Andrés Moreno is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Open English, the leader in internet-based English language instruction. He is also the Founder of Next University, an online higher education institution that is bringing job-ready skills to the emerging middle class in Latin America. Next University was acquired by Open English in December of 2015.
Growing up in eight countries spanning three continents, Moreno managed to learn four languages on his own. He began his entrepreneurial career in his native Venezuela, co-founding Optimal English, a company that provided English-language training to Latin American executives at Fortune 500 companies, such as Procter and Gamble, Sun Microsystems, and Cargill.
In 2005, Moreno teamed up with his classmate and friend Wilmer Sarmiento in Caracas to design a different type of online English experience. They rejected the traditional brick and mortar model and decided to create a system that would allow students to learn English online, with native English-speaking teachers from their home or workplace 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Currently, Open English has enrolled nearly 500,000 students and raised over USD $120 million in venture capital to drive the company’s expansion throughout the globe. Moreno has also become the face of his own brand for appearing in the company’s television commercials, which have aired extensively since 2009 in over 20 markets.
Moreno is a multifaceted entrepreneur involved in a myriad of projects of regional impact. In 2013, he became a founding board member of Endeavor Miami, a leading promoter of entrepreneurship present in more than 16 countries. Moreno travels frequently to Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries to hold his popular Exito! conferences on success and entrepreneurship.
The explosive growth of Open English and Next University have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNN, El Mercurio, Globo, El Tiempo, O Estado de São Paulo, The Miami Herald and other top media outlets across the Americas.