Al Ortiz

Al is a retired FBI executive with twelve years of corporate security experience managing Latin America operations for the financial services industry. During his 22-year FBI career, he served in investigative and management roles in Miami, Washington D.C., Houston, and San Antonio. Al also served tours of duty in Mexico and in Colombia, where he trained national police officers during Colombia’s drug war against Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel.  His regional area of responsibility included Peru and Bolivia.

Al served four years as Assistant Agent-in-Charge of the San Antonio FBI office, where he directed investigations in Central and South Texas.  He completed his career at FBI Headquarters serving as global program executive over all FBI investigations of major drug trafficking organizations, violent gangs, and major cargo theft rings.  In this role, he testified before the U.S. Congress concerning the threat posed by Salvadoran street gangs and served as the FBI’s lead representative on a bi-lateral panel headed by the Attorneys General of the U.S. and Mexico on the subject of border violence.

After retiring from the FBI, Al served as a Regional Security Director for Bank of America, where he directed security operations in 12 U.S. states and nine Latin American countries. He also served for five years as Latam Regional Security Director for Goldman Sachs, two years with Anthos NL, based in Guadalajara, Mexico, and one year with the Diligence International Group of Addison, Texas.

Professional affiliations have included membership in the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), where he served on the Civilian Law Enforcement/Military Coordination Committee.  Born in Texas of Mexican immigrants, Al graduated from the University of Texas at Austin where he earned a BA in Liberal Arts.