From 1972 until 1982 Gus worked at The Miami Herald Publishing Company, where he held different positions in the business side of the newspaper.
In 1984 Gus joined the consulting division of Arthur Andersen (later Andersen Consulting). He stayed with AA until 1988, when he left with other Andersen managers and 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 listed by Inc. magazine as one of the fastest growing 500 private companies. Under the leadership of Gus and his partners Tom Richardson, Jeff Manchester, Bill Dudziak and Sandy Strauss, SCG attained employee retention levels much higher than those of the industry, and listed as its clients companies such as Federal Express, NYNEX, Unilever, Pillsbury, Burger King, M&M Mars, Florida Power and Light and Campbell Soups. By 1995 SCG had grown organically to 200 consultants in offices in Miami, Chicago and San Juan, and was on a 30 million dollar revenue run rate. SCG was profitable from the start. In August of 1995 Cambridge Technology Partners (CTP) purchased SCG.
Gus served as a Vice President in CTP until June of 1998. During this time he was responsible for the operations of the U.S. South East region (south of Washington DC and east of the Mississippi), and Latin America. The two organizations totaled over 300 consultants with revenues in the vicinity of 45 million dollars per year. Gus started the Latin America operation for CTP, opening offices in Mexico City, Caracas, and Sao Paulo.
Gus became involved in other diversifying ventures since the sale of SCG. Today he is part owner of P&O Packaging (a plastics company), Firehouse Four (one of Miami’s leading restaurants), The Radisson Riverwalk Hotel (a large hotel in Jacksonville), Canopy Palms Hotel (a beach front hotel in Singer Island), Horizon Bank (a new community bank he helped found and where he serves in the board of directors) and Infinet (a new media design company).
Gus is also one of the founders Entente Investment, now Adjoined Consulting, a service firm in the Information Technology and general consulting sector. Adjoined also includes a venture capital firm focused on investing in other IT services firms with interesting technologies. Gus serves as an advisor to both, the operations and the venture groups. Adjoined Consulting, has grown to 190 consultants in a little over 1 year, with offices in Miami, Dallas, Atlanta, New York and Mexico City.
Recently Gus and Tom Richardson completed writing a book on the subject of creating a competitive advantage by dealing with relationships as key business assets, a true new model for business success. The book was picked up by MacMillan Press to be part of its fall 2001 schedule (targeted for publication in September, 2001). The book has received some early positive responses from the academic world. Presentations have been made at the University of Miami, Florida International University, the University of Florida, The University of Arizona, The University of Maryland, and Carnegie Mellon.
Gus earned a B.S. in Business from Florida International University (1980) and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Florida (1984).
In 1996 Gus was one of the finalists for Florida’s entrepreneur of the year. Also in 1996 the University of Florida Graduate School selected him as the outstanding alum. In 1999 he was selected by Florida International University as the outstanding alum for the School of Business. In 2001 Gus was selected by Florida International University to enter its "Entrepreneur" wall of fame.
Gus is active in area charities such as: Troy Schools (a last chance school for teenagers), and Jackson Metropolitans (children’s oncology).
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