The life of Sebastián Ceria, 57, seems to be turned upside down from time to time. He immersed himself in mathematics at an early age, enrolled in exact sciences at UBA and was mentored by the brilliant Gregory Klimovsky. He leaves for his doctorate in the United States and in 1998 creates a company which, on the basis of mathematical models, anticipates and manages risks. Unexpectedly, in 2019, Axioma was sold for US$ 850 million on the German stock exchange.
Then a merger was born and Qontigo was born, in honor of the concept of partnership with customers and employees and obviously to the q, which in mathematics is linked to quantity.
Qontigo produces Europe’s most popular stock index and Ceria is its CEO. You keep a portion of the shares. Its clients are the largest pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and investment banks in the world. They specialize in risk management.
Recognition of public education
When he was about to sell his first company, Ceria met historian and Master of Public Administration, Martín Reydó, on the campus of Columbia University in New York. And he began to germinate the idea of a foundation to which baptized Fundar and which expresses a vocation of gratitude to public education.
Ceria had already promoted, together with the Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly, the construction of a extension of the Faculty of Exact Sciences in a wing he called infinity.
With Fundar he entered the logic of generation another relationship between the state, the academy and the private sector, the virtuous triangle imagined by Jorge Sábato. The foundation dedicated to the study, research and planning of public policies focused on the development of an Argentina “sustainable and inclusive”, it has unique characteristics.
The 95% lender is Ceria chi lives in London, owns no company in the country and endowed it with financial autonomy and independence in matters. Obviously he presides over it together with his brother Santiago, a graduate in Systems Analysis from the Faculty of Engineering (UBA) and a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon. He is a great data science expert.
They started in an apartment of immense proportions in Plaza San Martín and with 45 researchers under 40 who are in a dependent relationship. Reydó talks about the mission which consists in generating wealth or “enlarge the pie, because what we have now is not enough”.
The transformation of the state
Another aspect is the promotion of well-being and the transformation of the state, “a key word at the center of disputes. All the political forces in Argentina wanted to transform the state: smaller, more controlling, more modern, more efficient, more federal. The idea is to investigate, develop and articulate public policies”. They talk about helping the State to have skills or to recover them for a virtuous relationship that increase production capacities.
They defined different areas of work such as biotechnology, energy and mining. They analyze Argentina’s project as a producer of liquefied natural gas. Y consult experts skipping the crack. In Energy, Daniel González, former YPF and current CEO of Idea, and Nicolás Arceo, former member of La Cámpora. Last week they summoned the entire political spectrum to discuss biotechnology in Rosario.
One of the forthcoming studies concerns the Tierra del Fuego regime. Send that it is excessive and expensive for the country. Proposes other production capacities for the island.
The works are public. Fundar is consulted by both Wado de Pedro and Horacio Rodríguez Larreta. the news is yours strategic alliance with the Center for Research and Social Action, whose figure is the Jesuit priest Rodrigo de Zarazaga: initiate monitoring of social policies based on access and distribution of funds. It will surprise.
Source: Clarin
