Mr. Torres has a rich history of philanthropy and leadership in the advancement of human rights and the delivery of humanitarian aid when governments and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) fail to act, donating over $2 million in corporate and personal funds and resources since 2008. Under Mr. Torres’ leadership, Torres AES developed its own Humanitarian Aid, Human Rights and Humanitarian Assistance programs using its own funds and resources including dedicated volunteers and employees who donated and volunteered hundreds of hours to deliver aid and assistance to vulnerable and at-risk populations on four continents, including within US cities. As examples of his commitment to human rights, Mr. Torres appointed a full-time Torres AES Director of Human Rights to monitor and report human rights violations and to initiate aggressive action to ensure that governmental oversight and justice organizations act to protect the abused and to hold human rights abusers accountable. Under Mr. Torres’ leadership, his firm was also an active member of the International Code of Conduct Association (ICoCA), based in Geneva, Switzerland whose charter is governance and oversight for Human Rights among global private security companies.

Throughout Mr. Torres’ tenure as President and CEO, Torres AES routinely delivered humanitarian aid and assistance to vulnerable populations to improve the health, welfare, economic and safety conditions within hostile and austere environments such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Colombia, Panama, Paraguay, Burundi, Uganda, Zambia and Pakistan. Its employees located in Arlington, Virginia coordinated the delivery of bottled water to communities of Flint, Michigan during the water contamination crisis in 2018; provided bottled water and fans to elderly citizens during heatwaves in Washington, DC multiple times since 2008; built a school and supplied teachers to provide vocational training to vulnerable women (widows of fallen Iraqi soldiers) in order to help them enter job markets in Iraq from 2007 through 2010; developed, sponsored and funded three 22 kilometer marches at a US and NATO Base in Kosovo to bring awareness to the high level of suicides among veterans (i.e., 22 per month) from 2017 through 2019; developed, funded and provided volunteers and workers to reverse the high infant mortality rates of an indigenous tribe in Colombia from 2010 through 2013; funded hospitals and donated hospital equipment and supplies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Peru and Paraguay, among others; provided Thanksgiving turkeys to over 300 underprivileged families in the DC metropolitan region from 2016 through 2018; and many other generous acts of aid and assistance. None of these programs were tax deductible or had tax incentives, and Torres AES did not seek any form of tax relief from the US or any foreign government for its efforts; these were simply generous donations of time, money, resources and volunteerism. 

Mr. Torres has also given his own personal time and financial resources to provide aid and assistance for humanitarian causes.  For example, Mr. Torres was a volunteer at a veteran’s hospital providing medical, emotional and psychological support and comfort to returning Vietnam veterans during the Vietnam era as well as to veterans of World War I, World War II and Korea. He served as a certified Volunteer Firefighter for several years where he battled forest and brush fires, responded to emergency medical events and taught first aid under programs sponsored by the Red Cross and the YMCA.  Mr. Torres organized and led humanitarian aid efforts in response to natural disasters and security threats in Colombia, Panama, Paraguay, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uganda and Burundi, and within the United States. He mentored US veterans and disadvantaged entrepreneurs to start and sustain small businesses from 2005 through 2018, many of which went on to become successful business enterprises.