Max Cardenas '01 helping Iowa companies establish business in Mexico

No nation has had a bigger impact on Iowa in the last decade than Mexico. Only Canada buys more Iowa products, but trade to Mexico is growing more rapidly. For some agricultural products, Mexico is Iowa's top buyer.

What's not growing: Mexican immigration to Iowa. The influx of Latinos transformed many Iowa towns and neighborhoods in the 1990s and 2000s, but that wave will likely never happen again because of cultural and economic changes in Mexico.

"Mexico has a huge impact on Iowa's economy that is overlooked," said Max Cardenas, who returned to Des Moines this year after living for two years in Mexico City.

Cardenas helped Des Moines software firm GCommerce establish business in Mexico, and now he's doing the same for Oskaloosa-based Musco Lighting.

While he learned to cut through Mexico's infamous bureaucracy, he said he never had to deal with corruption or threats to his safety.

Instead, he was impressed with many things, including how many manufacturers were expanding and how young Mexicans were embracing social media and U.S. technology.

"There's a huge eagerness to get business done," said Cardenas, a Grinnell College graduate born in Peru.