Augusto Vidaurreta

Augusto Vidaurreta and Tom Richardson have founded and run numerous successful ventures since they both left Andersen Consulting 14 years ago. Vidaurreta is an entrepreneur, consultant and author, having co-authored a new book, Business is a Contact Sport, which details the management strategy behind all of his business dealings.

Vidaurreta came to the United States from Cuba at the age of 13 in 1968. His foray into the business world came at the age of 17 when he began a decade-long career with The Miami Herald Publishing Company, serving the business side in several capacities.

With four years under his belt at Andersen Consulting, Augusto Vidaurreta left in 1988 and co-founded The Systems Consulting Group (SCG), a full-service information systems consulting firm. Although SCG never solicited external funding, it grew rapidly and it was twice named by Inc. magazine as one of the fastest growing 500 private companies. Under the leadership of Vidaurreta and partner Richardson, SCG attained employee retention levels much higher than that of the industry and listed as its clients Federal Express, NYNEX, Unilever, Pillsbury, Burger King, M&M Mars, Florida Power and Light and Campbell Soup. By 1995 SCG had grown organically to 200 consultants in offices in Miami, Chicago and San Juan. SCG was profitable from the start and in August 1995, Cambridge Technology Partners (CTP) purchased SCG for $30 million in stock.

Augusto Vidaurreta served as Vice President at CTP until June 1998. During this time, Vidaurreta was responsible for the operations south of Washington, DC, East of Mississippi and in Latin America. The two organizations totaled over 300 consultants with revenues around $45 million per year. He started the Latin American operation for CTP as well.

Vidaurreta is also involved in other diversified ventures, including being part owner o the following: P&O Packaging (a plastics company), Hardaway's Firehouse Four (one of Miami's leading restaurants), The Radisson Riverwalk Hotel, Canopy Palms Hotel, Horizon Bank and Infinet.

He is also one of the founders of Entente Investment, now called Adjoined Consulting, a service firm in the IT and general consulting sector. In little over a year, it has grown to 190 consultants, with offices in Miami, Dallas, Atlanta, New York and Mexico City.

Augusto Vidaurreta is a resident of Miami and holds an MBA from the University of Florida.