Vince Roig
Founding Chairman
Vince Roig has been a champion of education for nearly 50 years. As Founding Board Chairman of Helios Education Foundation, Mr. Roig sets the organizational tone, overseeing governance, management, and related activities with a focus on mission, direction, and priorities.
In 2004, Mr. Roig led the corporate conversion of Southwest Student Services Corporation into Helios Education Foundation with an endowment of more than $500 million. His leadership and lifelong commitment to education have helped Helios emerge as one of the largest foundations solely focused on education in Arizona and Florida.
Before founding Helios and for 20 years, Mr. Roig served as the Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Southwest Student Services and its affiliates. Southwest was a full-service provider of student loan products and services to students, families, and schools with a focus on Arizona and Florida. Over the life of Southwest, he guided the issuance of more than $10 billion in private activity bonds to fund student loans.
Mr. Roig’s career in education began in 1972 as an Assistant Professor for Higher Education Programs at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. During this time, he worked in the Financial Aid Office, helping students and their parents with financing their education. In 1981, he helped establish and administer the Arizona Educational Loan Program organized through United Student Aid Funds (USA Funds) after having worked as a financial aid officer at Arizona State University from 1974 to 1981.
Mr. Roig’s leadership extends to various local and national organizations as well. He recently served as Chairman of Education Forward Arizona’s Board of Directors and continues to serve as a Board member today. His long-term involvement has been vital in guiding Education Forward Arizona through the evolution of the organization over the last 15 years. He has also served as an Emeritus Board Member for Greater Phoenix Leadership and on the Board of Directors for other notable Arizona and Florida organizations, including Take Stock in Children, Valley of the Sun United Way, the Phoenix Aviation Advisory Board, and the Phoenix Art Museum.
Nationally, Mr. Roig served on the Board of Directors for Teach for America and Stand for Children Leadership Center. He was also Chairman of the Board for Life Teen International and the National Council of Higher Education Resources (formerly the National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs).
Mr. Roig’s decades-long commitment to education and his work on behalf of students has been recognized by numerous institutions. In 2022, he was presented with the Jerry Colangelo Integrity Tiger for Education Award by the Workplace Integrity Institute’s Integrity Summit and was recognized as Advocate of the Year by the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He was named the 2013 Afterschool Champion by the Arizona Center for Afterschool Excellence, the 2014 Hero of Education by the Maricopa Community Colleges Foundation, and a 2014 Most Admired Leader by the Phoenix Business Journal. He is also a past recipient of the John S. McCain Leadership Award from the Translational Genomics Institute (T-Gen), the Raul Yzaguirre Community Leadership Award from Valle del Sol, and the Jean S. Frohlicher Outstanding Service Award from the National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs.
Mr. Roig holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Athens State University, and a Master of Science degree from Richmond College in New York.