Pete Pizarro is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Salt Venture Partners, an initiative focused on expanding access to start up and growth capital to a new generation of digital entrepreneurs in the Education and Health sectors.Pete’s lifelong mission is to support the improvement and democratization of education everywhere and to everyone. He is passionate how technology can serve as the enabler of new education models that can provide greater access to quality education through innovative teaching and learning business models and the impact these organizations can have on people’s lives and society.Between 2011 and 2019, Pete served as President and CEO of Ilumno, whose mission is expanding access to quality higher education to improve lives and transform societies. He designed and led the implementation of Ilumno’s business strategy to Higher Education Institutions across the Latin American region to accelerate Ilumno’s company owed and alliance partner universities digital transformation efforts by leveraging technology as the enabler of growth and quality education. Pete led several capital and financing rounds in the US, Colombia and Brazil, exceeding $200 million in debt and capital expansion for the company. Between 2011 and 2018, Ilumno grew organically from 120,000 to 300,000 undergraduate and graduate students and to 16 universities located in 10 countries, under Pete’s leadership.Prior to Ilumno Pete was Chairman and CEO of the eLandia Group, a publicly listed company, where he raised $100 million of capital to support the organization's global expansion plan. Under Pete’s leadership eLandia completed 7 M&A transactions and their corresponding integration into one of eLandia’s 3 business units. eLandia operated in 11 countries throughout Latin America and four countries in the South Pacific.Prior to eLandia, Pete served as President and CEO of Telefónica USA, where he was responsible for its three strategic business units; Technology and Data services for North American multinationals, the Puerto Rico Enterprise and Residential Long Distance Markets and Telefonica’s USA Data Center operations.In 2014 Pete was honored with the Shafner Award, the highest recognition a Northwestern University Kellogg graduate can receive, and in 2004, he was inducted into the Miami-Dade Community College Hall of Fame. In 2017, E&Y recognized Pete as Entrepreneur of the Year for his innovations in the EdTech area.