Alfonso Martinez-Fonts Jr.

hen the Homeland Security Department issued a Code Orange terrorism alert-the second-highest level-in February 2003, Alfonso Martinez-Fonts sent a 25-point e-mail to businesses, urging them to tighten their security and protect employees and the public.

Martinez-Fonts, the retired chairman of J.P. Morgan Chase Bank in El Paso, Texas, is the department's goad and advocate for industry. He heads the Office of the Private Sector, which serves as a navigator for businesses through the maze of DHS and as their voice in determining whether new security measures are cost-effective. "At some point, you have to have some hard-and-fast rules, but we want industry to be self-policing," Martinez-Fonts says.

Most observers agree that balancing security with cost is not easy. Some 85 percent of the country's infrastructure, such as power plants and telecom facilities, is in corporate hands, but industry rarely welcomes new regulations. Martinez-Fonts has taken the rap for businesses' early confusion in working with the department. Running the private-sector office is his first government job, and some say he lacks clout. That perception may stem from the department's reliance so far on incentives, rather than mandates, to persuade industry to protect itself.

Born in Cuba, Martinez-Fonts, 54, moved to the United States-first Miami, then Manhasset, N.Y.-when he was 11 years old. A former Texas banker and Bush campaign donor, he spent six years in Mexico City and three in Manila while working for Chemical Bank, a predecessor to Chase, in the 1970s and 1980s. His 30 years as a banker honed his managerial skills, which serve him well in his new role. "There are 25 million businesses in America, and ideally I'd like to reach all of them," says Martinez-Fonts, whose background also includes leading the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

Martinez-Fonts received his undergraduate degree in political science from Villanova University in Pennsylvania and his MBA from Long Island University in New York.