Andrés Freire

Andrés "Andy" Freire (born January 14, 1972) is an Argentine entrepreneur and politician.[1] For almost two years, he has been Minister of Modernization, Innovation and Technology of the City of Buenos Aires.[2] He heads the list of pre-candidates to legislators of the City of Buenos Aires by the front Vamos Juntos.[3] As an entrepreneur, he is globally recognized for co-founding and led Officenet (purchased by Staples in 2004), a company that revolutionized the industry of distribution (retail) of office supplies in Latin America raising over 50M USD (most of it after the Nasdaq 2000 crash) from investors including Goldman Sachs, GE Capital, George Soros, JP Morgan Chase, Warburg Pincus, KKR, Thomas H. Lee Partners, FleetBoston Financial, GP Investimentos and Banco Santander.

Andy Freire
Born (1972-01-14) 14 January 1972
Buenos Aires City, Argentina
OccupationMinister of Modernization and Technology of Buenos Aires City, Ex CEO de Axialent, former President of Endeavor Argentina
Political partyRepublican Proposal
Spouse(s)Romina Silvetti
Children4 children
Websitewww.andyfreire.com

He is married to Romina Silvetti with whom he has four children: Tomás, Mateo, Sol and Emilia.

In July 2019, he was appointed regional representative of SoftBank.

Biography

First years

Freire was raised in the neighborhood of Núñez, in a middle-class family: his father was a doctor and his mother, an English teacher. He attended his secondary school Carlos Pellegrini, where he was a student delegate.

At the age of 18, he created, together with friends, an NGO focused on strengthening leadership and entrepreneurship capacities for young people, Iniciativa Foundation, where he met his future wife: Romina Silvetti.

Career path

After receiving honors as a Bachelor of Economics from the University of San Andrés,[4] where he co-founded the Student Center, he began his professional career at Procter & Gamble. He quickly turned to the entrepreneurial world: he co-founded Officenet,[5] a company that revolutionized the office material distribution industry in Latin America. He later co-founded Axialent,[6][7] a consulting firm that helps companies around the world improve their organizational culture: aligning corporate culture and leadership behaviors with long term strategy and company values. He also led other more recent entrepreneurial projects, such as Restorando and Quasar Ventures, a company builder.

He is a leading entrepreneur in the region and he has participated as a guest lecturer and speaker at several universities such as Stanford, Harvard, Notre Dame, Wharton and IE in Spain. He was an ad honorem professor at Harvard University. He is part of the founders' council and was president of Endeavor Argentina,[8] a non-profit organization whose goal is to identify and empower high-impact entrepreneurs.

One of his five books, Pasión por emprender,[5] which was published in Spanish and Portuguese, was best seller in several Latin American countries (including the number one best selling business book in Argentina for five consecutive months since its publication).[9][10]

He is an OPM (33) from Harvard Business School.[4] A case called "Officenet: how to make entrepreneurship work in Argentina" was written by Harvard Business School and taught at over 25 universities including the universities of Stanford, Chicago, Columbia, Georgetown, IE Business School and Commercial University of Paris.[11][12]

His awards include "Global Leader for Tomorrow" in 2000 by the World Economic Forum (WEF), "Latin American Entrepreneur of the Year" in 2001 by Endeavor Foundation, and "World Young Business Achiever" in 2002. Andy was also named in 2008 one of the 100 "Young Global Leaders of the World" by the WEF in Davos, Switzerland.

Political trajectory

On December 10, 2015, he was Minister of Modernization, Innovation and Technology[2] and President of the Tourism Authority of the City of Buenos Aires in the Government of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta. Currently, he heads the list of pre-candidates to legislators of the City of Buenos Aires in the Frente #VamosJuntos,[3] facing the legislative elections of October 2017.

Awards
  • "Global Leader for Tomorrow" in 2000 by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
  • "Latin American Entrepreneur of the Year" in 2001 by the Endeavor Foundation.
  • "World Young Business Achiever" in 2002.
  • He was named one of the 100 "Global Youth Leaders of the World"[13] of the WEF in Davos, Switzerland, in 2008.

Books
  • Pasión por emprender[5]
  • 50 claves para emprendedores[14]
  • El 5% de tu tiempo para cambiar el 100% de la vida de alguien que lo necesita,[15] junto con Julián Weich.
  • ¡Libre!, El camino emprendedor como filosofía de vida[16]
  • Argentina Emprendedora[17]

References
  1. "Andy Freire | World Economic Forum". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  2. "Ministerio de Modernización, Innovación y Tecnología". Buenos Aires Ciudad - Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-07-20.
  3. "Andy Freire será el primer candidato a legislador de "Vamos Juntos"". Infobae (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-07-20.
  4. "Harvard Club de Argentina". hcargentina.clubs.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  5. Andy., Freire. Pasión por emprender : De la idea a la cruda realidad. [Place of publication not identified. ISBN 9789870426059. OCLC 930706086.
  6. "El argentino más exitoso de la web". Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  7. "Axialent". www.axialent.com. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  8. "Andy Freire | Endeavor Argentina". Endeavor Argentina (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2017-08-27. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  9. "Celebrity Speakers: Our Speakers: Andy Freire".
  10. "Andy Freire - World Economic Forum". 2000-01-25.
  11. "Officenet (A): Making Entrepreneurship Work in Argentina". 2000-01-25.
  12. "Andy Freire". 2008-10-31. Archived from the original on 2015-12-11. Retrieved 2011-09-17.
  13. "El Gobierno de la Ciudad, presente en Davos". Buenos Aires Ciudad - Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  14. Andy, Freire. 50 claves para emprendedores (Primera edición en Punto de lectura ed.). México, D.F. ISBN 9786071112064. OCLC 923017730.
  15. Freire, Andy (2013-06-17). El 5%: El 5% de tu tiempo para cambiar el 100% de la vida de alguien que lo necesita (in Spanish). Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Argentina. ISBN 9789870429401.
  16. Andy, Freire. ¡Libre! : el camino del emprendedor como filosofilosofia de vida (Primera edición ed.). Buenos Aires. ISBN 9789870436553. OCLC 894238994.
  17. Freire, Andy (2015-09-01). Argentina emprendedora: Cómo innovar puede producir cambios reales y decisivos en el destino de un país (in Spanish). Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Argentina. ISBN 9789877351071.
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