Antonio Mugica

Antonio Mugica is the founder and CEO of Smartmatic, a Venezuelan electronic voting company. He also previously served as the Director of Anoto Group AB and Director of Panagroup Corporation.^[1]

Early life

Antonio Mugica was born in 1974. He graduated from Universidad Simón Bolívar where he earned an electrical engineering degree.^[1]

Career

In the late 1990s, Mugica along with two other Venezuelans, Alfredo José Anzola and Roger Pinate, created a system where thousands of inputs could be placed into a network simultaneously. Early trials of this system were used on ATMs in Mexico, though after the 2000 United States presidential election, the Venezuelans proposed to dedicate the system toward electoral functions.^[2]

Smartmatic

Smartmatic formed out of the SBC organization that was owned 51% by Smartmatic, 47% Venezuelan state telecommunications organization CANTV and 2% by a Bolivarian Government of Venezuela affiliated company, Bizta, which was also owned by the owners of Smartmatic, with Biota also having a Bolivarian government board member. Following a 2004 contract worth $128 million with the Bolivarian government to have its products serve as the automated voting system for the 2004 Venezuelan recall referendum, Smartmatic grew into a multinational company.^[2]

Smartmatic election technology has been used in local and national elections in Venezuela, the United States, Belgium, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, the United Kingdom, Mexico and the Philippines.

Personal life

Mugica has also dedicated time toward music and writing. In 2010, he wrote Húkiti-Túkiti-Tá, a Spanish language children's book.^[3]

Awards and recognition

• 2011 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards Gold Medal in Spanish Category for Húkiti-Túkiti-Tá.^[3]

Works

• Mugica, Antonio (2010). Húkiti-Túkiti-Tá. Multiple Personality Entertainment. ISBN 9962552400.  |access-date= requires |url= (help)

References