Santiago Peralta, founder and CEO of the Ecuadorian chocolate company Paccari, visited Francisco Marroquín University to participate in Business Day 2025. The event was organized by the Faculty of Economic Sciences to support the Impulso al Talento Académico scholarship program.
“This company was founded by my wife and me, with the intention of doing things right and reflecting on what we would do so as not to regret it when we are old. This is our only life, kids, and it is absolutely essential,” said Peralta at the start of his talk during Business Day, held on October 9, 2025.
In his presentation titled “Creating Value from Tree to Bar,” Peralta described how cacao can become a driver for sustainable development and added value in Latin America. He explained that Paccari’s success comes from a vision combining innovation, ethics, and ancestral knowledge through direct work with farming communities. His approach aims to transform a primary product into a source of identity and collective prosperity by focusing on quality, environmental sustainability, and fair trade.
Other speakers at Business Day included José Raúl González from Progreso; Ruby Maldonado from Herramientas para Crecer; David Meltzer from Napoleon Hill Institute; and Alejandro Yáñez from Mastercard Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean Services Division. Mónica de Zelaya, dean of the Faculty of Economic Sciences, and Carolina Uribe, director of Business Administration at FCE, also participated.
During his visit to Francisco Marroquín University (UFM), Peralta toured several facilities including the private money exhibition; the Trading Pit at the Business School; the Vernon L. Smith Center for Experimental Economics; the José Cecilio del Valle special collections room in Ludwig von Mises Library; and the Popol Vuh Museum. Luis Figueroa, UFM’s director of public relations, accompanied him.
Peralta is also a founder of the Biodynamic Association. He is a member of The Family Business Network as well as Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness in Latin America (ECLA) at Columbia Business School.
With his visit, Santiago Peralta encouraged UFM students to pursue entrepreneurship with purpose by integrating innovation, sustainability, and ethics into projects that help build a society based on freedom and responsibility.
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