With a population of just over 30 million, or less than 10% of the population of the U.S., few would have expected Venezuela to become the launching pad for a major global media company. Yet that is exactly what the Cisneros family has accomplished, particularly under the leadership of 2015 Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award winner Gustavo Cisneros, the chairman of the Cisneros Group of Companies (CGC). The family fortunes began modestly in 1929, with Diego Cisneros buying a truck and launching a transportation business at the age of 17 in Caracas, Venezuela. But his businesses took off after he tasted his first bottle of Pepsi during a visit to the New York City Worlds Fair, and launched a Pepsi bottling franchise in Venezuela in 1940. Profits from that enterprise funded a host of other companies, most notably the launch of the Venevision broadcast network in 1961. "My grandfather was a fascinating man who was not only a pioneer in the TV business but a dreamer who brought the first yoga teacher to Venezuela," recalls Adriana Cisneros, CEO of CGC, and Gustavo's daughter.
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