Aquiles Este (born c. 1962 in

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

) is an American

semiotician Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes (semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves Sign (semiotics), signs, where a sign is defined as anything that commun ...

and professor at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

's School of Business. His research focuses on content management and social media.

Early life and education

Este was born in

. He completed studies in journalism at the

Universidad Central de Venezuela The Central University of Venezuela (Spanish: ''Universidad Central de Venezuela''; UCV) is a public university of Venezuela located in Caracas. It is widely held to be the highest ranking institution in the country, and it also ranks 18th in L ...

. He then enrolled at the

Universidade de São Paulo The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and "Olympiad". The Universiade is referred t ...

and Universidade Católica de São Paulo, where he graduated

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

with a doctorate degree in semiotics and communication science.

Career

Este was creative vice president for Lowe & Partners, an international advertising agency, precursor of

MullenLowe U.S. MullenLowe U.S. is a Boston, Massachusetts-based advertising and marketing communications agency, a part of MullenLowe Group owned by multinational advertising network Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG). It has regional offices in Los Angeles, N ...

He also worked as a dean at ProDiseño, a design school in Caracas and taught at the

Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración The Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (''Institute of Advanced Studies in Administration'', IESA) is a private non-profit Venezuelan business school with campuses in Caracas, Maracaibo and Valencia, Carabobo, Valencia. It was found ...

(IESA), a business school in Venezuela. He has also worked on

computational linguistics Computational linguistics is an Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary field concerned with the computational modelling of natural language, as well as the study of appropriate computational approaches to linguistic questions. In general, comput ...

with

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

linguist Ray C. Dougherty. There, he conducted a research project as a visiting scholar at NYU's Department of Media, Culture, and Communication called "interrelation of

Charles S. Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". Educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for t ...

's concept of sign replication and

Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory. He studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge. He began his ...

's media theories." The project was carried out under the guidance of rhetorician

Neil Postman Neil Postman (March 8, 1931 – October 5, 2003) was an American author, educator, media theorist and cultural critic, who eschewed digital technology, including personal computers, mobile devices, and cruise control in cars, and was critical of ...

. In 2016, Este coined the term polimercial brands, referring to commercial products and services that need to position themselves on social and political issues, anticipating that in the near future, all commercial brands will be polimercial.

University of Miami School of Business

In 2009, he emigrated to the United States as a skilled immigrant. In the U.S., he later took up a professorship at the University of Miami School of Business. Este is also a political consultant, having led political campaigns at the state, legislative and presidential levels in the Americas. Este is also a contributor to newspapers such as ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''.

Personal life

Este currently lives in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

.Miami Herald
/ref> He is also a classical guitar player who studied under

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

an maestro

Abel Carlevaro Abel Carlevaro (16 December 1916 – 17 July 2001) was a classical guitar composer and teacher born in Montevideo, Uruguay. He established a new school of instrumental technique, incorporating a fresh approach to seating and playing the guitar, ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian composer Cristina Azuma.

Publications

Bibliography of publications: * 1987. ''Ideas for an Epistemology of Communication''. Universidad Central de Venezuela Press, Caracas, Venezuela. * 1996. ''Replicant Culture: The New Semiocentric Order Gedisa''. Barcelona, Spain. * 1997. ''Graphic Design in Venezuela: An Anthology''. Centro La Estancia, Caracas, Venezuela. * 2003. ''Einstein: The King of the Absent-minded''. Cyls Editores, Barcelona, Spain. * November 2001. "The Revenge of the Nerds." ''Counterblast Journal of Culture and Communication''. New York: Peirce, McLuhan and Company. * December 2005. ''TV, our daily bread: Post-TV and hypermedia''. Alfa Eds, Caracas, Venezuela. * November 2008. ''Dilemmas of the Present''. Mondadori Eds, Bogota, Colombia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Este, Aquiles 1962 births Living people Venezuelan emigrants to the United States Venezuelan semioticians