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Arturo Aguilar excelled in mathematics as a student growing up in Mexico City, but he had little exposure to coding. His passion for programming came later, while working at J.P. Morgan as vice president of institutional sales.

Arturo discovered a need to track large amounts of data, so he started looking for ways to improve his technical skills. His pursuit of knowledge led him to a quant conference in New York City, where he attended a session led by Igor Tulchinsky, the founder, chairman, and CEO of WorldQuant, LLC.

Igor talked about his latest philanthropic venture, WorldQuant University, and his vision to close opportunity gaps by providing free academic programs. Arturo felt inspired. He returned to Mexico and enrolled online in WorldQuant University’s flagship program, the Master of Science in Financial Engineering.

During the next two years, Arturo polished technical skills like machine learning while collaborating with classmates from Asia, Africa, and other regions. By the time he graduated in 2020, he felt ready to tackle new professional challenges.

“This is an amazing program if you want to develop your coding, math, and financial skills,” he said. “I think it is a very unique program, and you can meet people from all over the world.”

After completing his studies, Arturo worked as a quant strategist and sales trader at Finamex, a Mexican financial services firm. Then in 2023, Arturo took the next step in his career. He launched KaxaNuk, an investment research and technology development firm in San Andrés Cholula, Puebla, Mexico. The company name comes from two Mayan words, meaning “to seek and find the answer.” This is Arturo’s goal.

“My passion is doing research and understanding markets,” Arturo said. “What we are trying to do is create investment research and also to create technology to gain insights.”

Arturo applies his WQU knowledge daily.

“WorldQuant University helped me to understand many things that I never saw before,” he said. “I learned many ways of understanding data—collecting data, curating data—and also I have been able to implement all the machine learning knowledge I gained during the program.”

Besides the technical skills, Arturo learned the importance of giving back. His company provides open-source solutions and works to grow the Mexican economy in other ways.

“I want to thank all the WorldQuant University professors. I want to thank Igor. I want to thank all the community and all the classmates—everyone who is involved in this program—because you are making a difference out there,” he said. “The best way for people and countries to evolve and have opportunities is learning, and sharing this knowledge is a great way to make a better world.”