Marcos Eduardo Galperin (born 31 October 1971) is an Argentine businessman who is best known as the co-founder, chairman, President and CEO of

Mercado Libre MercadoLibre, Inc. (literally "free market" in Spanish, and known as Mercado Livre in Portuguese) is an Argentine company headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay and incorporated in Delaware in the United States that operates online marketplaces de ...

. With an estimated net worth of $6.8 billion (as of July 2024), he is the wealthiest person in Argentina.

Early and personal life

Marcos Eduardo Galperin was born on 31 October 1971 in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

to a wealthy family of

Jewish descent ''Zera Yisrael'' (), also known as ''Zera Kadosh'' (), is a legal category in ''Halakha'' that denotes the blood descendants of Jews who, for one reason or another, are not legally Jewish according to religious criteria. This is usually due to a ...

. The fourth of five sons to Ernesto and Silvia Julia Galperin (née Lebach), his family owned SADESA, one of the largest leather companies in the world. Galperin attended

Saint Andrew's Scots School The Saint Andrew's Scots School (), also referred to as Saint Andrew's, is an Argentina, Argentine bilingual school in Olivos, Buenos Aires Province, Olivos, Vicente López Partido, Buenos Aires Province. Established in 1838 in downtown buenos ai ...

in the district of Olivos. While in school, Galperin excelled at

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

. He played on tour in Australia and New Zealand before deciding to study finance at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. There, he became friends with the son of then-president of

YPF YPF S.A. (, formerly ; English: "Fiscal Oilfields") is a vertically integrated, majority state-owned Argentine energy company, engaged in oil and gas exploration and production, and the transportation, refining, and marketing of gas and pe ...

, José Estenssoro, who was killed in a plane crash through the mountains of

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

in 1995. Galperin joined this company when he finished college in 1994 and returned to Argentina. In 1997, he returned to the United States and enrolled at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, graduating with an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

in 1999. Galperin married his wife, Karina, on 11 March 2000. Together, the couple have three children. Galperin has lived in

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

since 2002 between

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

and

Punta del Este Punta del Este () is a seaside city and peninsula on the Atlantic Coast in the Maldonado Department of southeastern Uruguay. Starting as a small town, Punta del Este grew to become a resort for the Latin and North American jet set and tourists. T ...

. He returned to Argentina in 2015 to support the

presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified b ...

Mauricio Macri Mauricio Macri (; born 8 February 1959) is an Argentine businessman and politician who served as President of Argentina from 2015 to 2019. He has been the leader of the Republican Proposal (PRO) party since its founding in 2005. He previously ...

, but ultimately decided to move back to Uruguay in 2020 because of its friendlier business environment. Many other Argentine businessmen have followed his steps. Galperin is a supporter of

Club Atlético Independiente () is an Argentine professional sports club, which has its headquarters and stadium in Avellaneda, a city of the Buenos Aires Province. The club is best known for its Association football, football team, which plays in the Argentine Primera Divi ...

Career

Galperin is considered one of Argentina's internet entrepreneurs. As result of this he received a

Konex Award Konex Foundation Awards, or simply Konex Awards, are cultural awards from the Konex Foundation honouring Argentine cultural personalities. History and purpose Konex Awards are granted by the Konex Foundation, created in 1980 in Argentina. The p ...

in 2008 and a Platinum Konex Award in 2018 as the most important businessmen of the last decade in Argentina. In 1999, Galperin was selected as an Endeavor Entrepreneur and currently serves its Argentina's board of directors. Endeavor is a global non-profit that selects and supports entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Additionally, he serves on the board of directors a
Onapsis
in business application security, and is also an investor at COR, a project management tool that predicts and tracks profitability in real time. In addition to his duties at Mercado Libre, Galperin also sat on the

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

Globant Globant is an IT and software development company operating internationally. It was formed in 2003 by Martín Migoya, Guibert Englebienne, Martín Umaran and Néstor Nocetti. It was founded in Buenos Aires, but later headquartered in Luxembour ...

until 2020. He is one of the founders and main investors of the rugby team Miami Sharks, a rugby union team based in

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, which was established in 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Galperin, Marcos 1971 births Living people Argentine billionaires Argentine Jews Businesspeople from Buenos Aires Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni