| @jeffpeterson1 | |
| Birthplace | Santa Barbara, CA |
| Birthdate | 10/11/72 |
Jeffrey Peterson is a technology entrepreneur best known as founder of Quepasa.com, launched in 1997 as the first nationally branded Hispanic online community in the USA.
Peterson served as CEO of Quepasa two times; from 1997 to 1999, when Quepasa reached a peak market valuation on Nasdaq of about $500 million (Stock symbol PASA, 1999) and from 2002 thru 2007, when Quepasa again increased in value by $150 million under his leadership, eventually trading on AMEX/NYSE Euronext under stock symbol QPSA. During his time as CEO, Peterson recruited Gloria Estefan as a initial investor, and as the official spokesperson for Quepasa.com. Other early investors in Quepasa included Sony, the Telemundo spanish language television network, and football star John Elway. After being pushed out in a management shake-up in late 1999, Peterson returned to serve as CEO of Quepasa in 2002 and eventually sold a majority interest in the company to Richard Scott, who now serves as Governor of the state of Florida.
Peterson served as a technology advisor to the Government of Mexico and Costa Rica. Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres was on the Board of Directors of Quepasa. Peterson served six years in the administration of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, in the Arizona-Mexico Commission (Office of the Governor).
Jeffrey is a native of Southern California, where he grew up in Santa Barbara. According to published articles, he started programming computers in the late 1970’s at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) computer laboratory.
