My full name is Julio Aviles. I was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, but was raised in Mayaguez, a city located to the west and home to the only zoo on the island. It was in Mayaguez that I attended the University of Puerto Rico at the local campus and received my bachelor’s degrees in business administration, majoring in accounting. After graduating, I moved to San Juan to kickstart my career in finance and in 2019, made the move to Philadelphia. 

Before moving to Philadelphia, I was a controller for Fortune 500 medical device company, Baxter International for eight years. At Baxter, I was responsible for accounting and financial activities for the Puerto Rico and Caribbean regions, working closely with various departments in the business, such as marketing, supply chain, sales, human resources and others. In 2017, an opportunity arose at Johnson & Johnson in Trenton, New Jersey, and I jumped at the opportunity that eventually led me here, to Philadelphia. At Johnson & Johnson, I managed financial planning in one of their medical device franchises, which included operations across the U.S., Puerto Rico, Latin America and Europe.

Today, I work as a Finance Manager for Aetna Inc., a CVS Health company, in Center City, which I joined in 2018. At Aetna, I manage all accounting and financial responsibilities for the Medicaid line of business for all Pennsylvania. 

In my personal time, I very much enjoy traveling and experiencing different cultures, people and food. Some of my favorite travel adventures include skydiving in Las Vegas, cruising around the Mediterranean Sea and river rafting, ziplining and volcano climbing in Costa Rica. To me, there is nothing better than discovering something you have never seen or tried when visiting somewhere new.  

In my opinion, the key to success is being true to yourself, while being confident, motivated and persistent. 

As someone who has remained true to who I am at every stage of my career, I have built that confidence to achieve any goal ahead of me that I have set for myself – but that is not without a good bit of motivation and persistence.

One very important person who inspires me every day is my father, Julio. He was a business owner and as I was growing up, I saw firsthand how success does not come without hard work and persistent progress toward achieving your goals. I will always carry the lessons he taught me from a very early age into every stage of my life and career.

One year from now, I would like to have acquired new professional certifications on leadership and management. Five years from now, I expect to have developed new skills in my career and have obtained a higher managerial position within a company that supports me in pursuit of my professional goals.