Manuel A. Rivera
Co-founder and CEO of NEKT Group
Seasoned professional and entrepreneur with +25 years of experience in business strategy, business development, senior management, and M&A.
Co-founder and CEO of NEKT Group, a Cybersecurity firm in Mexico City and Houston, Tx., offering the best-of-breed solutions to enterprise level companies and SMB’s. NEKT, through its venture arm, is also an active investor in this industry.
Prior to his venture in Cyber, he had a long tenure as President & CEO for Grupo Expansion, one of Mexico’s most prestigious Media Companies. During his 18 years at the company he launched or acquired +30 magazine and digital brands, first as a family-owned business; then as part of Time-Warner’s portfolio and finally, through a management lead buyout, he took it private again. The company was successfully sold in 2017, as a market leader in digital publishing.
Manuel also sits as investor and non-executive president of Mediasurf, an Out-of-Home and digital publishing media company in Mexico (parent company of Business Insider Mexico), as well as ZASH (www.zash.store) a DTC brand in the interior design market.
Prior to his involvement in media, he started his Business Management career working at Procter & Gamble Mexico and Latin America (1994-2000).
Manuel has also been involved with several boards such as:
- Global Future Council of the World Economic Forum on the Future of Information and Entertainment. Appointed Council Co-Chairman for the 2016-2018 period.
- Member of YPO Mexico City chapter since 2012, and active board member.
- Board / Director for Americas Gold and Silver, a publicly traded (NYSE:USAS) precious metals mining company based in Toronto, Canada.
- Board member of “El Universal”, Mexico’s largest newspaper
- Chairman of Make-a-Wish México NGO, 2016-2019.
Manuel attended Universidad Iberoamericana, to complete his B.S in Chemical Engineering, to then round it up with several management programs abroad, as well as an MBA from ITAM and currently finishing a Masters degree in Cybersecurity in IMF Business School – Madrid.