David Robillard is the co-founder of MultiLatin, the firm widely credited with bringing professional background screening standards to Mexico, Central America, and South America. After MultiLatin was acquired by First Advantage in 2021, David stayed through the Sterling integration before stepping back to focus on board advisory work. He currently serves on boards across background screening technology, compliance software, a 140-year-old teaching hospital in Mexico City, and Education for Sharing, an NGO operating across six countries.
If you've ever wondered who brought real background screening standards to Latin America, this episode is for you.
David's path to founding MultiLatin is one of the most unexpected origin stories I've heard on this podcast. It started in Ghana, wound through Cuba, Ottawa, and Mexico City, and took a literal detour when a running accident forced him to pivot from investigations into background screening. What followed was more than a decade of building something that did not exist before, applying real standards to a region where a background check used to mean someone counting your light bulbs and interviewing your neighbors. He built MultiLatin, survived COVID, sold to First Advantage, and never once stopped being curious about what comes next.
Pro Conversation You Don't Want to Miss!
- How David went from a sociology degree and a deep-end internship in Ghana to pioneering background screening across an entire continent
- The running accident that broke his hip and accidentally redirected his entire career toward background screening
- What background checks in Latin America actually looked like before MultiLatin, and why David credits PBSA for helping him apply real standards to the region
- His biggest career lesson: shut up and listen until you really understand what you're looking at, because most decisions go wrong when people leap to conclusions before they understand the problem
- Why David says comfort is the enemy, and what it looks like to deliberately break what is working so you don't atrophy
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss a conversation. Thanks to our sponsor, PreemploymentDirectory.com, publisher of Background Buzz and numerous other resources. And a special thanks to W. Barry Nixon.
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