together and encourage a LEGION of comic book artists with different
specialties, to build what started as a personal project for both, and ended up as a business oportunity to put
together a team that would build innovative proposals to have assets that would pay royalties. A definite
maven of animation, manga, comic, flash and communication... Héctor is, resides an impressive loyal friend,
a person that you would really be grateful to have in your team."

— Jorge Fco. Suárez Basáñez, estaba con otra empresa cuando trabajó con Héctor.

"I have known Hector for more than eight years now. From the first day I met him, to the time I write
this recommendation I have never seen any other person that shows such an incredible balance between
knowledge, integrity, and passion for his own work. Hector is one of those few professionals left whose drive
is to make a better world by means of their art. I admire his comprehensive knowledge of art and science, and
the creative and innovative ways in which he puts them together. His devotion is contagious, and he evokes a
level of synergy and trust when working with people that always drives his teams to success and growth, both
professionally, and personally. Working with Hector is an unusual pleasure. An honor, and an opportunity to
grow. I fully recommend him equally as an accomplished professional, a human being, and a friend. If I ever
have to solve an impossible problem, I hope to have him on my team."

— Daniel Torres, ha trabajado directamente con Héctor.

Contacta con Héctor en LinkedIn

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