Fernando Espuelas

He has been referred to as “The Emperor of the Internet” by ‘El Pais’, one of Uruguay’s major newspapers. The entrepreneur has also been called “The Hispanic Bill Gates” and the “Simón Bolívar of the Internet”.

Fernando Espuelas was born on August 6, 1966 in Uruguay, to a real estate entrepreneur and his wife. The father left the family when the boy was only eight years old.

The young child pursued his elementary education from 'Elbio Fernández School’, in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. When he was ten years of age, he moved to the United States with his mother, with a savings of a meagre $100.

The mother worked twelve hours a day, at different factories, before she was hired as a housekeeper by a wealthy family in Greenwich, Connecticut. Here, Fernando started attending ‘North Street School’, where he initiated his first venture at fifth grade—a kid’s bank and insurance company.

He formed a student government in the school, the following year, which was the first of its kind, and was made the President. The enterprising young boy also started a school paper and worked as the chief editor.

In 1984, this young man passed out of ‘Greenwich High School’, where he dabbled in a lot of co-curricular activities, leading the ‘Debate Team’ and the ‘Political Action Club’. He also presented the local cable television show, titled ‘The Bottom Line with Fernando Espuelas’, interviewing eminent people from the place.

In 1988, Espuelas started working for 'Wunderman Worldwide', a branch of the famous advertising agency 'Young & Rubicam', as an assistant executive, for the accounts of companies like 'American Express', 'General Foods Gevalia' and 'Weight Watchers'.

After an association of one year, he left 'Wunderman' and was then employed as an account executive by New York-based ad agency, 'Interpublic Group of Companies', his work including that of the ‘Citibank Visa’ account.

Fernando moved to South America, in 1991 and was appointed as the Managing Director for 'Ogilvy & Mather Direct', a marketing and advertising company in Argentina. Initially working on a single account, the young executive ensured tremendous profits for ‘Ogilvy & Mather’, in Argentina.

The same year, this enterprising young man was appointed as the head of the ‘Unilever’ account, belonging to ‘Ogilvy & Mather’. Working for ‘Unilever’, he designed the portfolios for big cosmetic brands like ‘Ponds’ and ‘Dove’. By the end of that year Espuelas became a member of the Board of Directors of the company.

In 1994, American telecommunications MNC, 'AT&T' appointed the ambitious young man to promote their brand in the whole of Latin America. The next year ‘AT&T’ he was made the Managing Director of Marketing Communications, where he would have to head operations in Latin America and the Caribbean area.

Fernando Espuelas is best known for his biggest business venture yet—the Internet platform called ‘Starmedia’. It went on to become a $3.8 billion company, with eighteen branches spread across America and Europe, and had more than 1200 staff members.

The success of the famous Uruguayan entrepreneur’s maiden business venture, ‘Starmedia’ has inspired internet giants like ‘AOL’, ‘Microsoft Corp.’ and ‘Yahoo’ to establish their business in Latin America.