Juan Santiago is the founder and CEO of Santex Group, a global technology company. Santex was established in 1999 in San Diego, California, with the aim of solving human, business, and community challenges through technology. Operating in over 18 countries with approximately 500 team members across 100 cities, Santex proudly maintains a carbon-neutral footprint.
In 2012, Juan founded Incutex, the first “Company Builder” for tech startups in LATAM. Since 2017, he has led Kalei Ventures, a venture capital fund based in Silicon Valley focused on propelling Latin American talent toward global leadership.
Juan is known for his ability to anticipate the future needs of the businesses and ecosystems he partners with and for leading high-impact projects. He envisions the entrepreneur of the future as someone who places social responsibility and sustainability at the core of their business strategies.
This, he believes, will make their products, projects, and decisions sources of significant economic, human, and environmental impact. Juan’s vision deeply influences all his endeavors. In addition to his role at Santex, he actively participates in numerous boards of institutions focused on economic, social, and public-private innovation, both locally and nationally, where he promotes this vision.
Demonstrating his commitment to social transformation, in 2022, Juan founded the Technology with Purpose Foundation. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to addressing social issues by creating opportunities through technology, establishing inclusive spaces, and providing technical training to vulnerable populations. Some examples of the Foundation’s initiatives include reducing the gender gap and facilitating access to a network of specialized mentors.
Juan is actively engaged in intellectual forums that explore the profound and complex changes driven by the most disruptive technological revolution since the dawn of the internet: Artificial Intelligence.
Recently, he co-founded AI League For Good, a think tank that brings together experts from diverse fields. Their objective is to assess the threats and opportunities AI presents and foster constructive discussions and debates on the ethical and moral implications of its applications in different contexts.
Juan believes that achieving great things requires taking risks, challenging the status quo, working intelligently, and choosing the right people for the tasks at hand. He has built a path that is not linear but rather an ecosystem of knowledge, people, diverse industries, and many questions.