Meet New Faculty: Martin Varsavsky MIA ’83

After graduating from from SIPA, Martin Varsavsky embarked on a 20-year career as an entrepreneur, founding seven companies that span biotechnology, telecommunications, and technology. Under his direction, the Varsavsky Foundation initiated two significant educational projects in Latin America. He also served as Argentina’s ambassador at large from 2001 to 2005.

What do you study?

My passion is trying to understand how ideas become ventures, both in the profit and not-for-profit world.

What do you teach?

How to turn an idea into a venture.

What do you consider today’s most pressing global issue?

Creating more opportunities for young people.

What professional achievement are you most proud of?

I have created four companies — Viatel, Jazztel, Eolia, and Ya.com — that created thousands of jobs and were worth over half a billion dollars by the time I sold them. I am now the CEO of Fon, the largest wifi network in the world.

I am also quite proud of what the Varsavsky Foundation has done to improve education with the use of new technologies in Latin America, where it founded Educ.ar and Educarchile.cl.

Why did you choose to come to SIPA?

I got my MIA at SIPA in 1983. ‘One day I will teach here,’ I thought back then. I’m happy that my dream came true.