David Zavaleta, a Chicago native, graduated with a dual major (International Business/Spanish) from Saint Norbert College in DePere, WI. David also has a Multi-Media Communications/Production degree from Full Sail University, located in Winter Park, FL. He brings over twenty years of professional experience in finance, ferrous/non-ferrous metal, manufacturing, logistics, industrial material handling, packaging, and construction/real estate.
He started his career at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and then developed in sales and business development working primarily in the steel industry, steel manufacturing, and logistics. He served on the Industrial Round Table for the Federal Reserve Board in Chicago, briefly representing these companies.
David has lived in Florida, Arizona, Colorado, California, Connecticut, and now in Winston-Salem, NC. He speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese as his parents are from Bolivia and Brazil. With a constant desire to be of service to his community, David continues to work as a volunteer locally and for a few national charitable organizations.
During the past seven years, David founded, developed, and worked with start-ups in the solar, material handling, nutraceutical, packaging, and tech industries. His experience and talents have allowed him to successfully build teams from the ground up, customize go-to-market strategies, develop business plans, acquire financing (Series A, Seed Round, etc.), and hire/recruit all the way to C-suite management. Drafted into the Cogent family from outside the industry, David is a stellar asset to lead and direct our business development team as Cogent continues to grow.
