Andy Freire is an entrepreneur both in the social and business sectors. He is Director of Trocafone a company that recycles used phones in Brazil and resells it to the uprising middle-low class. He served as elected congressman of Buenos Aires and Minister of Modernisation, Innovation and Technology and President of the Tourism Agency of Buenos Aires and as Managing Partner and Director of South Cone of Softbank Group International.
As an entrepreneur Andy co-founded and led Officenet (acquired by Staples in 2004), a company that revolutionized the industry of distribution (retail) of office supplies in Latin America and Restorando (acquired by Trip Advisor in 2018), the leading restaurant online booking platform in Latin America, Sirena (acquired by Zeenvia) and most recently Trocafone, the leading used cell phone reselling platform in Brazil.
Recognized as "Global Leader for Tomorrow" in 2002 by the World Economic Forum World, and "Latin American Entrepreneur of the Year" in 2001 by the Endeavor Foundation, Andy was also awarded as one of the two finalists in the “World Young Business Achiever Award" held in the Philippines in 2002. He was also distinguished in 2008 as "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Andy holds a degree in Economics from the University of San Andrés and has a OPM from Harvard Business School.
He is the author of the books “Pasión por emprender” (Aguilar, 2004), “50 claves para emprendedores” (Aguilar, 2006), “5%” (Aguilar, 2013), “Libre, la filosofía de vida emprendedora” (Aguilar 2014) and “Argentina Emprendedora” (Aguilar, 2015).