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Fernando Espuelas (born August 6, 1966) is an American entrepreneur, author, media personality and philanthropist. Espuelas is one of the pioneers of the consumer Internet. He is the co-founder (along with Jack Chen) and first CEO of Starmedia, the first pan-Latin Internet portal, launched in 1996 and now part of Orange, France Telecom's Internet services company. Starmedia was the first venture-capital backed Latin Internet company and also the first initial public offering (IPO) in the Latin Internet industry.〔 According to the Harvard Business School case ''StarMedia: Launching a Latin American Revolution'', "by the fall of 1999,StarMedia had sprinted to a sizable lead in the race to acquire Latin American Internet users. Its pan-regional, horizontal portal was the first to target Spanish- and Portuguese-language speakers on the Internet, registering 1.2 billion page views in the third quarter of 1999. Thirty-three-year-old StarMedia co-founder Fernando Espuelas was the toast of "Silicon Alley" and a recognized hero throughout Latin America. A picture of him on the cover of ''Internet World'' magazine--ripping his shirt open to show the Starmedia logo, like Superman, summed up the spirit of the company." By the year 2000, Starmedia was the world's leading Latin portal, serving over 25 million Spanish and Portuguese speakers every month across Latin markets in America and Europe, making it one of the top sites by audience size in the world. Espuelas is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. Many years before social media would play a leading role in the Arab Spring,〔 Espuelas presaged that the Internet would provoke an "uncontrollable wave of democracy" and give "the power of information and communication to the individual, not to institutions."〔 〕 In 2012, Espuelas was named one of "The Nation's 100 Most Influential Hispanics" by ''PODER Magazine''. ''Time'' included Espuelas on their list of the "Leaders of the Millennium", and he was recognized as a "2000 All-Star" business leader by ''Crain's New York Business'' magazine. The World Economic Forum includes him among its "Global Leaders of Tomorrow, " and he was also a recipient of ''Latin Trade Magazine'' 's Bravo Award, being named "Internet CEO of the Year". He received a ''New York'' Award in 1999.'' Hispanic Business magazine'' gave Espuelas its Hispanic Entrepreneur Award in 2000. He was also named a "Latin American Leader of the Internet" by CNN en Español Espuelas has been part of the "power-list" of such diverse media as ''The Hollywood Reporter'' ''The Industry Standard'', ''Latino Leaders Magazine'', ''Red Herring Magazine'', ''Silicon Alley Reporter'', ''Hispanic Business Magazine'', CNN, ''Upside Magazine'', and ''Hispanic Magazine''. Espuelas was also named "Immigrant of the Day" by ''Immigration Daily'' in 2008. Espuelas was the co-founder and Chairman of the StarMedia Foundation which, in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank and Microsoft, built technology training schools in poor neighborhoods in Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay. Espuelas served on the Board of Directors of the Educational Broadcasting Corporation, operators of PBS' New York flagship television station Thirteen (WNET) and sister station WLIW, as well as on the Board of Trustees of Connecticut College. In 2009, Espuelas became a spokesman for the Los Angeles Parent's Union, also known as Parent Revolution, a non-profit group that seeks to reform public education across the United States. In 2010, Espuelas was elected to the Board of Directors of Parent Revolution. Latinvision.com selected Espuelas as one of the "Top 50 Who Matter Most!" list of Latino media executives in 2008. The U.S. Hispanic IT Executive Council (HITEC) named Espuelas in 2009 and 2010 to its HITEC 100, the list of "Most Influential Hispanics and Rising Stars in Information Technology". In 2008, Espuelas created Radio Espuelas, a drivetime, daily bilingual talkshow broadcast on the Univision Radio Network, and online at Clear Channel Communications' IHeartRadio. A first for Univision, the leading Spanish-language media company in the United States, Espuelas' national show is broadcast in English. In 2012, the ''The Fernando Espuelas Show'' was re-launched as part of the new Univision America Network. Espuelas also writes for the ''Huffington Post'', ''The Hill'',〔 and CNN and is a frequent commentator on television, such as CBS News, radio on Univision and NPR, as well in print across the world. ==Childhood== In ''Life in Action'', Espuelas writes about studying at the Elbio Fernández school, a prestigious private school in Montevideo. Espuelas' family in Uruguay was financially secure until his father, a real estate entrepreneur, abandoned them when he was 8 years old. Seeking to survive at a time when Uruguay experienced acute political and economic crisis, Espuelas and his mother immigrated to the United States in 1976 with only $100. After a series of factory jobs making everything from dresses to ice cream sandwiches, his mother found work as a housekeeper in Greenwich, Connecticut. Espuelas said to ''The Industry Standard'', "As a kid I had to leave my home country, Uruguay, when my parents got divorced and my mother couldn't support herself. We lost everything overnight, so we came to the United States. For 10 years we lived in a one-bedroom apartment, and my mother worked 12 hours a day. It is not that these types of experiences make you a better person, but they give you a different perspective on failure. I've seen people older than I go into panic mode and lose confidence in themselves because of tough market conditions, thinking that it's the end of the world. Personally, I always know I'll be able to survive." As he recounted on PBS' Tavis Smiley show, Espuelas started his first business in Greenwich while in the fifth grade, when he convinced his friends to invest in a kids' bank and insurance company. The next year, he founded the first student government in North Street School and was elected President of his class. He later began the school's newspaper, serving as editor-in-chief. According to the ''Latino Leaders'' article "Making a comeback: the Fernando Espuelas Story〔 ", "Espuelas had to become the man of the house, while his mother got a job as a housekeeper in wealthy Greenwich, Connecticut." "It was quite difficult to have all that responsibility at first. We were one of the only Latin families growing up. It was very interesting to be in that environment; it was such a complete departure from our lives in Uruguay. Essentially, we were in a place where people didn't want you, and didn't understand what you were about", he said. And though Espuelas did not speak any English, "growing up like that provided a tremendous incentive for me to learn.〔 " "Because they were desperate for money, a still-enterprising Espuelas started a bank and an insurance company--his first US business, at the ripe old age of ten. "I managed to convince some of my wealthy sixth grade friends to invest. It was a very simple business though: we were just able to give money to kids who needed to borrow it. It was successful, and I was very proud of that.〔 " Espuelas attended Greenwich High School, graduating in 1984. At Greenwich High, Espuelas was the President of the Debate Team, the Connecticut State Champion debater in 1982, and the Chairman of the Political Action Club. Espuelas hosted the local Public-access television cable TV show "The Bottom Line with Fernando Espuelas", interviewing Greenwich personalities. Espuelas worked in a series of jobs while going to junior high and high school: gardener, gas station attendant, Woolworth's clerk, restaurant worker; movie usher; newspaper delivery boy, messenger, Chinese food delivery person, pet shop cleaner, baby sitter, electronics board assembler in an electronic church organ manufacturing company, clerk at a soda fountain; greeting card salesman, and as an intern at Philip Morris' headquarters in New York. In 1988, Espuelas graduated "with distinction" from Connecticut College with a degree in history. While at Connecticut College, Espuelas was first Managing Editor, then Editor-in-Chief and eventually Publisher of the college's newspaper, ''The College Voice'' and its associated publications. Espuelas also served as the President of Branford House, as well as on several college-wide faculty-student-administration committees, including the College's Education Committee. He was later elected to the Board of Trustees of Connecticut College. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fernando Espuelas」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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