Miami, Sept. 15, 2022 — Miami Dade College (MDC) will relaunch its popular Mike B. Fernandez Global Business Leadership Series at MDC’s Idea Center, a hub for entrepreneurship and innovation, with a conversation with Andrew Parker, CEO of Papa; at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 27. The event is free and open to the public.
In 2017, Parker founded Papa, the leading platform that helps health plans and employers connect members and their families to real people for help with companionship, everyday tasks, transportation, and more. He founded the organization after struggling to balance the demands of everyday life and caring for his grandfather, who he affectionally called Papa. He recognized the need in his own family and set out to build a platform to improve the negative effects of social determinants of health; most notably loneliness and isolation among others.
In just five years, Papa has grown to include over 20,000 Pals on the platform that is now available in all 50 states, including Puerto Rico, through more than 100 health plans. With a valuation of $1.4 billion, Papa has become one of South Florida’s unicorn start-ups. Andrew and his team have raised over $240 million to scale the company and support older adults and families across the nation.
MDC’s Mike B. Fernandez Global Business Leadership Series provides students with first-hand knowledge of best business practices and leadership by inviting top, renowned executives to share their experiences and discuss new trends in their respective industries. Past speakers include Marcelo Claure, CEO, SoftBank Group International and COO, SoftBank Group Corp; Ana Paula Assis, General Manager, IBM Client Transition Leader; Adriana Cisneros, Chief Executive Officer, Cisneros; Juan Carlos Liscano, Vice President, Miami Hub Operations, American Airlines; Patrick Goddard, President of Brightline Trains; Carlo Enrico, Mastercard’s President for Latin America and the Caribbean; Jeffrey Kratz, General Manager, Latin America, Canada and Caribbean Regions, Worldwide Public Sector at Amazon Web Services; Odilon Almeida, President of Western Union Global Money Transfer; Jordi Botifoll, Cisco’s President for Latin America and Senior Vice President for the Americas; Claudio Muruzabal, President for SAP Latin America and the Caribbean; Josh Leibowitz, Chief Strategy Officer of Carnival Corporation & plc, and Senior Vice President of Cunard North America; Craig D’Souza, Head of Global Investigation and Intelligence at Facebook; César Cernuda, President of Microsoft Latin America and Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Corporation; Eduardo Coello, Regional President of Visa for Latin America and the Caribbean; Donna Hrinak, Vice President of Boeing International and President of Boeing Latin America; Dr. Bernard Meyerson, Chief Innovation Officer at IBM Corporation; Laxman Narasimhan, President for PepsiCo Latin America and Adriana Cisneros, CEO of Cisneros. For more information, click here.