Andrés “Andy” Freire (born January 14, 1972) is a businessman known for the co-founding and leadership of Officenet (acquired by Staples in 2004), a company that revolutionized the office supply retail distribution industry in Latin America by raising over USD 50 million (most of it after the Nasdaq crash in 2000) from investors such as Goldman Sachs, GE Capital, George Soros, JP Morgan Chase, Warburg Pincus, KKR, Thomas H. Lee Partners, FleetBoston Financial, GP Investimentos, and Banco Santander.
A case called “Officenet: How to Do Entrepreneurship in Argentina” was written for Harvard Business School and taught at more than 25 universities, including Stanford, Chicago, Columbia, Georgetown, IE Business School, and the Paris Business School. He has participated as a guest professor or speaker at various universities, including Stanford, Harvard, Notre Dame, Wharton, and IE in Spain. His book “Pasión por el espíritu empresarial – De la idea a la cruda realidad” was published in Spanish and Portuguese, becoming a bestseller in several Latin American countries (including being the #1 best-selling business book in Argentina for five consecutive months after publication).
Freire is co-founder and former President and CEO of Axialent. Axialent works with Fortune 500 companies to align corporate leadership culture and behavior with long-term strategy and company values in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
When he was 18 years old, he co-created Fundación Iniciativa, an NGO focused on promoting leadership values among young people in Latin America.
He is President of the Endeavor Foundation in Argentina, President of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) in Argentina, and also a board member of the Steering Committee of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders and a member of the WEF’s Global Agenda Council on Latin America.
His awards include “Global Leader for Tomorrow” in 2000 by the World Economic Forum (WEF), “Latin American Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2001 by the Endeavor Foundation, and “Young World Business Achiever” in 2002. Andy was also named in 2008 one of the 100 “Young Global Leaders of the World” by the WEF in Davos, Switzerland.
He has participated as an investor and/or board member in several startups, including Wanako (online games sold to Vivendi), Coffice (coffee service sold to Lavazza), Reed Argentina (trade fairs), Restorando (online restaurant booking), The Mind Company (a leading LATAM management consulting firm), Estrella Limited (an oil services company publicly traded in Toronto as EEN.V), Parque Austral (real estate), among others.
Andy holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics with magna cum laude honors from the University of San Andrés in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and completed the OPM program at Harvard Business School.