Darla Moore School of Business Graduate, Pedro De Abreu, finalist in the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30

University of South Carolina and Darla Moore School of Business graduate (USC ’14), Pedro De Abreu, 26, was one of the finalists of the 2016 FORBES magazine 30 Under 30.

Every year, Forbes recognizes the year’s brightest young entrepreneurs, breakout talents, and change agents in 20 different sectors for its 30 Under 30.

Pedro De Abreu graduated in 2014 with high honors in economics from the Darla Moore School of Business. He subsequently attended Harvard University for a graduate degree in applied psychology, neuroscience, and practice. At Harvard, he conducted research on the interplay of dispositions and environmental factors in the development of high performing individuals as well as on organizational behavior. Pedro assists with research in future self-perception and affective forecasting at Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology Daniel Gilbert’s laboratory at Harvard University.

Pedro is the founder of 14x Innovation Group, an innovation development practice that specializes in building innovation capabilities in individuals and organizations in business, government, and education by helping individuals leverage the impact of the brain and behavior on individual performance and by providing organizations with a framework for organizational innovation and change. 14x Innovation Group runs intensive workshops, provides consulting sessions, and keynote speeches. Through 14x, Pedro has traveled to countries including Dubai, Oman, Brazil, Kuwait, and the Kingdom of Bahrain to help organizations and individuals innovate.

At 15, Pedro arrived in America from hardships in Brazil without knowing how to speak any English. After attending Chapin High School, at 18 he moved to California with two friends to start a multi-media company. He has since been featured in Young Entrepreneur World: How 25 Teen-Trepreneurs Succeeded and Left World Leaders Scratching Their Heads, by British publisher Marshall Cavendish. He has been appointed South Carolina’s New Century Scholar by the Coca-Cola Foundation and by USA Today, and has won the prestigious Leadership in Education Award at Harvard University.

Pedro is a TEDMED delegate; a Magellan Scholar, Walker Institute Scholar, City of Columbia Fellow, TEDx speaker, Darla Moore Emerging Leader, Pearson Prize National Fellow semi-finalist, and Fulbright Fellowship finalist. Pedro is a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Midlands Council of Governments, and writes monthly columns on science, innovation, and entrepreneurship for Richard Branson’s Virgin magazine. Pedro was the founder of the Check Mate Foundation, a nonprofit organization that taught chess and leadership development to underprivileged children in South Carolina. Pedro hosted the Motivational Minute segment on WLTX News 19, a CBS affiliate station. Prior to attending Harvard, Pedro attended Midlands Technical College and the University of South Carolina. Pedro lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.