History of Martin Varsavsky

Entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky is an Argentine / Spanish who has founded seven companies in the past 20 years. In 1984, while he was studying at university, began the first of them, Urban Capital Corporation, an American company dedicated to the real estate business that was one of the first developers of loft, 50 thousand square meters building in Soho and Tribeca. In 1986, Varsavsky created with Argentine scientists Claudio Cuello and Cesar Milstein, Medicorp Sciences, a biotechnology company pioneering studies to detect HIV. His third company, Viatel, was founded in 1991 and is today a major operator in Europe optical fiber.

The best-known initiatives Martin Varsavsky are those that have taken place in the last 8 years. Jazztel, founded in 1997, is the first alternative local access provider in the Iberian Peninsula. Einsteinet AG, founded in 1999, is the only company founded by Martin that closed when not finding enough customers for its innovative ASP technology. Ya.com, founded by Martin Varsavsky and an outstanding team of managers, is now the second most important company in Spain Internet content.

Today, with his friend and partner Miguel Salis, Martin is the controlling shareholder of the wind farm and business Moralejo Proesa containing Sybilla and Jocomomola brands.
FON is the latest company founded by Martin Varsavsky in February 2006 and now has over 550,000 users worldwide. FON's goal is to stimulate growth of WiFi, which provides customers with a network of free WiFi access points worldwide. Among FON investors include companies like Google, Skype, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital and BT.

In addition to his business, Martin is a professor and member of the Board at the Institute of Business and regularly participates in conferences in Europe and the United States. Among the awards that have been granted include having been a finalist in the Entrepreneur of the Year contest in New York City in 1995, European telecommunications entrepreneur in 1998, European Businessman of the Year by the ECTA in 1999, Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2000 and Spanish Entrepreneur of the Year 2000 by iBest. Pickering also won the Columbia University in 2003.

Martin Varsavsky is the President and Founder of the Varsavsky Foundation, dedicated to improving the conditions of education worldwide. Varsavsky Foundation is the creator of Educarchile Educ.ar in Argentina and Chile, two portals in education which aims to democratize and modernize education systems in both countries and the Safe Democracy Foundation, which aims to provide innovative ideas and solutions to the debate major developments and issues in international affairs from the strong commitment to a just, transparent and safe for everyone. Martin is also a member of the Board of Directors of the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation and the OneVoice Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting peace in the Middle East.

Martin Varsavsky has a degree in Economics and Philosophy from the University of New York, and has a Masters in International Relations and an MBA from Columbia University.


Information extracted from http://spanish.martinvarsavsky.net/