Founder Profile
Marcos Galperin
Last reviewed: October 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya
Who is Marcos Galperin?
Marcos Galperin is a founder of MercadoLibre, Inc., which was founded in 1999 with Hernan Kazah.
- Company founded
- MercadoLibre, Inc.
- Founded
- 1999
- Co-founders
- Hernan Kazah
Background
Galperin earned an economics degree from the Wharton School and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he wrote the plan for MercadoLibre in 1999.
Founding Story
Marcos Galperin is an Argentine entrepreneur who founded MercadoLibre in 1999 and was its CEO for more than 26 years. He led it through the dot-com crash, the 2001 eBay deal, the 2007 NASDAQ IPO and the build-out of Mercado Pago and Mercado Envios. On January 1, 2026, he handed the CEO role to Ariel Szarfsztejn and became executive chairman.
Marcos Galperin was born in 1971 in Buenos Aires. Education: St. Andrew's Scots School.