MercadoLibre Inc Chief Executive Officer Marcos Galperin will become executive chairman of the e-commerce and financial technology giant, marking the first change in the top job since he founded Latin America’s most valuable company more than two decades ago.
Ariel Szarfsztejn, who has been an executive at the company since 2017, will become MercadoLibre’s new CEO as of January 1, 2026, according to a company filing Wednesday. The 43-year-old Argentine, who like Galperin received an MBA from Stanford University, is currently the commerce president at the company often known by its stock ticker MELI.
“I’m absolutely convinced that Ariel Szarfsztejn is the best person to lead in the next stage as CEO at MELI,” Galperin posted in an open letter on X. “He has the capacity, leadership, confidence of the team and fundamentally, the necessary culture to guide MELI for many more years.”
MercadoLibre shares rose less than one percent to US$2,601.97 at the close in New York before the company disclosed the management change. The stock has surged 53 percent this year, continuing on gains from last year that helped it surpass Brazil’s Petrobras for the largest market value of any company in the region — now at US$131.9 billion.
In its filing, Montevideo, Uruguay-based MercadoLibre said Galperin, 53, would be taking on a “more strategic role within the company” with the new title.
“MercadoLibre is doing a great job in terms of communication and continuity. Ariel is an in house talent, who knows the business well. He is another Stanford MBA and seems to fit the mold of other key MELI executives,” said Malcolm Dorson, senior portfolio manager at Global X Management.
Galperin, a Buenos Aires native, has become more vocal politically, hosting President Javier Milei at the company’s Argentina headquarters last year, declaring himself a super fan of Elon Musk and routinely criticising leftist leaders in the world as well as media outlets. The company is seeking shareholder approval to change its corporate domicile from Delaware to Texas, where it has some operations.
The boom in shares of MercadoLibre has made Galperin one of the richest people in Latin America, with a net worth of US$11.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
MercadoLibre continues to invest heavily in Latin America, while the company’s fintech platform, Mercado Pago, battles with competitors for a booming market of consumers who keep their money in digital wallets instead of traditional banking systems. It announced plans in April to boost its workforce by 33 percent to 112,000 employees, while it will invest US$5.8 billion this year in Brazil, its largest market.
by Patrick Gillespie & María Clara Cobo, Bloomberg
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