Joseph Hernandez is living proof of what’s possible in America — and a living warning of what happens when government grows large enough to crush the people it claims to serve.
Born in Camagüey, Cuba, Joseph came to the United States as a child refugee after his father was imprisoned for opposing the Castro regime. He was seven years old. The family resettled in Chicago, where his father washed dishes and his mother cleaned houses to give their children a better life. They taught their children two lessons, as Joseph tells it: nothing in this country is free, and education was their ticket out. Joseph took both to heart, eventually earning five degrees — three from the University of Florida, one from Yale, and one from Oxford: a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience, a Master of Science in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship, a Master of Science in Chronic Disease Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Yale, and a Master’s in Global Healthcare Leadership currently underway at Oxford.
He went on to build one of the more remarkable careers in American biotechnology — founding or leading more than a dozen companies and taking multiple firms public on the NASDAQ. Early in his career he helped advance the first FDA-approved test for HPV, a milestone in cancer prevention that has protected millions of women through earlier detection. Today he serves as Founder and Senior Managing Partner of Blue Water Venture Partners, investing in technologies that improve public health and accelerate scientific discovery.
Joseph is running for Comptroller because New York doesn’t have a revenue problem — it has a leadership problem. New York’s current, rarely on-time $265 billion budget is bigger than Florida’s, despite New York having roughly three million fewer residents.
Comptroller Hernandez will be the people’s watchdog through real-time audits. He is committed to reversing the sub-par rate of return New Yorkers see on the second-largest investment portfolio in the country. That, together with a businessman’s focus on cutting extraordinarily high external investment costs, will yield New Yorkers and the state’s government pensioners a safer system with billions in new growth and savings.
The current Comptroller, a mystery figure to most New Yorkers, abrogated his responsibility as an independent voice when he became the pension poodle for a select group. Joseph Hernandez knows how to create wealth, manage large organizations, and balance the interests of all New Yorkers tired of a one-party system.