Barney Santos

CEO and Founder, Gentefy

Los Angeles

Barney Santos is a serial entrepreneur who has spent the past 16 years building and managing new business ventures in the for-profit, non-profit, academic, and corporate sectors. As the CEO and Founder of Gentefy, Barney is currently building a business that invest in new products and services which address the needs within Latino communities. His most current investment is BLVD MRKT, an artisan food hall in Downtown Montebello that will incubate new restaurant startups, help revitalize the Downtown Corridor while igniting local economic development, and foster community engagement.

Previously Barney was the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at California State University Los Angeles as well as the Head of Exploratory New Business Models at Unilever. At Unilever he was in charge with not only designing and experimenting with new innovative business models for North America, but was also instrumental in helping develop the company’s global business model innovation process. In addition to his role, Barney also worked in collaboration with Unilever’s global technology startup division, Unilever Foundry.