For publication: Friday, September 30, 2016
Contact: Gabriela Álvarez
Phone: 787-614-0810
San Juan – On Thursday, September 29th, Grupo Guayacán, Inc. (GGI) celebrated its 20th anniversary with an event highlighting the nonprofit organization’s two decade journey of advancing entrepreneurship and private equity as drivers of Puerto Rico’s economic development. The event also focused on Guayacán Alumni, local companies that have benefitted from the organization’s entrepreneurial development programs through the years.
The event brought together a large group of sponsors, collaborators, investors, academics, private sector leaders, and entrepreneurs. The activity kicked off with a conference emphasizing two central themes: the development of a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem, and the acceleration of the local private equity market. Francisco Uriarte, Chairman of the Board, and Laura Cantero, Executive Director, offered welcoming remarks while Robert “Bob” Dávila, former Executive Director and Board Member, acted as Master of Ceremony. During her welcoming remarks, Cantero recognized the presence of Guayacán Founder Enrique Adsuar’s family members, as well as representation from Abbott Capital Management, investment advisor for the Guayacán Family of Funds since 1996.
The conference continued with a documentary about the organization’s history, providing a deeper look into its beginnings and paying tribute to its founder, Enrique Adsuar, who passed away in 1996, the very same year Guayacán was founded. The video included interviews with over 50 individuals who have been involved with the organization over the years, including former members of the Board and Executive Directors, as well as investors in Guayacán’s Family of Funds, collaborators, and a group of Guayacán Alumni. The documentary was produced by Nítido, a company founded by Alfredo Richner, past winner of EnterPRize in 2007.
The first invited speaker was William Lockwood, Guayacán Founding Member and former Chairman of the Board, whose words focused on the findings and recommendations of the study on Puerto Rico’s capital markets that was commissioned in 1993 by the Government Development Bank, and gave way for Guayacán’s founding. Lockwood stressed the historical importance and current relevance of the study’s recommendations.
Two guest speakers, Diana Kander and Prof. Yael Hochberg, anchored the rest of the event’s program. Kander, entrepreneur, author and former Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, offered a presentation about the main mistakes made by entrepreneurial ecosystems, and the best way communities can come together to support the long term success of their entrepreneurs. Kander stressed the importance of focusing entrepreneurial support on making sure that new businesses are launched around ideas that truly create value for customers. Kander’s presentation also referenced her latest book, All in Startup, which was gifted to attendees and signed by the author during the event’s registration.
Hochberg, who is an entrepreneurship professor and Academic Director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship at Rice University, focused her remarks on the necessary elements to foster the development of a local risk capital market. Hochberg emphasized the importance of the availability of risk capital in order to spur the development of innovation based entrepreneurship, and offered various case studies regarding different efforts to accelerate this industry.
Both speakers were followed by reaction panels, including local and international participation. The panel reacting to Diana Kander’s presentation included Robert “Bob” Dávila, William Lockwood, Susan Preston of the Angel Resource Institute, and Javier Soltero, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, as well as member of Guayacán’s Board. The second panel, reacting to Yael Hochberg’s talk, included Marvin Díaz from Banco Popular, Ricardo García Negrón from McConnell Valdés, Rodolfo Sánchez Colberg from Parliament Capital, and Clotilde Pérez from V. Suárez who is also a former Executive Director and former member of Guayacán’s Board. The reaction panels were moderated by Rafael Lama, Business Editor of El Nuevo Día.
The conference concluded with the official launch of the Guayacán Endowment Fund, a new vehicle allowing collaborators and sponsors to support the long term sustainability of the organization’s entrepreneurial development programs. The new fund enables donors to contribute directly to Puerto Rico’s sustainable economic development by helping advance Guayacán’s mission of strengthening the local entrepreneurship and private equity ecosystems. Cantero mentioned that the new Endowment Fund will allow Guayacán to maximize its impact at a time of great need for Puerto Rico, and recognized the twenty four companies and individuals that supported the fund’s inaugural campaign as Founding Partners. Special distinction was given to Banco Popular and Liberty, given that both organizations will make recurring contributions to the Endowment Fund for the next five years. The group of Founding Partners also includes nine Guayacán Alumni. Guayacán also announced it raised over $1.3 million towards the Endowment Fund in this initial campaign.
After the conference, attendees enjoyed a cocktail reception at the Guayacán Alumni Marketplace where 30 alumni had the opportunity to showcase their products and services. The Marketplace included four themed pavilions: Growth, Innovation, Technology, sponsored by Microsoft, and Agriculture & Food, sponsored by Puerto Rico Farm Credit.
For more information on Guayacán’s programs and initiatives, please visit www.guayacan.org or www.facebook.com/guayacanorg, or call 787-641-6028.
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Guayacán Endowment Fund Founding Partners
Enrique Adsuar Founding Partners
- Banco Popular
- Liberty
Founding Partners
- Abbott Capital Management
- Acrecent Financial Corporation
- Assurant Puerto Rico
- CEGSoft
- Church’s
- Ferraiuoli LLC
- Fuller Group
- Fundación Aireko
- HUB International CLC
- Javier Soltero
- McConnell Valdés
- Puerto Rico Farm Credit
- Puma Energy
- Rebexa Group
- Rock Solid Technologies
- SOL Partners
- Technology Partners
- The James and Barbara Cimino Foundation
- TransCita
- Walmart
- Watkins Valls Family Foundation
- Wovenware
