Paul Rodriguez is a former international financial professional with over 25 years of experience funding, financing, and investing money at some of the world’s most widely recognized financial institutions, including Salomon Brothers, Merrill Lynch, UBS, BBVA, and ANZ. He began his career as an equity research analyst, later transitioning to credit analysis and eventually becoming a global banker servicing multinational corporations in the United States and internationally. Paul works as a nonprofit development professional for a large faith-based institution.
Paul was born in Queens, New York to working-class Puerto Rican parents but was raised by a single mother all of his life. He relocated as an infant to Santurce, Puerto Rico, where he lived for 10 years and learned Spanish as his first language. He also lived in Roswell, Georgia, for 12 years, graduating from high school and college there.
Paul has always had a passion for service. He is a past Executive Board member of the Manhattan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Brooklyn-Kings County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He is also a past president of the New York Young Republican Club. He ran for Congress against Rep. Nydia Velazquez in 2004 in one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse districts in New York City, encompassing Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. In 2021, Paul was the Conservative Party nominee for New York City Comptroller. And most recently, in 2022, Paul was the endorsed Republican and Conservative nominee for New York State Comptroller, earning nearly 2.5 million votes, the highest of any challenger in decades.
Paul earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Certificate in Global Policy Studies at The University of Georgia. He also completed a Fellowship in Economics at Stanford University. Paul lives in Brooklyn with his Mexican wife of more than 18 years and two of his three daughters. From his prior marriage, his oldest daughter lives in Puerto Rico with her husband.