When I return to the office after a business trip, the day usually begins with checking the dozens of emails and voicemails left on the office phone. A small red light in the corner of the phone alerts when messages are pending. Usually, they are about interview scheduling or client inquiries, but that was not the case this time. This message left me breathless, suddenly overcome with a deep sadness.
With a serene but sorrowful voice, the person on the other end of the line identified herself as Yvette Parra, the wife of Jaime Enrique Parra, one of our columnists we fondly know as Rick.
In her brief message, Yvette let me know that, sadly, Rick had passed away on September 30, 2024, from a massive heart attack. He would have been 67 years old on October 29.
I couldn’t believe it; I had received his column for the year-end issue by email only three days earlier. In his message, you could feel that he was in good spirits, and, as usual, he expressed his desire to convey an interesting topic that our readers could benefit from.
In a subsequent conversation with Yvette, we decided to honor Rick’s memory by writing this note to share some of his life and professional accomplishments with Abasto readers.
The veteran business consultant, CEO of his own company, Cross-Cultural Conexión, and with over 30 years of experience in the CPG/Retailers sector, debuted as an Abasto columnist in the January-February 2019 issue.
Jaime Enrique ‘Rick’ Parra was born in Gastonia, North Carolina. Before his first birthday, his Colombian father and American mother decided to move to Bogota, Colombia, where Rick spent his childhood. They returned to the United States when he was ten years old. Rick continued his studies, finished high school, and went to Florida University, where he graduated with a degree in Business Administration with a minor in Latin American Studies.
Rick returned to Bogota when his father died and joined the Nielsen Company. A decade later, he returned to the United States, where he continued working with Nielsen for another 15 years and became Director of Strategy and Multicultural Growth in Retail.
“The Most Interesting Man in the World”
He met his wife, Yvette, at an event in San Francisco 33 years ago. She recalls being amazed by Rick’s salsa dancing skills at that event. In addition to earning many points for being an excellent dancer, Rick won Yvette’s heart with his knowledge of the world, his culture, and his stories.
He loved to travel and read biographies of world personalities. He was a college football fan and enjoyed cycling, a sport he had played for many years.
To Yvette, Rick was the real-life version of the Dos Equis beer commercial character, “The Most Interesting Man in the World.”
“I would tell Rick that he was the real Dos Equis,” his widow recalls. In December, Rick and Yvette were to have been married 31 years. Their only daughter, Julia Patricia, is 22 years old.
Rick visualized the generation of new consumers precisely through his daughter Julia. On more than one occasion, in his columns in Abasto about the food and beverage industry and Hispanic consumers, he wrote about this young bicultural generational group and their influence on product purchasing trends in stores.
Throughout his life, Jaime Enrique ‘Rick’ Parra faced change in a very calm, optimistic manner. Another quality that Yvette admired was Rick’s ability to adapt to any situation, even when being treated for prostate cancer. As a Jehovah’s Witness, he always leaned on his spirituality in difficult times.
Rick will always remain in our hearts, and his wise counsel will live on in the 32 columns he wrote for Abasto during the six years we had the privilege of knowing him.