Keynote Speaker: Xavier Lopez Ancona

Xavier Lopez Ancona was born in Mexico City on April 4th, 1964. He studied a Management Bachelor's Degree at Anahuac University in Mexico City (1988). After obtaining his Management degree, he started his Master's studies at the IPADE in Mexico City (1989) and obtained an MBA from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management of the Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois (1992). 
 

Xavier Lopez Ancona worked for four years as a company consultant in Booz Allen & Hamilton's office in Mexico City. His experience in this consulting company included business strategies, new market development, cost reduction and distribution channels among diverse industries such as consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, oil, and manufacture. After leaving BAH, Xavier Lopez Ancona was designated Vice President of Equity for two years in GE Capital Mexico. 

Given his entrepreneurial personality and interested in being part of the entertainment industry in Mexico, he founded KidZania in 1997, the company with which he would later develop the successful family edutainment concept, joining learning with entertainment through role-play. KidZania was founded with a very strong sense of community, with the idea to build safe venues where kids could get close to values and qualities such as creativity, independence, responsibility, and solidarity. The first KidZania city opened in September 1999 in Mexico City's Centro Santa Fe shopping center. As of today, there are more than 27 KidZania facilities around the world –2 in Mexico City, 1 in Monterrey and 1 in Guadalajara; Tokyo and Koshien in Japan; Jakarta and Surabaya in Indonesia; Lisbon, Portugal; Dubai and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Seoul and Busan, South Korea; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Santiago, Chile; Kuwait City, Kuwait; Mumbai and New Delhi, India; Cairo, Egypt; Istanbul, Turkey; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Moscow, Russia; Doha, Qatar; and Dallas, United States –, plus 4 more in different development stages in cities.