Grupo Tersa's Valle becomes first Mexican to earn Humanitarian award

TIJUANA, BAJA CALIFORNIA, Mexico — For most of his 38 years as a business owner, competition has driven the success of Rodrigo Valle Hernandez.

Whether it was extending business hours to weekends and through lunch at his newly opened shop; whether it was hiring females to play prominent roles; whether it was utilizing the latest and most technologically advanced equipment; or whether it was securing the exclusive rights to sell Michelin products in his region, Mr. Valle excelled in outcompeting the competition.

He built one fledgling shop in Tijuana, which opened in August 1982 just as the peso was severely devalued, into a Mexican automotive empire. Grupo Tersa, as his conglomerate is called, operates more than 150 stores, including 45 company-owned and three distribution centers in eight Mexican states.

In addition, he operates 13 auto dealerships, selling three different models (Renault, Peugeot and Jianghuai or JAC, a Chinese manufacturer) as well as a real estate company.

"I was born with gasoline in my veins," Mr. Valle said.

Last year, Grupo Tersa eclipsed $100 million in sales, with the tire business accounting for $60 million in sales alone.

With cancer ravaging his body, doctors gave him 90 days to live. That was 11 years ago. And counting. So when Mr. Valle, executive president and founder of Grupo Tersa, decided to organize his own charitable foundation, it would have been natural for him to build an organization that would out- raise and out-fund more established foundations.

Why not be the best charitable foundation in the Mexican state of Baja California?

Instead, Mr. Valle took a different approach. He organized his charity, the Valle Bibb Foundation, to support many of the other charitable organizations in and around the region.

To date, Mr. Valle's foundation has raised more than $3.5 million in U.S. dollars to support more than 15 charities. And remarkably, in the seven years since Valle Bibb was formed, nearly 11,000 have received help, in a country that offers little in public assistance.

That alone makes him a worthy recipient of the 2020 Tire Business Tire Dealer Humanitarian Award, which recognizes an independent tire dealer or retreader in North America who, during the past year, has made significant contributions to the betterment of his or her community through charitable and/or public service work.

Those, of course, are impressive enough accomplishments for the 66-year-old Mr. Valle to become the first Mexican-based recipient in the award's 27-year history, only the second to be honored outside of the U.S.

But what set him apart from almost a dozen like-minded humanitarian tire dealers nominated was his most recent work in helping battle the COVID-19 pandemic in his country.

He and his family collaborated with Tijuana's This About Humanity organization to raise $150,000 in order to purchase more than 2,500 medical items, including personal protective equipment (PPE) for public hospitals.

And his family helped to purchase more than 2,000 face masks for the Castro-Limon Foundation, which supports children with cancer.

It was that recent call to action, combined with his varied long-term approach to supporting a variety of humanitarian activities, that appealed to the independent panel that judged the nominations.

"His recent work supporting CO-VID-19 treatment/protection lifted him up a notch in our eyes," the panel said. "Mr. Valle's wading in to help with the current crisis, while already engaged in a lot of humanitarian work, is impressive."

Mr. Valle was to receive the prestigious Humanitarian Medal, engraved with his name and dealership, during the Tire Industry Association (TIA) Honors Awards virtual ceremony on Nov. 2. Tire Business also will donate $2,500 to the charity of his choice, the Castro-Limon Foundation.

The wow factor

Mr. Valle's tireless work in helping others while battling serious health issues himself, impressed the judges.

"To be thinking of others," the panel wrote, "when there is such a need to think of himself, wow."

That exactly describes Mr. Valle's reaction to hearing the news of his selection.

"I am stunned," he said. "It kind of shook me up a little. To be the first winner in Mexico ..."

His friends, many of whom operate foundations that receive financial support from the Valle Bibb Foundation, use colorful words to paint the portrait of the philanthropic tire dealer.

"I always see optimism in him," said Enrique Fajardo, a fellow Tijuana entrepreneur who founded a palliative care facility in Tijuana. "... The (biggest) thing I like about Rodrigo is his heart. You feel that. When you're close to him, you feel that approach, his honesty, his love. He always puts the truth in front of everything."

"Caring. Very focused. He's a leader, capable of rallying those that he has close by and others, creating contagions on any effort," said Fernando Leon Garcia, president of CETYS University, Mr. Valle's alma mater.

CETYS, with three campuses, perhaps has benefited the most from Mr. Valle's philanthropy. Mr. Valle has spent three decades serving on the board of the institution, where he not only influenced change, but he also helped foster it.

His donation of $1 million, the first donation to reach seven figures from an alumnus in school history, helped to fund construction of the $5 million Rodrigo Valle Hernandez gymnasium-auditorium.

"His capacity to influence and rally others for a specific project is tremendous," Mr. Leon Garcia said. "He has a lot of energy, a lot of drive, a lot of commitment. He brings a lot of pride to the institution."

The Guajardo siblings — older sister Alida and brother Juan Ignacio — grew up on the same block as Mr. Valle in Mexicali, the capital of Baja California, two-and-a-half hours west of Tijuana. So they consider Mr. Valle part of their extended family.

"He is forward-going," said Ms. Guajardo, who operates a foundation that assembles choirs in elementary schools across the city. "He recognizes everybody's input. He validates it. He listens. He's interested ... He is very committed to what he's doing for a nonprofit."

"He's result-oriented man. He pushes people to do things, the correct things," said Mr. Guajardo, a lawyer in Mexicali who attended the same military academy in the U.S. as Mr. Valle. "He has a big heart. He's very sensible. He cries a lot. He's a good person."

Roberto Castro, another Tijuana businessman who helps to operate the Castro-Limon Foundation to benefit children with cancer, called Mr. Valle "a very clever and smart guy, hardworking, a true friend.

"He helps the needy people," Mr. Castro said. "His heart is very big. Very big."

And his outreach is just as big. His charitable nature, he said, derives from his mother, who was involved with several charities during Mr. Valle's youth.

Once he moved to Tijuana, an older friend invited him to become a board member of CETYS. More than three-and-a-half decades later, he remains a board member.

"I liked it because I said I've got to do something for education in Mexico," Mr. Valle said. "The only way Mexico is going to grow and be bigger and smarter is through education."

At the time he joined the board, Mr. Valle was among the youngest on the board. He was "barely making it" financially.

"On any charity, there are three things you have to do to be a good board member," he said. "Give time, give money and get money.

"At that time, I could give time and I could get money, but I did not have money to give."

Time to act

Flash forward 25 years or so. Mr. Valle, now successful and fully engaged in all three attributes of being a successful board member, learned he had bone cancer. Doctors didn't offer much hope.

With his mortality staring back at him in the mirror, he said he realized he hadn't done enough to help charities.

Mr. Valle, scarred and bandaged from his surgery months earlier, made a surprise announcement at a CETYS board meeting: He would donate $1 million to the university toward the construction of a much needed gymnasium-auditorium.

"Everybody started clapping," he recalled. "I said, 'I don't know if I'm going to be able see it, but you will have my money so we can start the gym.'"

The Rodrigo Valle Hernandez gym- nasium-auditorium officially opened in 2014.

Mr. Valle still can feel the emotion that rumbled through his body as he made the announcement.

"It gave me great satisfaction," he said, wiping tears from his eyes. "Business doesn't give me this satisfaction. Giving gives you more satisfaction than receiving."

He told his wife, Denisse — with whom he has five children and seven grandchildren — that the time had come "to continue doing this, together, you and I."

Named after his last name (Valle) and his wife's last name (Bibb), he took steps to open the foundation in 2013. By attaching each of their names to the foundation, he said, it would be as much their foundation as it would be their children's.

"That way," he said, "we are committing our children to be committed to the foundation."

He deliberately organized the board of the foundation with 24 members: eight members of his immediate family; eight directors of Grupo Tersa; and eight fellow philanthropic businessmen. Mr. Valle became president of the board, surrounded by his family, staff and friends.

The board quickly established three major areas of focus: education, health and gender.

Seven years later, the foundation has established strong ties with charities that serve needs under each area.

Education

The largest amount of money that Valle Bibb has donated to any cause has gone to CETYS — close to $1.8 million as of early 2020.

Developing a sports facility fits with Mr. Valle's vision of providing an all-around experience for a youth. After all, Mr. Valle did just that at CETYS: He played American football for two years at the university, among other sports.

"When I was president of the (CETYS board in Tijuana), one of my biggest concerns was sports because I always thought, with a clean body and a clean mind, you stay off drugs," Mr. Valle said. "And sports is one of the reasons you can get kids off the street and not be thinking of bad things like drugs and gangs."

The new facility is also used for other extracurricular activities, as well as academics.

Once the gymnasium-auditorium opened, it wasn't long before Mr. Valle headed the campaign to install solar panels in order to generate electricity to power the facility.

"Rodrigo is an individual who is always thinking what and how his university can improve and can continue to reach the next level of development," Mr. Leon Garcia, president of the institution, said.

Ms. Guajardo's foundation, Promotora de las Bellas Artes, or Promoter of Fine Arts, provides an outlet for schoolchildren in grades four, five and six, through music.

Children are encouraged to participate in a school choir in which they not only learn the finer points of singing and music, but they also learn such valuable lessons as discipline, camaraderie and self-confidence.

"The work we do is very important because we're working with kids before they get to high school, which is the most dangerous period for a kid," said Ms. Guajardo, who became involved in the organization in 1992. "With the drugs, the sex, it's very easy for them to go by the wayside. We work with kids and prepare them and strengthen them so that they can stay in school.

"Singing liberates them a little and helps them express themselves," she said. "They sing sad or happy songs. They teach them different emotions to be expressed, which is very important."

Around 25 schools participate in the program, depending on various factors. Last year, Ms. Guajardo said 1,300 kids directly were impacted by the program; this year, the number is around 200, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Children are selected to participate in two concerts a year, a Christmas concert, with 400 in attendance, and a combined community conference that draws 4,000 in non-COVID times.

During the five years the groups have worked together, Valle Bibb has raised $275,000 to benefit the organization. The organization has an annual budget of $250,000 and is used for staff, transportation and other essentials.

Mr. Valle said in many ways, singing is more valuable to a child than sports: He said sports only lasts so long for most kids, and injuries can shorten a career. Singing, however, can be done alone, in a group, forever.

"Self-esteem is really important for children," Mr. Valle said. "They feel more secure of themselves. They don't feel like a minority."

Health

The two major foundations that Valle Bibb supports in this area focus on people at two very different stages of life. And each charity was founded by men in the pharmaceutical field, each as a result of a personal tragedy.

The first, the Castro-Limon Foundation, provides services for children with cancer through the age of 18. Mr. Castro founded his charity in 2006 — since merged with another that also helped children with cancer — three years after his son, Juan Carlos, died at age 28 of lymphoma.

The younger Castro had a dream to open a facility to treat children with cancer.

"Even when he was sick, he was working to put a foundation (together)," Mr. Castro said. "He read in papers that there was too many children with cancer with no means to take care of it. That's why he wanted to start a foundation."

At any one time, 80 children are being treated at the hospital. Treatments generally last two to three years, according to Mr. Castro, and five years have to pass before a child is deemed cancer-free. Patients' families are charged for the services based on their ability to pay.

"It's a very costly disease," Mr. Castro said, noting the foundation has treated children from the U.S. "Most (families) don't have the means to pay."

About five years ago, Mr. Valle organized the first of what's become an annual charity gala, Dreaming Together. Between 120-150 people attend; the cost is $1,000 per couple. All money goes directly to the foundation.

Valle Bibb has raised $1.2 million for Castro-Limon and counting.

"Being that I'm a cancer victim, I know how difficult it is for a kid with cancer," Mr. Valle said. "With all the stuff they go through, I don't know how they can manage. With us as adults, it's hard; as a kid, I can't even imagine. And for the parents ...

"I have to do something."

Meanwhile Mr. Fajardo's Cuidados Paliativos (palliative care) foundation supports Tijuanans at the other end of the spectrum.

The foundation provides end-of-life care for around 400 patients and their families annually, distributing medical equipment and pain medication to patients, as well as moral support for families dealing with the impending death of a loved one.

Since the foundation began eight years ago, Mr. Fajardo estimates that foundation has treated 1,800 patients; provided 4,000 medical consultations at home and 4,400 more at the palliative center; given 1,340 psychological consultations to patients and family; and provided 600 patients with medical equipment and supplies.

Mr. Fajardo said his dream is to form a hospice.

"The problem with palliative care in Mexico, is by law, the government is supposed to give it to the people," he said.

"But they don't give it. Every patient in the last stage of life is supposed to receive pain medication from the government. Can you imagine people with no income and family with cancer in the last stage of their life having to pass with no pain medication?"

The foundation recently fulfilled a request of one 29-year-old patient, taking her by ambulance to a beachfront condo so that she could die with an ocean view, in dignity.

Mr. Fajardo started the foundation three years after his wife, Maria, died at age 49 of pancreatic cancer.

When she was diagnosed, she was given six months to live; she lasted two years. The Fajordos decided they would not share the truth with their three teenage children so they could live normally.

Looking back, he said that was a huge mistake.

"Our sons were never given the chance to say goodbye to their mother or time to process that stage of the problem and the illness," he said. "There were some psychological problems with them. It was a mess, myself and them. It affects them today."

To operate the center, Mr. Fajardo said monthly base expenses are between $7,000-8,000 month, plus each patient costs around $250 per month.

The facility, which used to be his in-laws' house, averages around 30 to 40 patients per month.

Valle Bibb has contributed $80,000 in the two years it has supported the facility.

"All funds that Enrique has are private funds, donations," Mr. Valle said. "With a little amount of money, he's done a lot. That's why we feel committed to helping him."

Gender

This area of focus might be confusing to the U.S.

Gender, Mr. Valle said, has a different meaning in Mexico: Gender means quality of life.

Valle Bibb thus supports groups that help the socially marginalized, "providing them the minimum elements to move forward with their personal lives" as they integrate into society.

As such, the organization supports a Catholic missionary congregation dedicated to the education and support of children, adolescents, youth and families in vulnerable situations; an agency that offers help, intervention and social assistance for those struggling; and another that provides help and services for migrants, among others.

It also includes support for pro-life groups. Valle Bibb conducts a golf tournament each year to support the cause.

Mr. Valle, a staunch Catholic, said his wife suffered four miscarriages — all boys. He said some political groups in his country are pushing for abortion.

"I'm one of the strongest opposers of that," he said. "If you feel threatened by choice, you got to defend your choice. If you do not say anything, you're going to lose what you are defending. My choice is defending what I choose, with my heart and conscience."

That support dovetails with his other causes.

"So we (support charities) from the very beginning of life all the way to the end of life, like a cycle," he said.

It was important, he said, to form a foundation that works with, instead of against, all of the foundations he now supports.

"If we had a foundation, we would be directly competing with them for money and resources they get already," Mr. Valle said. "Why would I want to compete against them, instead of making them bigger, better and stronger with our resources and our money and our time?"

Perhaps Mr. Leon Garcia, the university president, summed it up best.

"You have in Rodrigo a very caring committed individual who tries to give back to the region," he said. "We need more of those."