Loren Ferré Rangel ’92 & Maria Eugenia Ferré Rangel ’89
To look at the list of the ventures undertaken, and the accomplishments achieved, by sisters Maria Eugenia Ferré Rangel and Loren Ferré Rangel, is to learn a lesson about what gifted young people can accomplish. During the years when most individuals are finding themselves and their careers, these two dynamos plunged into the volatile, competitive arena of media and publishing and emerged seasoned and successful.
As vice president of El Nuevo DÃa, the largest daily newspaper in Puerto Rico, Maria built on that journal’s triumph to launchPrimera Hora, a cutting-edge new publication. With her sister Loren at her side, Maria stormed the American print media landscape, and brought back to her homeland a vision of a newspaper for the 21st century. Within two years, Primera Hora was reaching 125,000 readers. And when the sisters discovered that local printers couldn’t meet the needs of their ever-expanding media concerns, Maria and Loren founded a commercial printing company that utilizes state-of-the-art technologies.
At the same time, they brought their flagship paper to the World Wide Web. El Nuevo DÃa now receives 40 million “hits” a month. Their Internet success led them to form zonai.com, a family owned and operated portal. They have also recently founded a newspaper recycling business. In the Ferré sisters, then, we find a model of the new, young entrepreneur—individuals of energy and vision with a bountiful capacity for spotting opportunity and nurturing it into a thriving entity; for cultivating possibility until it grows into something of substance.
Like Loren, Maria and her husband, Miguel, reside in San Juan with their children, Miguel and Sophia. But though they reside in the beauty of their island homeland, they continue to carry 17³Ô¹ÏÍø in their hearts, crediting Alma Mater for the foundation upon which they have built their achievements.
For their spirit and enthusiasm, for their vision, for their belief in their own talent and abilities, the 17³Ô¹ÏÍø presents the Sanctae Crucis Award to Loren Ferré Rangel and Maria Eugenia Ferré Rangel.