Americas Quarterly Highlights Endeavor Entrepreneurs Among Top Five Young Entrepreneurs in Latin America

Americas Quarterly, an independent publication of Americas Society and Council of the Americas, named Endeavor Entrepreneurs Leila Velez of Beleza Natural and Maximo Cavazzani of Etermax to their list of Latin America’s Top Five Young Entrepreneurs. This quarter’s issue of the magazine — the first of 2017 — focuses exclusively on entrepreneurship in Latin America.

The men and women named to the list were chosen as exemplary individuals who treat adversity as a source of strength and inspiration, and, along with other fellow entrepreneurs, hold the key to solving some of the challenges facing Latin American economies.

“Government policies, outdated education systems, and other barriers such as gender discrimination, security, and poor quality of life in large cities prevent people from realizing their full potential,” writes AQ Editor-in-Chief Brian Winter. “This issue both celebrates what young entrepreneurs have already achieved and looks at ways to help them reach their full potential.”

One of Endeavor’s earliest entrepreneurs, Leila Velez started Beleza Natural, a chain of beauty institutes and a cosmetics factory specializing in curly hair treatments in Brazil, at age 19 without any outside funding. The company now employs more than 3,000 people and serves over 130,000 customers per month.

Read the magazine’s profile of Leila here. 

Maximo Cavazzani was selected as an Endeavor Entrepreneur in August, 2015, at the 60th International Selection Panel in San Francisco, California. Maximo’s company Etermax is a multi-platform social game developer, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The company rose to global recognition with Apalabrados/Aworded, a mobile Scrabble game, and Trivia Crack, a mobile Trivial Pursuit, which boast more than 100 million registered users and 20 million daily active users.

Read the magazine’s profile of Maximo here. 

Americas Quarterly will honor these entrepreneurs with a February 16 launch of the issue co-hosted with endeavor Miami and the IDEA Center at Miami Dade College. The complete Americas Quarterly issue will be available on January 19, 2017. Read more about the entrepreneurs selected in full here.

About Americas Quarterly

Americas Quarterly (AQ) is the premier publication dedicated to politics, business, and culture in the Western Hemisphere, with a focus on Latin America. Launched in 2007 and based in New York City, AQ’s award-winning magazine and website appeal to a broad audience interested in the region. Readers include top policymakers in Washington, D.C., Brasilia, Mexico City and beyond; executives at Latin American multinationals and Fortune 500 companies; opinion leaders in universities and the media; and a vast array of general readers who are passionate about Latin America. Editorial board members include former presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Ricardo Lagos, Ernesto Zedillo and Alejandro Toledo, as well as leading voices from business, journalism, finance and academia. Americas Quarterly is an independent publication of Americas Society and Council of the Americas, which for more than 50 years have been dedicated to dialogue in our hemisphere.

 Press inquiries:
AS/COA Media Relations: [email protected] | 1-212-277-8384 | 1-212-277-8333.