Martín Varsavsky
Encyclopedia
Martín Varsavsky is an Argentine
entrepreneur based in Spain
.
Born to Carlos Varsavsky
and Silvia Waisman-Diamond, Varsavsky attended primary school at the New Model School and the Colegio Nicolás Avellaneda high school.
At the age of 16, he moved with his family to the United States
as a refugee
supported and assisted by B'nai B'rith
, following the forced disappearance
of his cousin, David Horacio Varsavsky. In 1981 he obtained a BA at the New York University
, in 1983 he earned an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University
and in 1985 an MBA at Columbia Business School
.
Since July 1995, Varsavsky has been living in Madrid
, Spain
. Besides his business activities, he is also engaged in non profit activities.
Since 1999 Varsavsky has been teaching courses on entrepreneurship
at IE Business School (formerly Instituto de Empresa) in Spain. He has written articles on business and international relations that have been published in several international publications including El País and Newsweek
, and is a frequent speaker at conferences around the world. Varsavsky is also an active blog
ger.
Martin Varsavsky married Nina Wiegand on July 22, 2009, in Hawaii. He has 5 children.
Movement. Urban Capital Corporation purchased industrial buildings and recycled them into residential apartments and offices, developing up to 50 thousand square meters in the Soho and Tribeca neighborhoods of New York City.
In 1986, together with Argentine scientist Claudio Cuello and César Milstein
(Medical Science Nobel Prize), Varsavsky founded Medicorp Sciences, a biotechnology company in which he is still a shareholder. Based in Montreal, Medicorp Sciences pioneered the development of HIV and PSA tests.
Since the late 1980s Martín Varsavsky has founded seven companies, including Viatel, Jazztel
, EINSTEINet and Ya.com – all part of the telecommunications and new media
industry.
In 1991, Varsavsky ventured into the telecommunications sector with Viatel. Viatel developed a call-back service, an innovative alternative to the high costs of traditional long-distance operators, similar to Econophone (later renamed Destia Inc). Viatel evolved from providing a call-back service in Colorado to becoming an alternative telecom services provider in several European countries (such as France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom). In 1994, Viatel went public, and four years later (1998)Varsavsky sold his Viatel shares to dedicate himself to other ventures. After the TMT-bubble burst in 2000-2001, Viatel Inc. filed for bankruptcy (Chapter 11) in May 2001. Investors, both shareholders and bondholders, lost US$ 1.5 billion - US$ 2 billion. Since then, the (much smaller) restart of Viatel, based in London, operates a fibre-optic circuit, connecting more than 50 strategically situated points from Western Europe to the US East Coast's largest cities.
In 1997, Varsavsky founded Jazztel Telecommunications PLC (Jazz), an alternative telecommunications access provider in the Iberian Peninsula. Headquartered in Madrid and with its own infrastructure, the company became a leading telecommunications alternative operator offering bandwidth solutions for the residential and commercial markets, competing with Telefonica. Jazztel PLC went public (IPO) in December 1999.
In 1999, Varsavsky created Ya.com Internet Factory, Spain's third largest internet web site/DSL provider that also includes the second largest Spanish language online travel agency, Viajar.com. Ya.com was owned by Jazztel (70%), Martín Varsavsky (10%) and the company's' staff (20%). It was sold in 2000 to T-Online International, Deutsche Telekom
's Internet subsidiary for 800 $m.
In 2000, Martín Varsavsky created EINSTEINet AG, an application service provider
(ASP) in Germany. Einsteinet was a company built on the premise that most applications were going to migrate from people's PCs to the internet. Yet the EINSTEINet did not materialize and the company was sold saving the employees jobs but providing no financial returns.
Varsavsky's current venture is called FON
. Founded at the end of 2005, FON is a community-driven company dedicated to building the world's largest global WiFi community, spreading the power of WiFi around the world through an innovative user-generated infrastructure. Headquartered in Madrid, FON is backed by its equity investors and partners Google
, Skype
, Index Ventures
and Sequoia Capital
to WiFi enable the planet.
Currently, Varsavsky also acts as an investment partner in various early stage companies including Gspace, Joost
, Menéame, Moneytrackin', Netvibes
, / Plazes, Technorati
, vpod.tv, Wikio
, XING
, Dopplr
, sevenload
, Vuze
, Tumblr
, and Hipertextual. Outside of the telecommunications sector, he is the majority shareholder of the wind park El Moralejo (a renewable energy generator) and Proesa, owner of the fashion labels Sybilla and Jocomomola.
Martín Varsavsky is founder and president of the Varsavsky Foundation, devoted to improve the educational conditions in the world. The foundation promotes Educ.ar (Argentina) and EducarChile (Chile
), aiming to democratize and modernize the educational systems in both countries.
He is also founder and president of the Safe Democracy Foundation, devoted to contributing to the ongoing debates on the leading questions in international affairs with innovative ideas and solutions. The foundation’s goal is to promote fair, transparent and safe democracies.
The Safe Democracy Foundation and the Club of Madrid
organized the Atocha Workshop in March 2005 and the international Summit on Terrorism, Democracy and Security. The Secretary General of the United Nations and numerous heads of State met in Madrid to analyze how democracies should protect themselves against terrorism in a more effective way without compromising the spirit and safeguards of democracy.
Varsavsky is on the Board of Trustees of the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation
and the One Voice Foundation.
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
entrepreneur based in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
Born to Carlos Varsavsky
Carlos Varsavsky
Carlos M. Varsavsky was an Argentine astrophysicist.-Early life:Varsavsky was born in Buenos Aires in 1933. After completing secondary studies in the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, he settled in the United States. In the US, Varsavsky graduated in Physical Engineering in which he also obtained...
and Silvia Waisman-Diamond, Varsavsky attended primary school at the New Model School and the Colegio Nicolás Avellaneda high school.
At the age of 16, he moved with his family to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as a refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
supported and assisted by B'nai B'rith
B'nai B'rith
B'nai B'rith International |Covenant]]" is the oldest continually operating Jewish service organization in the world. It was initially founded as the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith in New York City, on , 1843, by Henry Jones and 11 others....
, following the forced disappearance
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
of his cousin, David Horacio Varsavsky. In 1981 he obtained a BA at the New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, in 1983 he earned an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and in 1985 an MBA at Columbia Business School
Columbia Business School
Columbia Business School is the business school of Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1916 to provide business training and professional preparation for undergraduate and graduate Columbia University students...
.
Since July 1995, Varsavsky has been living in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. Besides his business activities, he is also engaged in non profit activities.
Since 1999 Varsavsky has been teaching courses on entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which can be defined as "one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods". This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response...
at IE Business School (formerly Instituto de Empresa) in Spain. He has written articles on business and international relations that have been published in several international publications including El País and Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, and is a frequent speaker at conferences around the world. Varsavsky is also an active blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger.
Martin Varsavsky married Nina Wiegand on July 22, 2009, in Hawaii. He has 5 children.
Entrepreneurial activities
In 1984, at the age of 24 and still in college, Varsavsky created Urban Capital Corporation, a real estate company in New York that was one of the early developers in the LoftLoft
A loft can be an upper story or attic in a building, directly under the roof. Alternatively, a loft apartment refers to large adaptable open space, often converted for residential use from some other use, often light industrial...
Movement. Urban Capital Corporation purchased industrial buildings and recycled them into residential apartments and offices, developing up to 50 thousand square meters in the Soho and Tribeca neighborhoods of New York City.
In 1986, together with Argentine scientist Claudio Cuello and César Milstein
César Milstein
César Milstein FRS was an Argentine biochemist in the field of antibody research. Milstein shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Niels K. Jerne and Georges Köhler.-Biography:...
(Medical Science Nobel Prize), Varsavsky founded Medicorp Sciences, a biotechnology company in which he is still a shareholder. Based in Montreal, Medicorp Sciences pioneered the development of HIV and PSA tests.
Since the late 1980s Martín Varsavsky has founded seven companies, including Viatel, Jazztel
Jazztel
Jazztel is a telecom that operates in Spain offering triple play services . Jazztel was founded in 1998 by Martin Varsavsky. Jazztel is a Spanish company that is owned by a British company called Jazztel p.l.c. It was incorporated under the laws of England and Wales in July 1998. It is Registered...
, EINSTEINet and Ya.com – all part of the telecommunications and new media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
industry.
In 1991, Varsavsky ventured into the telecommunications sector with Viatel. Viatel developed a call-back service, an innovative alternative to the high costs of traditional long-distance operators, similar to Econophone (later renamed Destia Inc). Viatel evolved from providing a call-back service in Colorado to becoming an alternative telecom services provider in several European countries (such as France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom). In 1994, Viatel went public, and four years later (1998)Varsavsky sold his Viatel shares to dedicate himself to other ventures. After the TMT-bubble burst in 2000-2001, Viatel Inc. filed for bankruptcy (Chapter 11) in May 2001. Investors, both shareholders and bondholders, lost US$ 1.5 billion - US$ 2 billion. Since then, the (much smaller) restart of Viatel, based in London, operates a fibre-optic circuit, connecting more than 50 strategically situated points from Western Europe to the US East Coast's largest cities.
In 1997, Varsavsky founded Jazztel Telecommunications PLC (Jazz), an alternative telecommunications access provider in the Iberian Peninsula. Headquartered in Madrid and with its own infrastructure, the company became a leading telecommunications alternative operator offering bandwidth solutions for the residential and commercial markets, competing with Telefonica. Jazztel PLC went public (IPO) in December 1999.
In 1999, Varsavsky created Ya.com Internet Factory, Spain's third largest internet web site/DSL provider that also includes the second largest Spanish language online travel agency, Viajar.com. Ya.com was owned by Jazztel (70%), Martín Varsavsky (10%) and the company's' staff (20%). It was sold in 2000 to T-Online International, Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG is a telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is the largest telecommunications company in Europe....
's Internet subsidiary for 800 $m.
In 2000, Martín Varsavsky created EINSTEINet AG, an application service provider
Application service provider
An application service provider is a business that provides computer-based services to customers over a network. Software offered using an ASP model is also sometimes called On-demand software or software as a service ....
(ASP) in Germany. Einsteinet was a company built on the premise that most applications were going to migrate from people's PCs to the internet. Yet the EINSTEINet did not materialize and the company was sold saving the employees jobs but providing no financial returns.
Varsavsky's current venture is called FON
FON
Fon is a company that operates a system of dual access wireless networks. Fon is the largest Wi-Fi network in the world, with over 4 million hotspots....
. Founded at the end of 2005, FON is a community-driven company dedicated to building the world's largest global WiFi community, spreading the power of WiFi around the world through an innovative user-generated infrastructure. Headquartered in Madrid, FON is backed by its equity investors and partners Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
, Index Ventures
Index Ventures
Index Ventures is a venture capital investment firm based in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices in London, Jersey, and starting in 2011, Silcon Valley. The firm was founded in 1996 by Neil Rimer and Giuseppe Zocco. Since its inception, the firm has raised four main venture funds and a growth...
and Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital is a Californian venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital "one of the highest-caliber venture firms", and noted that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture-capital firms"...
to WiFi enable the planet.
Currently, Varsavsky also acts as an investment partner in various early stage companies including Gspace, Joost
Joost
Joost is an Internet TV service, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis . During 2007-8 Joost used peer-to-peer TV technology to distribute content to their Mozilla-based desktop player; in late 2008 this was migrated to use a Flash-based Web player instead.Joost began development in 2006...
, Menéame, Moneytrackin', Netvibes
Netvibes
Netvibes is a personalized dashboard publishing platform for the Web including digital life management, widget distribution services and brand observation rooms.-History:The company was founded by Tariq Krim and Florent Frémont in 2005.-Technology:...
, / Plazes, Technorati
Technorati
Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. By June 2008, Technorati was indexing 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media...
, vpod.tv, Wikio
Wikio
Wikio News is a European online portal for news and blogs. It was launched on June 19, 2006 in France and is also available in other countries since 2007....
Xing
Xing may refer to:* an abbreviation for crossing, primarily used in North America* Qiao Xing Universal Telephone Inc. * XING, a social network platform* Xing County, in Shanxi, China* Xing - A Korean boyband...
, Dopplr
Dopplr
Dopplr is a free social networking service, launched in 2007, that allows users to create itineraries of their travel plans and spot correlations with their contacts’ travel plans in order to arrange meetings at any point on their journey. Additional features include allowing the user to calculate...
, sevenload
Sevenload
Sevenload is an online video and Web-2.0 media platform used for managing video and multimedia contents. Since its founding in April 2006, the platform emerged on international markets to become a Social Media Network for photos, videos and web TV content...
, Vuze
Vuze
Vuze is a BitTorrent client used to transfer files via the BitTorrent protocol. Vuze is written in Java, and uses the Azureus Engine. In addition to downloading data linked to by .torrent files, Azureus allows users to view, publish and share original DVD and HD quality video content...
, Tumblr
Tumblr
Tumblr is a website and microblogging platform that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio to their tumblelog, a short-form blog. Users can follow other users, or choose to make their tumblelog private. The service emphasizes ease of use. The site ranks as the 10th...
, and Hipertextual. Outside of the telecommunications sector, he is the majority shareholder of the wind park El Moralejo (a renewable energy generator) and Proesa, owner of the fashion labels Sybilla and Jocomomola.
Honors and awards
- World Technology (2006)
- Pickering, Columbia University (2003)
- Spanish Entrepreneur of the Year, iBest (2000)
- Global Leader for Tomorrow, World Economic Forum (2000)
- European Entrepreneur of the Year, ECTA (1999)
- European Entrepreneur in Telecommunications (1998)
- Entrepreneur of the Year, New York City 1995)
Philanthrophic activities
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
), aiming to democratize and modernize the educational systems in both countries.
He is also founder and president of the Safe Democracy Foundation, devoted to contributing to the ongoing debates on the leading questions in international affairs with innovative ideas and solutions. The foundation’s goal is to promote fair, transparent and safe democracies.
The Safe Democracy Foundation and the Club of Madrid
Club of Madrid
The Club de Madrid is an independent non-profit organization created to promote democracy and change in the international community. Composed of 80 former Presidents and Prime Ministers from 56 countries, the Club de Madrid is the world’s largest forum of former Heads of State and Government.Among...
organized the Atocha Workshop in March 2005 and the international Summit on Terrorism, Democracy and Security. The Secretary General of the United Nations and numerous heads of State met in Madrid to analyze how democracies should protect themselves against terrorism in a more effective way without compromising the spirit and safeguards of democracy.
Varsavsky is on the Board of Trustees of the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation
Clinton Foundation
The William J. Clinton Foundation is a foundation established by former President of the United States Bill Clinton with the stated mission to "strengthen the capacity of people throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence." The Foundation focuses on four critical areas:...
and the One Voice Foundation.