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There is as much likelihood of Jorge Titinger officially retiring as there is of anyone breaking his single-season scoring records in fútbol. The former tech CEO was named as one of the National Association of Corporate Directors’ 2024 “Top 100 Directors.” He was just featured in Jim Britt’s nineteenth volume of Cracking the Rich Code, reflecting on his path from karate training in his native Peru to, ultimately, leading billion-dollar companies. This is a man who has lived a few different lifetimes in one, and it seems like he’s hell-bent on packing a few more in.
Since Titinger last spoke with Hispanic Executive in 2020, the world has changed considerably. The director became a grandfather to two granddaughters. He also remarried. That would be more than enough for those with a track record like Titinger, but his track record is also the indicator that reminds you that he’s anything but a typical leader.
Titinger continues to serve on public company boards and nonprofit boards where he has deliberately shifted more of his energy toward impact work, particularly across Latin America. He has joined incubator boards to help accelerate startups, signed on with investment funds focused on impact investing, and deepened his commitment to organizations that use education and entrepreneurship to lift communities out of hardship.
“As the Chairperson of the Axcelis board, Jorge Titinger has played a pivotal role in shaping our strategic direction and building strong and supportive relationships within the Board and with management,” says Dr. Russell Low, president and CEO at Axcelis Technologies. “I am especially grateful for Jorge’s mentorship and support as I stepped into the role of CEO. His guidance has been invaluable, and I believe that a trusting relationship between the Chair and CEO is essential for effective leadership.”
“One of the areas where I coach executives in is the different stages of career development,” the director explains. “At some point, you move from competent to expert to master, and what satisfies you becomes very different. You start thinking about what legacy you’re leaving behind. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my career, and I’ve made a lot of great decisions. I’m now determined to use what I learned from both of those to help others grow.”
Since relocating to Nashville, Titinger runs two mastermind-style CEO groups under the umbrella of LXCouncil, working with roughly twenty leaders across the two cohorts. He positions himself as a moderator rather than a guru, emphasizing that the real key to these meetings lies in peers helping peers think through problems and generate solutions.
That evolution has also allowed for more reflection. What shaped Titinger initially wasn’t Silicon Valley. It was the beautiful game. Titinger played in Peruvian youth clubs and farm systems before moving on to captain the varsity squad at Stanford and ultimately playing at the professional level. He went on to co-captain the US futsal (international style indoor soccer) team in the World Cup and multiple international tournaments.
“My first real job was at Hewlett-Packard, and I was stunned to see how many Olympic-level athletes were working at that company,” Titinger recalls. “They were great about supporting our participation in sports. And it was a great first step to bringing what I’d learned playing soccer into my career. Eventually, it becomes so obvious how impactful that time was for me. That experience—performing at a very high level, whether it’s sports or being in a musical band or theatre group of some sort; so much of what you learn is directly leverageable in the business world.”
The leader’s reflections on what fútbol means to him and what lessons from the pitch he was able to bring to his corporate career will translate into a forthcoming book with a summer 2026 expected release in collaboration with Forbes.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my career, and I’ve made a lot of great decisions. I’m now determined to use what I learned from both of those to help others grow.”
Jorge Titinger
The release of that book bears a reconsideration of Titinger’s previous release, 2019’s Differences That Make a Difference, a showcase of insights from 150 diverse leaders. The world that embraced that book is not the same one of today. Titinger jokes that in the present climate, he might get arrested for using the dreaded DEI acronym. But his resolve to the idea remains.
“Diversity for the right reasons is not going away,” Titinger explains. “The word ‘DEI’ may be out of style, but for those who are seeking to do more than a ‘check-the-box’ exercise, seeking diversity of thought and opinion and experience is the best way forward. It seems strange for that to have become such a divisive point of view.”
Titinger says that education is the best pathway for those to rise above challenging circumstances, and that’s why he’s focused so much attention on nonprofits and organizations in both the US and South America. He travels to his home country half-a-dozen times a year to stoke innovation, advise startups, and find new ways of using education to benefit entrepreneurs in Peru and elsewhere.
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All of this is what Titinger means when he talks about the idea of legacy. There are the children and grandchildren of his own, his familial legacy marching ever onward. That’s the one that obviously brings Titinger the most joy. But consider the rest.
There are children who will benefit from his stewardship and investment in education. There are young professionals and leaders who will benefit from his leadership as a mentor, an incubator, and an adviser. There are seasoned executives who will learn from his professional wisdom and mediation. There are the rest of us who will benefit from Titinger’s writings, both past, present, and forthcoming.
It wasn’t orchestrated this intentionally, or maybe it was. But the fact remains that the director is finding ways to impact people at every stage of their lives.
Axcelis (Nasdaq: ACLS), headquartered in Beverly, Mass., has been providing innovative, high-productivity solutions for the semiconductor industry for over 45 years. Axcelis is dedicated to developing enabling process applications through the design, manufacture and complete life cycle support of ion implantation systems, one of the most critical and enabling steps in the IC manufacturing process. Learn more about Axcelis at http://www.axcelis.com/.
