WeSalute Awards
TopVet: Arturo R. Moreno, the "Billboard King"
Billboards are Arturo Moreno’s business, and a lucrative endeavor they’ve become. The CEO of Infinity Outdoor, Inc., formerly Outdoor Systems, which he helped William S. Levine establish and nurture through the 1980s, Infinity Outdoor is now one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising firms, with more than 117,000 billboards, posters, and transit displays in nearly 150 metropolitan markets in North America.
In our high-tech media world, low-tech billboards are making a comeback. Revenues are growing in double digits annually -- greater than newspapers, magazines, and broadcast television, although not quite as strong as cable or the Internet.
Mr. Moreno, known as Arte, served in Vietnam. He began his career as a billboard salesman in 1973 and joined up with Bill Levine in 1984, serving as President and Chief Executive Officer of Outdoor Systems. Outdoor Systems went public in 1996 in what has become one of the top IPOs of the late 1990s. And Mr. Moreno, who lives in Phoenix, can now indulge his passion for sports from a new perspective: he owns stakes in both the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball club and the Phoenix Suns basketball team.
Image Credit: http://latinbusinesstoday.com/tendencia/inspirational-latinos/2014/06/billboard-king-hits-home-run