Across the planet, the licensed editions of Forbes magazine span five continents, 25 languages and 13 time zones. They all share the same mission: celebrating entrepreneurial capitalism in all its forms. Here’s a global perspective on the business landscape in real time.
ANGOLA
A 25-year veteran of the insurance industry, Fátima Monteiro has led the Seguros arm of Banco BIC since the Luanda-based bank introduced services including health care, auto insurance and more in 2014.
ARGENTINA
Since he took over his grandfather’s residential construction company, CRIBA, during the past ten years, 47-year-old Santiago Tarasido has boosted revenue with a variety of diverse projects including a Christian temple in Salta and a public school in Buenos Aires.
BOLIVIA
Forbes Bolivia calls Jean Pierre Antelo, 36 (right), and Demetrio Soruco, 50, the “new blood in business leadership.” The two are president of the non-governmental Institute of Foreign Trade and Santa Cruz’s Federation of Private Entrepreneurs, respectively.
BRAZIL
As Covid-19 forces a shopping rethink, some malls are bringing in urban-farming outfit BeGreen to set up farms in parking areas and offer tours to shoppers. CEO Giuliano Bittencourt calls it a “sustainable amusement park.”
BULGARIA
Sevdalin Spasov runs an estimated $28 million (revenue) business consisting of Mania, a chain of about 40 secondhand clothing stores, and GreenTeam, which collects clothes via 1,600 donation bins across North America to resell in Africa and Latin America.
CHINA
Sales reached $8 billion last year at China’s leading producer of solar panels, Xian-based LONGi Green Energy Technology, making billionaires of president Li Zhenguo (pictured) and shareholder Li Chunan.
COLOMBIA
Forbes Colombia’s list of the country’s most promising entrepreneurs in 2021 includes the founders of Vaki, a startup-focused crowdfunding platform, and Tül, an app that connects hardware stores to construction sites to deliver supplies within 24 hours.
COSTA RICA
Veganism “is not fashion, it is the future,” says Óscar Toribio, whose Costa Rican clothing and accessories line, Toribio & Donato, makes use of bamboo and cactus and appeared virtually at New York Fashion Week in 2020.
CYPRUS
Medochemie is funding a $2.4 million, 322,000-square-foot park in the coastal city Limassol that will carry the name of the generic pharmaceutical’s founder and CEO, Dr. Andreas Pittas.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Forbes Czech, ranking the country’s 160 largest family companies, spotlights the Wałach brothers, who cashed out of Walmark vitamins and medicines six years ago. They now back other entrepreneurs via their multimillion-dollar family investment group.
FRANCE
The 7-foot-1 Saint-Quentin native Rudy Gobert, 28, signed a five-year, $205 million contract extension with the Utah Jazz in December. The deal is the biggest for a center in NBA history and makes him France’s highest-paid athlete ever.
GEORGIA
The 186-room Lopota Lake Resort and winery has put the country on the world map since it opened in 2008, writes Forbes Georgia editor Giorgi Isakadze in a tribute to the hotel’s founder, Goga Maisuradze.
GERMANY
Valerie Bures-Bönström, cofounder of Germany’s Mrs.Sporty gym chain, is now riding the at-home fitness wave with interactive mirror VAHA, attracting capital from the VC arm of carmaker Porsche.
GREECE
“Greece 2.0,” the country’s post-pandemic economic recovery plan (pending European Commission approval), hopes to attract $30 billion in private investments—from sustainability to digital innovations—by 2026.
HUNGARY
After an isolating year, Forbes Hungary offers a 30-page “get better” supplement. Among the stories: one detailing signs of burnout and another about the Japanese practice of “forest bathing”—a long walk to cleanse the mind.
INDIA
New York’s Tiger Global, a backer of Bangalore’s $25 billion e-tailer Flipkart, made its first Indian crypto investment in April: $25 million in BitCipher Labs, parent of the CoinSwitch Kuber exchange. Ashish Singhal is cofounder and CEO.
INDONESIA
A veteran broadcast journalist in Jakarta, Najwa Shihab makes Forbes Indonesia’s annual list of Inspiring Women for starting Narasi.tv, funded by YouTube and two venture firms and focused on current affairs and fighting corruption.
ISRAEL
A proposed railroad between the Persian Gulf and Israel presents an alternative Asia-Europe shipping route, after the recent Suez Canal blockage halted supply chains already riddled by pandemic delays and political disputes.
ITALY
The great-great-grandson of Fiat founder Giovanni Agnelli, John Elkann is chairman and CEO of Exor, which owns stakes in Stellantis, Ferrari and soccer team Juventus. “Happiness is solving problems,” says the new billionaire, who is planning to launch the first all-electric Ferrari by 2025.
JAPAN
In a list of leaders spearheading “positive change,” Forbes Japan features Hidenobu Nakahata, chief human-resources officer at multinational Hitachi, who says personnel metrics such as diversity are becoming a key factor in business success.
KAZAKHSTAN
Led by Kunsulu Zakarya, the Institute for Biological Safety Problems, which opened in 1958 to research and manage animal and plant viruses, developed and shipped 50,000 doses of the first Kazakh-made Covid vaccine in April.
LATVIA
Early this year, Latvian cosmetics maker H.A.Brieger acquired and resurrected insolvent skincare brand Dzintars and, in the first month, sold nearly $500,000 worth of soaps, lip balms and hand creams.
LEBANON
Universal Music has tasked Wassim “Sal” Slaiby with elevating Arab entertainers globally. Early projects from the Lebanon native, who manages The Weeknd, include remixing a teenage TikTok star’s viral single.
MEXICO
Garnering an Oscar for Sound of Metal, Mexican audio engineer Michelle Couttolenc credited Lora Hirschberg’s 2011 win for Inception for opening doors to women working in film sound mixing and editing.
MONGOLIA
To expose the mineral-rich country’s tech talent, three Mongolian cofounders, including CEO MJ Amartaivan, started a marketing software company, Erxes, in California in 2017. They have raised $1 million online since November.
POLAND
Krzysztof Napora started making dog chews south of Kraków using a butcher shop’s scraps of cold cuts. In 2020, his company, Petmex, generated some $6 million in revenue across 17 countries.
PORTUGAL
Diogo Mónica, a 34-year-old Portuguese computer scientist who earned a Ph.D. in Lisbon, cofounded a crypto bank in San Francisco in 2017; this year it became the first federally chartered digital-asset custodian.
ROMANIA
The nation’s fourth-most populous city and home to several universities, Cluj-Napoca, which approved plans to construct a subway in March, ranks No. 2 for business, behind Bucharest.
RUSSIA
Alexey Mordashov, who graced the first Forbes Russia cover in 2004 as he acquired global steel producers, now has a diverse portfolio worth $29 billion.
SLOVAKIA
About 100 local governments, including Menlo Park, California, send alerts and polls via the Simplicity app from Forbes Slovakia 30 Under 30 honorees Andrej Krúpa (right) and Juraj Gago.
SOUTH AFRICA
For Forbes Africa’s 100th issue, its Johannesburg-based staff scoured the continent for 100 exemplars of innovation and growth. The list features, among others, human-rights activist Desmond Tutu and Lifebank, a Nigerian service that delivers blood and oxygen on demand.
SOUTH KOREA
BTS tops Forbes Korea’s annual Power Celebrity ranking for the third time. The K-pop band’s agency, HYBE, paid $1.05 billion in April to acquire Ithaca Holdings, the American group that represents Justin Bieber.
SPAIN
With a Sony contract and his third album recently debuting at No. 8 on the Latin pop charts, Madrid rapper C. Tangana, 30, intends to make rap music mainstream in Spain.
THAILAND
Sales of Bangkok IT-equipment company SVOA, run by CEO Kulapa Intanate, rebounded to $216 million in 2020 after two years of decline. The business launched an SaaS cybersecurity subsidiary in January.
UKRAINE
Forbes Ukraine details the scandal involving insider loans and money laundering that led to central-bank head Valeriya Gontareva (left) handing over Privatbank to the government in late 2016.
VIETNAM
Named one of Forbes Vietnam’s Most Inspiring Women, Tran Thi Le (center) leads Nutifood, a top dairy producer addressing child and infant malnutrition.
