Santiago Bilinkis

Santiago Bilinkis has been a serial entrepreneur for as long as he can remember.
 
After a couple of years of working at Procter & Gamble, he cofounded Officenet, a company that revolutionized the office supplies industry in South America. Initially backed by local angel investors, Officenet raised capital from some of the best private equity funds, such as Goldman Sachs, GE Capital, George Soros, JP Morgan Chase, Warburg Pincus, KKR, THLee, Fleet-Boston Bank, GP Investimentos, and Banco Santander Central Hispano.
 
Santiago managed Officenet from being a small startup in Buenos Aires to becoming a large company operating in Argentina and Brazil, with over USD 100M in revenues and close to 1,000 employees.
 
Harvard Business School wrote two cases called Officenet (A): Making Entrepreneurship Work in Argentina and Officenet (B): After the Merger that are taught in several Business Schools.
 
Officenet is now a part of Staples, the largest office supplies company in the world, present in over 20 countries. Officenet service levels are a benchmark for the industry.
 
Santiago was also a cofounder of Wanako Games, today a division of Vivendi, and Senstand, a recent startup. He is also a Board Member of Otro Mundo, a top quality beer manufacturing company, and Latin 3, an exponential marketing agency.
 
A firm believer in giving back to society, Santiago tries to help and inspire young students and entrepreneurs by giving speeches and through mentoring. In the last few years, he has completed presentations at schools such as the MIT Sloan School of Management, HBS, and at many universities in Latin America.
 
He was also a panelist in several conferences, an advisor to the Karel Steuer Entrepreneurship Chair, and a member of the Board of Advisors of the UdeSA Postgraduate Department.
 
He has been a judge at many business plan competitions, including NAVES, organized by the Centro de Entrepreneurship del IAE, and a selector for the INICIA award.
 
Beyond his business endeavors, Santiago is involved in many NGOs.
 
At age 24 he was President of Fundación Iniciativa, a foundation that promoted democratic leadership among the young. Over 20,000 youngsters attended Iniciativa’s events.
 
He is also a Board Member of Endeavor Argentina and a Former President of CIPPEC, a public policy organization that strives to create a just, democratic, and efficient State in Argentina to improve the quality of life for all Argentine citizens.
 
His passion for Social Entrepreneurship also brought him close to Ashoka to work closely with social entrepreneurs as a changemaker.
 
Santiago is a Private Sector Advisory Board Member for the Agencia Nacional de Inversiones (Prosperar).
 
He earned a BS in Economics from Universidad de San Andrés where he graduated Summa Cum Laude, winning the San Andrés Award 1993 (Baccalaureate). He is also a GSP10 Graduate of Singularity University.
 
Read his blog Riesgo y Recompensa. Visit his Facebook page. Watch his YouTube channel. Visit his Flickr photostream. Read his LinkedIn profile. Follow his Twitter feed. Watch Santiago Bilinkis en PalomaTV and TEDxPatagonia – Santiago Bilinkis – 7/30/09.