Martín Varsavsky
PRESIDENT, Safe Democracy Foundation
Martín Varsavsky
Martin Varsavsky is an Argentine/Spanish entrepreneur. He has founded seven successful companies in the past 20 years. He received his BA from New York University and holds an MA in International Relations and another MA in Business Administration from Columbia University.
- ENTERPRISE ACTIVITY
- In 1984, while still in college, he started his first business, Urban Capital Corporation, a NY-based real estate developer. This was soon followed in 1986 by Medicorp Services, a Canadian biotechnology company, that quickly became a pioneer in AIDS testing. His third business, Viatel Ltd., Martinis first venture into the world of telecom, was founded in 1991 and still runs successfully today.Martin is most well known ventures to date were all launched within the last 10 years. Jazztel Telecomunicaciones (Jazztel) was founded in 1997 in direct competition with Spain is Telefonica and Ya.com, launched in 1999, has become Spain is second largest Internet content company.His latest company in operation is FON. FON is objective is to create a Wi-Fi community that takes advantage of all its proposed technological benefits. Likewise, along with Miguel Salis, he is associate controller of the ecological park El Moralejo as well as the Proesa company, which contains the brands Sybilla and Jocomomola.
- ACADEMIC ACTIVITY
- In addition to his businesss activities, Martin Varsavsky is a professor at the Instituto de Empresa of Spain and frequently particpates in conferences throughout Europe and the United States.
- AWARDS
- Among the various honors and awards that Martin has received, the most distinguishing honors and awards include: a finalist in the Entrepreneur of the Year award in New York City in 1995, European Telecommunications Entrepreneur of the Year in 1998, ECTA is European Entrepreneur of the Year in 1999, Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2000, and Spanish Entrepreneur of the Year by iBest in 2000. Also, he obtained the Pickering award from Columbia University in 2003.Martin Varsavsky established the Varsavsky Foundation, which is the creator of Educ.ar and EducarChile. Likewise, he is the founder and president of the Safe Democracy Foundation. Both foundations are financed by his contributions.Martin was awarded the title of Ambassador-at-Large of Argentina in 2001.
