Get involved.

The only repeat appearance from our previous list of top young CEOs ["Mighty Young CEOs," April 2000], dot-com survivor Alec Oxen ford has the adventurous style and global vision that characterizes our latest list of young business leaders. Since launching his Internet auction site, Deremate.com, in 1999, he's kept his focus on the region, building a brand in a fast-changing industry.

What did you do differently from other companies when the dot-com bubble burst?

We built a business model that offered value to its customers. Second, financial strategy. Many companies had an improvised strategy and did not know how to save capital for tough times. This was very important because we're in the technology industry, which changes constantly, and in a highly volatile region. There's no greater risk than the technology industry in a region as volatile as Latin America. The rules of the game change constantly and you have to be prepared. Finally, we made sure we had good partners strongly committed to Latin America, and they provided us a lot of stability.

Who is your role model?

[Amazon.com CEO] Jeff Bezos. He founded Amazon very young. Amazon has the best user interface in the world and its brand is the strongest on the Internet. In Latin America and Asia, for example, many people use Amazon yet they haven't spent a penny on advertising in these regions. That's how strong and successful the product is.

What have you learned from eBay, the U.S.version of Deremate?

It's an excellent company, it revolutionized the U.S. market, but its situation outside the United States is very interesting. In Japan, which has a huge online auction market, eBay had to leave the market and a local player took over the whole category. This is a good example of why one has to be humble. What is strong today can be destroyed tomorrow quite easily.

What are the goals of Deremate?

We want to continue to build the brand and improve the product in order to grow with the regional market, in Latin America, the market grows each year and we want to keep growing along with the number of users and teach them how to use the trading platform that we are building so that it becomes the preferred method for buying and selling anything on the Internet.

You created your own company and kept it alive during a crisis in your industry and in your own country before age 35. What's left to do?

Latin America is a region with an enormous future but very big government problems. The majority of Latin American countries have not learned to live democratically, in the real sense of democracy, where the government works for the people. I would like to dedicate myself to strengthening democracy in the region.

Alec Oxenford for president?

[Laughs] No, no, no. Not president as such but yes, in my own way, regionally speaking. My hobby is the foundation I created, Democracia Viva. In the future, I would like to dedicate myself fully to that. The separations between our countries don't make sense.

What advice would you give a young executive?

That they hurry up and get involved because there's a lot to do. A big part of our economy is in the hands of people more than 50 years old and that explains why the region is falling behind.... You have to fight and work hard. When that happens, you'll see how exceptional this continent will come to be.