ATLANTA — Fernando Mestanza is not just the CEO of Grupo Mardis, a Quito, Ecuador–based organization that comprises nine companies across three countries focusing primarily on market research, logistics, and geo data.
It was in both these capacities — prominent business leader and proud Yellow Jacket — that Mestanza recently spent two days in Atlanta as a guest of EI2 Global.
Housed in Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2), EI2 Global manages the Georgia Tech Medellín Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, an innovation hub in Medellín, Colombia, that employs cutting-edge research to assist communities and universities in the region with technology transfer/commercialization initiatives.
Since its launch in March 2023, the Medellín Center has quickly become an inspiration to other institutions in South America, and Georgia Tech is currently considering creating a similar hub in Ecuador.
As the project’s champion, Mestanza is exploring the initiative while networking with financial institutions, fellow business leaders, and other key players to discuss funding options.
Mestanza’s visit comes on the heels of another delegation from Ecuador. In January, ESPOL President Cecilia Paredes and Dean of the School of Business Maria L. Granda received a two-day introduction to the systems and relationships that form the foundation of Tech Square, one of Atlanta’s premier innovation ecosystems and the home of EI2’s midtown offices.
Mestanza was welcomed to Tech Square by Sara Araujo, Georgia Tech’s director of development for Latin America, EI2 Global program manager Viviana Montenegro, and Juli Golemi, director of EI2 Global, who provided an overview of EI2.
“Because we bring various areas of expertise into a single organization, we can link our clients to more than one program or service,” Golemi said. “We are also able to provide connections with Georgia Tech’s world-class resources, from state-of-the-art facilities and research to internationally recognized experts and an exceptional student body.”
After Montenegro shared the inception, focus, programs, capacity building approach, and governance model of the Medellín Center, Mestanza was introduced to a number of relevant initiatives, including Create X, ScaleUp, Soft Landing, and the Innovation and Technology Commercialization for Professional Course (ITCP). He also met with representatives from another EI2 program, the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC).
As a business leader, Mestanza prioritizes problem solving through peer-to-peer collaboration, a skill he first saw modeled at Scheller and never forgot.
“I love problems,” he explained. “It’s easy to talk about successes; they are the prize stories every CEO loves to tell. But with problem solving, it’s different. That’s the way we learn what doesn’t work and why. Problems can lead to change for good.”
Ecosystems such as EI2 and the Medellín Center, which serve as hubs of connectivity, “gather people from a variety of backgrounds. You can mingle, you can meet people, you can exchange ideas,” he said.
Given this point of view, it’s no surprise that the most memorable part of Mestanza’s visit was the tour of Georgia Tech’s student-run makerspace, the Invention Studio.
“What excites me the most is to look at the young students gather around tables with many different projects and to have each other explaining the technology in different ways,” Mestanza said. “I think there is room in our country to make this kind of thing happen.”