Fernando Espuelas

Fernando Espuelas
Political analyst, host and managing editor of "The Fernando Espuelas Show"
Born (1966-08-06) August 6, 1966 (age 58)
Montevideo, Uruguay
NationalityAmerican
Alma materConnecticut College
SpouseAnn Clark Espuelas
AwardsNew York Magazine New York Award (1999);
Hispanic Business Magazine 100 Most Influential Hispanics (1999);
Hispanic Business Magazine 100 Most Influential Hispanics (2000);
Crain's New York magazine "2000 All-Star Business Leader" (2000);
Latin Trade Magazine's Bravo Award, "Internet CEO of the Year" (2000);
Hispanic Business Magazine "Hispanic Entrepreneur Award"(2000);
The Hollywood Reporter "THR's Latino Power 50" (2007);
U.S. Hispanic IT Executive Council "100 Most Influential Hispanics and Rising Stars in Information Technology" (2008 & 2009);
Poder Magazine "The Nation's 100 Most Influential Hispanics" (2012)
Websitefernandoespuelas.com

Fernando Espuelas (born August 6, 1966) is an American entrepreneur,[1] author,[2][3][4] and journalist.[5][6][7][8]

Espuelas is one of the pioneers of the consumer Internet.[9][10][11] 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.[10][12]

According to the Harvard Business School case StarMedia: Launching a Latin American Revolution,[13] "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."[14]

By the year 2000, Starmedia was the world's leading Latin portal,[15] 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.[16]

Many years before social media would play a leading role in the Arab Spring,[11] Espuelas presaged that the Internet would provoke an "uncontrollable wave of democracy"[17][18] and give "the power of information and communication to the individual, not to institutions."[19]

In 2012, Espuelas was named one of "The Nation's 100 Most Influential Hispanics" by Poder Magazine.[20] Time included Espuelas on their list of the "Leaders of the Millennium",[21] and he was recognized as a "2000 All-Star" business leader by Crain's New York Business magazine. He was also a recipient of Latin Trade Magazine 's Bravo Award, being named "Internet CEO of the Year".[22] He received a New York Award in 1999.[23] Hispanic Business magazine gave Espuelas its Hispanic Entrepreneur Award in 2000.[24] He was also named a "Latin American Leader of the Internet" by CNN en Español[25]

Espuelas has been part of the "power-list" of such diverse media as The Hollywood Reporter[26] The Industry Standard, Latino Leaders Magazine,[27] Red Herring Magazine, Silicon Alley Reporter, Hispanic Business Magazine,[28] CNN, Upside Magazine, and Hispanic Magazine. Espuelas was also named "Immigrant of the Day" by Immigration Daily[29] 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.[30] Espuelas served on the board of directors of the Educational Broadcasting Corporation, operators of PBS' New York flagship television station Thirteen[31] (WNET) and sister station WLIW, as well as on the Board of Trustees of Connecticut College.[32] In 2009, Espuelas became a spokesman for the Los Angeles Parent's Union, also known as Parent Revolution,[33] 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 named Espuelas in 2009 and 2010 to its HITEC 100,[34] the list of "Most Influential Hispanics and Rising Stars in Information Technology".[35]

In 2008, Espuelas created Radio Espuelas, a drivetime, daily bilingual talkshow broadcast on the Univision Radio Network, and online at Clear Channel Communications' IHeartRadio.[36] A first for Univision, the leading Spanish-language media company in the United States,[37] Espuelas' national show is broadcast in English. In 2012, The Fernando Espuelas Show was re-launched as part of the new Univision America Network.[38]

Espuelas also writes for the Huffington Post,[39] The Hill,[3] and CNN[40] and is a frequent commentator on television, such as CBS News,[41] radio on Univision[42] and NPR,[43] as well in print across the world.

  1. ^ Tobias, Arlyn (2000-04-03). "Going Global With StarMedia Chief Fernando Espuelas - April 3, 2000". Money.cnn.com. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  2. ^ "Fernando Espuelas". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2012-07-26.
  3. ^ a b "The Hill Pundit's Blog". The Hill. 2013-11-11. Retrieved 2013-11-11.
  4. ^ "Fernando Espuelas — Special to CNN – In America - CNN.com Blogs". CNN.com. 2012-01-18. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved 2012-08-28.
  5. ^ "Univision America unveils programming lineup". Media Moves. 2013-07-03. Retrieved 2013-11-18.
  6. ^ "Univision Radio Reveals Programming for National AM Radio Network Univision America Network". Univision Communications. Retrieved 2013-11-11.
  7. ^ "TV Guide Celebrity Fernando Espuelas". TV Guide. Retrieved 2013-11-11.
  8. ^ "A survey of the new rich: Giving something back". The Economist. 2001-06-14. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  9. ^ "Higher Education". Harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on 2012-06-30. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  10. ^ a b Dobrzynski, Judith H. (1999-11-21). "New York Times, "C.E.O ROUND TABLE- Online Pioneers: The Buzz Never Stops"". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  11. ^ a b "MSNBC, "Did Twitter, Facebook really build a revolution?"". MSNBC. Archived from the original on 2012-10-03. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  12. ^ Tobias, Arlyn (2000-04-03). "Fortune magazine". Money.cnn.com. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  13. ^ "StarMedia: Launching a Latin American Revolution". Harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on 2012-06-30. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  14. ^ "Harvard Business School case - StarMedia: Launching a Latin American Revolution". Harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on 2012-06-30. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  15. ^ Tobias, Arlyn (2000-04-03). "Fortune Magazine - Going Global With StarMedia Chief Fernando Espuelas, April 2000". Money.cnn.com. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  16. ^ "2007 We Go To Eleven Class". The Aspen Institute. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  17. ^ "New York's Rising Tide Summit lifts many minds". ZDNet. 1998-07-28. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  18. ^ "Social media: Did Twitter and Facebook really build a global revolution?". Christian Science Monitor. CSMonitor.com. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  19. ^ "The Big And Little Fish Of The Web". Time. Archived from the original on July 11, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  20. ^ "Poder Magazine's "The Nation's 100 Most Influential Hispanics"". Nxtbook.com. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  21. ^ "Starmedia turning corner". cnn.com. 2000-08-08. Retrieved 2013-11-21.
  22. ^ "The Sixth Annual Bravo Business Awards". Findarticles.com. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  23. ^ "The 1999 New York Awards". Nymag.com. 2012-06-08. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  24. ^ "Hispanic Entrepreneur Award (2000)". Hispanicbusiness.com. 2004-11-19. Archived from the original on 2014-04-08. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  25. ^ "Press Releases- Newsroom". Time Warner. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  26. ^ "Latino Power 50". The Hollywood Reporter. 2007-08-04. Retrieved 2012-07-26.
  27. ^ "The list: Movers & Shakers in America. - Latino Leaders - Nbr. 56 - Id 56647949 - vLex". News-business.vlex.com. Retrieved 2012-07-26.
  28. ^ "2000 Influentials". Hispanicbusiness.com. 2004-11-19. Archived from the original on 2013-12-02. Retrieved 2013-11-21.
  29. ^ "immigration news: Immigrants Of The Day: Fernando Espuelas of Uruguay, Rumeal Robinson of Jamaica, and Arjinderpal Singh Sekhon of India". Ilw.Com. Archived from the original on 2012-06-19. Retrieved 2012-07-26.
  30. ^ Perez, Juan Carlos (2000-05-15). "StarMedia to Wire Public Schools in LatAm to Net". Computerworld. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  31. ^ Gilbert, Deborah (2012-07-19). "Thirteen". Thirteen. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  32. ^ Connecticut College Alumni Office Staff (2013-04-13). "Reunion 2013". Connecticut College. Archived from the original on 2013-11-28. Retrieved 2013-11-13.
  33. ^ "Parent Revolution". Parent Revolution. Retrieved 2012-07-26.
  34. ^ "HITEC 100" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-12-29. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  35. ^ "Hispanic IT Executive Council (HITEC)". Hitecglobal.org. Retrieved 2012-07-26.
  36. ^ "The Fernando Espuelas Show". IHeart Radio. Archived from the original on 2013-08-01. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  37. ^ "Univision | The National Hispanic Broadcasting Network". Corporate.univision.com. Archived from the original on 2012-07-09. Retrieved 2012-07-26.
  38. ^ "Univision details lineup for "Univision America" | Radio & Television Business Report". Rbr.com. 3 July 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  39. ^ "The Huffington Post: Fernando Espuelas". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2013-11-21.
  40. ^ "Fernando Espuelas — Special to CNN – In America - CNN.com Blogs". CNN. 2012-01-18. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved 2013-11-28.
  41. ^ "Face the Nation". CBS News. Retrieved 2013-11-28.
  42. ^ "The Fernando Espuelas Show". Univision Communications. Archived from the original on 2012-12-23. Retrieved 2013-11-28.
  43. ^ "NPR News". NPR. Retrieved 2013-11-28.