CEO, businesswoman, Venezuelan, groundbreaker? We can find these qualities in Adriana Cisneros (Caracas, 1979). She is the current CEO of Cisneros Group, a well-known privately-owned business conglomerate, first founded in Caracas in 1929 by her grandfather, Diego Cisneros.
Since becoming its leader in 2013 (she Adriana Cisneros has evolved her family's traditional focus on entertainment —including Venevisión, Venezuela's leading TV network and Miss Venezuela, the country's record-breaking beauty pageant— into a thriving global business based on digital media, real estate, and consumer products, divided into three divisions: Cisneros Digital, Cisneros Media, and Cisneros Real Estate.
Currently, the Cisneros Group reaches 550 million Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking consumers in the Americas and Europe from its headquarters in Miami, Florida, and sells media content to 100 countries worldwide. Its Cisneros Digital division leads digital advertising services across Latin America.
Adriana Cisneros is a practitioner of forward-thinking investment, according to her corporate profile. This is also seen in her role as investor and board member for AST SpaceMobile, a Texas-based company focused on developing worldwide cellphone connectivity through Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites.
Corporate social responsibility is closely integrated into Cisneros´s outlook in business. She presides over the Fundación Cisneros, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to enhancing educational access in Latin America, and supports different initiatives in arts and culture.
Cisneros holds a BA from Columbia University and a Master in Journalism from New York University. She is an Aspen Institute´s Henry Crown Fellow, a Council on Foreign Relations affiliate, and a graduate of Harvard Business School's Program for Leadership Development (2010).
Next goal: Venezuela
Adriana Cisneros is planning to have a huge role in her home country´s economic recovery.
On April 16, the businesswoman announced in a press conference at the Caracas Stock Exchange that Cisneros Group has already secured two-thirds of a $1 billion called Fondo Intrépida (Intrepid Fund in Spanish) that it plans to raise for a reconstruction fund in Venezuela.
The funds come from the conglomerate itself, as well as family offices in Latin America and sovereign wealth funds in Dubai and Qatar to deploy capital into Venezuela, across sectors like food, real estate and luxury tourism.
“It has amazed me how easily capital has been committed to this project.” Cisneros explained. “We would see investment in a year. We’re a US fund, and we work under US regulations. Timing is important; we need five months to finish this phase.”
Intrépida doesn’t expect to put money into oil, petrochemicals, or mining, but could look into utilities, she asserted.
Ariel Prat, Cisneros Group's CFO, added that the firm could raise subsequent ones to take advantage of the opportunity.
“Venezuela has a particularity,” explains Prat, mentioning the country's installed industrial capacity and its energy potential. "Its capacity for growth is exponential; you don't have to invent the wheel, you have to repair the car and make it go".
Human talent will be a key driver to see changes become a reality, his boss warned.
“I stress this to headhunters all the time,” asserted Adriana Cisneros. “We need to identify the right human talent.”
