QuePasa Corporation Appoints Jeff Valdez as Chairman of the Board

Posted on: January 24th, 2008
Filed Under: [ Business ] [ Hispanic News ] [ Internet ] [ Media ] [ People ] [ Press Releases ] [ Blogante Business ]
Tags: bilingual, Film
Knowledge is Power!

QuePasa Corporation , one of the largest, bilingual, bicultural, Latino online communities, today announced the appointment of Jeff Valdez as Chairman of the Board. In that role, Valdez will help guide the company as it continues its growth in the online Latino market.

Valdez brings a broad range of executive, creative and marketing experience in Hispanic-centric content to QuePasa. In February 2004 he launched Si TV, the first English-language, Latino-themed cable channel. Si TV is currently in more than 17 million households and boasts a lineup of award-winning original programming, much of it created by Valdez.

Valdez also serves on the boards of Si TV and Maya Entertainment, a Latino-targeted film distribution company. Among his many honors and awards, CNN recently named Valdez one of the Top 50 People Who Matter and Advertising Age named him one of the Top 50 Marketers in America. In addition to receiving three Image Awards, two Nosotros Golden Eagles and the Racial Harmony Award by the Center for Ethnic Understanding, Valdez was named one of the Top 50 Minorities in Cable by Multichannel News and Top 10 Players in the U.S. Hispanic media market by Market Age. The National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) awarded him the Outstanding Achievement Award for his founding of Si TV. Additionally, the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) selected Valdez to receive the Quasar Award at the 11th Annual NAMIC Visions Awards for his pioneering efforts in the Latino marketplace.

“We are excited to have Jeff join QuePasa as we continue to address America’s fastest-growing demographic,” said John C. Abbot, chief executive officer of QuePasa. “His creative talent, relationships and depth of knowledge of the Hispanic marketplace will allow us to develop innovative content that will help drive traffic to our online community and enable us to realize exciting new opportunities.”

“I strongly believe the internet, while still in its infancy, will be the new frontier in reaching the Hispanic community in the future,” said Valdez. “The ability to take what historically has been flat content and make it rich and dimensional is very exciting to me. While most marketers are still trying to get their heads around the concept of Latino 101, we are going beyond traditional thinking and seeing our audience not as a Latino audience, but instead as Americans 2.0. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.”