Gustavo “Gus” Arnavat
College of Arts & Sciences
Tell us about what you're doing with your life
Following a long career on Wall Street as a capital markets lawyer and investment banker, I took a chance and volunteered to work on then-Senator Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign. After a stint on his Transition Team, he nominated -- and the US Senate confirmed -- me to be the United States representative on the Executive Board of the Inter-American Development Bank. This was a full-time position that gave me a second opportunity to serve my adoptive country (I worked for two years as a Presidential Management Fellow after graduate school, including for Colin Powell at the National Security Council) and develop a passion for development finance, which is very different from commercial and investment banking. As a result of President Obama’s Cuba opening in December 2014, I returned to my country of birth, Cuba, as an adviser to the White House and on my own and have since been very focused on improving the lives of the Cuban people. In 2022, I founded the Cuba Foundation: www.cuba-foundation.org, a philanthropic and multisector platform that promotes the development of Cuba’s emerging private sector. I have been married for over 30 years to a wonderful woman, even though she graduated from Harvard College, and have two amazing kids, a son who is my creative alter ego and a budding photographer in Boulder, and a daughter who is starting her clinical rounds at Tufts Veterinary School of Medicine.
What was your favorite class at Cornell, or the one you found the most useful?
I loved most of my classes at Cornell (once I switched from pre-med to pre-law!). Perhaps the one that had the most -- if unexpected -- impact was Hispanic Literature, which includes all Spanish-language literature. I had little interest in the subject, but my Cornell-assigned mentor who I admired, Enrico Mario Santí, a fellow Cuban American who also grew up in South Florida was and is one of the leading experts in the world taught the course. I was also embarrassed as a native Spanish speaker to know so few Latin American authors. It changed my life. It introduced me to a world of concepts and themes that I could relate to in small and large ways. I approached literature for the first time as a window into the human condition, not just from a cultural perspective, but political, social and economic as well. But the greatest impact was that it strengthened my relationship with Enrico, who to this day remains a friend and mentor. He introduced me to several leading Cuban authors during their visits to Cornell and directly and indirectly inspired me to re-connect with my cultural roots. As a result, I began to lay the foundation for my subsequent professional and personal endeavors involving Cuba and the rest of Latin America.
What is your favorite memory of your time at Cornell?
I lived in a fraternity house on West Campus not too far from the Johnson Museum, I.M. Pei’s modern architectural masterpiece. So, I often found myself walking through its galleries, especially its Asian art gallery on the 5th floor, which affords breathtaking, expansive views of Cayuga Lake. That was my “safe space,” many years before that term was coined. It provided me a quiet, exquisitely designed space; an enriching refuge from Ithaca’s often punishing winters, and a place to reflect before or after a prelim, and whenever I just needed to be by myself to contemplate the past and make future plans. So, more than a single memory, my many experiences at the Johnson are a collection of many fond memories that never fail to give me the warm and fuzzies.
What advice would you give to a student starting at Cornell this year?
Here’s what I got right: have a Plan A, a Plan B and even a Plan C, even if those plans are not necessarily related or synergistic, and always keep those plans in mind and nourish them as required. It’s a little bit like driving a car, where you should mostly look in front of you, but be aware of what is happening on each side of and behind your car in case the need arises to make an abrupt lane change. And always strive to do your best. Here’s what I mostly got right: be honest, kind, respectful and generous without being overly pious, but never be a push-over, or fail to stand up for yourself, your loved ones, community, country or beliefs. Also, what my father ingrained in me: aim to be as independent as practically possible in every way—financially, emotionally and intellectually. Don’t be a social hermit, don’t become overly dependent on others for your happiness or well-being. Here is what I wish I had learned much earlier in life: live in the present. Keep your plans in mind but recognize and pursue weekly if not daily opportunities to nourish your soul, body and mind. Make friends and keep in touch with them. Be a social being. Keep moving always, and rest when you must do so. In the end, you will look back at what you did, not how much sleep you got. Finally, if you feel strongly about some social issue (regardless of your ideological predisposition), understand that you are the solution you have been waiting for. Seize the day. Plan well and execute better but take a chance and change the circumstances that trouble you. It’s an incredibly liberating feeling. And if you don’t reach your goal, you know you lived without regret, that you gave it your all and that you fought the good fight.
How has your time at Cornell influenced you since you graduated?
In two related ways. Cornell was the first place where I studied and lived where everyone was super smart and accomplished, usually more so than me. I found my professors to be exceedingly brilliant and exacting in their standards of excellence. I went from an environment where I essentially got straights As without much effort, to having to work very hard and diligently to truly earn each A. I knew that to succeed at Cornell, I had to bring my A game (pun intended) to everything I did. It totally shifted my paradigm and my approach not just in the classroom, but later in my professional career. There is a huge difference between “getting by” and aiming to be the best you can be, within reason, of course. That led to the second influence: the confidence that I gained upon graduating as I did, knowing that I had the ability and drive to achieve excellent results. Many people fail because they are afraid of trying something new or challenging, even if they are genuinely interested in the objective they seek. It comes down to being too risk averse. Having confidence in oneself, including the self-awareness to know when and how to adjust one’s objectives or means, is a powerful strength. Cornell provides the opportunity to test and prove to yourself that you can get the job done while you are still young enough to experiment and make mistakes, within reason, of course…