When Carlos Mendoza arrived at ITAM in 2002, he wasn't sure exactly what he wanted to do — only that he wanted to understand how economies worked from the inside. Four years later, he graduated with a degree in economics and a way of thinking that, as he puts it, never really left him.

Today, Carlos is CFO of Pagos Ágiles, one of Mexico's leading fintech companies, overseeing a finance function that spans operations in seven countries and manages billions of pesos in annual transaction volume. It's a long way from the lecture halls of Campus Río Hondo — and yet, he says, not so far at all.

"The technical skills matter, obviously. But what ITAM really gave me was a framework for dealing with uncertainty," he says. "In fintech, nothing is stable. Regulations change, markets move, competitors appear overnight. The ability to think clearly under pressure — that came from ITAM."

After graduating in 2006, Carlos joined a mid-sized investment bank in Mexico City, where he spent six years working across structured finance and corporate treasury. A move to a Series B startup in 2013 marked a turning point. "Everyone thought I was crazy to leave a stable banking job for a startup that had twelve employees. But I'd learned at ITAM to follow the analysis, not the consensus."

That instinct paid off. The startup was acquired in 2017, and Carlos joined Pagos Ágiles shortly after as Head of Finance. He was appointed CFO in 2024.

Outside of work, Carlos remains closely connected to ITAM. He has mentored students through the alumni programme for the past four years and returns to campus each spring to speak to economics students about careers in financial services. "I get more out of those conversations than the students do," he laughs. "They ask questions that make you think."

For current students wondering how to make the most of their time at ITAM, his advice is straightforward: "Learn to be rigorous. Learn to be wrong gracefully. And stay connected to this community — it will come back to you in ways you don't expect."