Luis Gonzalez, MBA ’95, worked in finance for years before he felt called to support the Catholic Church more directly in his work. Today, Gonzalez leads the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of North Texas, a Catholic charitable organization, as CEO.
Can you start by telling me a little bit about your background before UDallas?
Before coming to the Society, I was working at a private equity firm here in Dallas in their global IT space, helping to manage their help desks. Prior to that, I had been at a small niche insurance company, and then prior to that, I had been with Allstate for 24 years or so.
I really felt very compelled, like the Lord was inviting me to consider doing something different, and I ended up discerning the opportunity to leave that private equity firm job. I felt like the Lord was calling me to do something specifically for the church in some form or fashion.
Can you describe how your faith has developed over time?
My wife and I got married and, you know, we were nominal Catholics. We would go for Easter and for Christmas. I would go on occasion on my own. She did not really grow up with a lot of involvement in the church. I was an altar boy and everything, so I kind of felt like I needed to go more regularly. But then, we ended up going through CRHP, Christ Renews His Parish. The retreat, which is given by parishioners for parishioners, was just a complete unveiling of the way we should be living our life, and it radically changed our lives after that. After that, we became very open to life, and we ended up having four kids. Before that point, I was insistent that we were only going to have two kids. It’s been just an amazing transformation ever since.
Wow! That’s wonderful. And then how did you find St. Vincent de Paul?
So, I was discerning, and I saw very clearly, “Follow Me.” And then, Becca, it was like a week after I had an experience in the Adoration chapel there at St. Ann Catholic Parish that I got a cold call from an executive recruiter in the nonprofit space. I remember looking up, thinking, “That was fast.” He was recruiting for a position with another Catholic organization. The interview process opened my eyes to opportunities, but it didn’t feel like it was a good fit. But the recruiter got a chance to know me a little bit more, so when we ended up getting the decision back from that organization that they weren’t interested any longer, he told me, “I’ve got something else that’s come across my desk that I think you might be interested in.” Once he shared with me this role, and I learned about the society, I just fell in love with everything that we’re doing. And then when I looked at the primary mission of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which is to grow the holiness of its members, that to me was everything I’ve dreamed of being able to do, everything the Lord has prepared me for in the corporate space for the past 30 years. And I just knew that this is where I needed to go.
Do you see ways in which your UDallas education from your MBA program is impacting your work today with St. Vincent de Paul?
Yes, I do, in a couple of different ways. First and foremost — and I think this even applies to the for-profit space — I saw it help me start to think more broadly and more holistically about decisions that were being made, whether it was financial or operational. And when I think about my MBA now from UDallas, and the role that I’m in, I can see where that experience and learning how to think more broadly have now equipped me for this role, because I have to be thinking about the 800 Vincentians that we have throughout all of North Texas. I have to be thinking about the 85,000 Vincentians we have nationwide, and how we potentially can be working with and impacting one another. I have to think about the relationships with all the other nonprofits in the Dallas area, about relationships with the Church and having a vested interest in working so closely with our bishop and the pastoral center and our diocesan leaders. You know, those are all the things that just get you thinking more globally.
This interview has been edited for length and style.
