Luciana Periales
She was a Pac-Man champion in her own living room, playing on a machine her uncle would lend to the family and that eventually drew all the neighborhood kids to her house. She entered the entertainment industry at 16, entertaining children at birthday parties, left to try her luck in other fields, returned in 2003 to take charge of the family company’s restaurants, and in 2013, at 38 and following her uncle’s death, became head of Neverland. In 2026, she chairs IAAPA’s Global Board of Directors, leading the association that has represented the worldwide attractions industry since 1918. She is the fourth woman to hold the position and the first Latin American woman to do so.
The machine in the living room
Her first contact with the business was neither an internship nor a place on an organizational chart. It was a Pac-Man machine installed in her home. Marcelo Periales, her uncle and Neverland’s founder, would lend machines to family members, and that particular one turned her house into a gathering place for neighborhood children. She recalls, laughing, that she was the champion and even set a record.
The detail helps explain her relationship with the industry, which remains that of a user before that of an executive. She admits she does not ride roller coasters—not because she is afraid, but simply because she does not enjoy them—yet she can spend hours watching the people who do. When visiting Neverland locations, she sometimes sits at a café across the way and watches children and their parents. And she has no doubt about the game that never seems to age: Daytona.
Entering through the service door, twice
At 16 or 17, she worked at birthday parties and promotional events. She later moved into marketing and, when she had the chance, went out to build a résumé of her own. She worked in the automotive sector and real estate before spending two years in San Francisco. Eventually, she returned to Argentina and rejoined Neverland.
Her return came in 2003 after a call from her uncle. She came back through the food business, starting with one company restaurant and soon taking responsibility for the entire food and beverage division. From there, she moved into innovation and development.
When Marcelo became ill, she gradually began taking on greater responsibilities. After his death in 2013, she became CEO at the age of 38, with two young children. She does not tell that period as an epic story: the family had to organize itself and move forward.
What she inherited from her uncle goes beyond the company. She describes him as a mentor whose strengths and flaws taught her equally, someone who guided her through the industry and passed on a passion that remains her fuel. There is also a striking symmetry: Marcelo played a leading role in IAAPA in Latin America; she eventually went on to chair the global organization.
Three blows and one constant
When asked to identify the difficult moments, she points to three. The first was the death of Neverland’s founder, a crisis in itself for a family company built so closely around one individual.
The second has an exact date: February 2015, when severe flooding struck Río Ceballos. Neverland’s headquarters and warehouse were devastated. The company managed to keep its entertainment centers operating while rebuilding the infrastructure behind them, a process that took more than two years to complete fully.
The third was the pandemic, which in her industry meant not only salaries to pay but fixed costs continuing to accumulate behind closed doors. She highlights the response of the shopping-center industry as an example of collective work.
And she adds a fourth element that she does not classify as a crisis but as a permanent learning process: artificial intelligence. Her conclusion is that major shocks force people to reinvent themselves and reveal what really matters. She says crises do not make her suffer; they give her adrenaline.
A data business disguised as play
Neverland had 18 entertainment centers when Periales took over and had reached 27 when IAAPA interviewed her in 2025. By June 2026, the company reported a network of 30 parks in Argentina and Spain.
Shopping centers remain central to the model. Periales argues that many Argentine families see malls as safe leisure environments, making them a natural setting for Neverland. The company has also diversified into concepts such as Sport & Play and G-Bunker, aimed at sports-oriented entertainment, e-sports, gaming, and streaming.
Behind the playful exterior is an operation driven heavily by information. The company constantly surveys its customers because, in practice, it serves three different groups: parents, children, and teenagers arriving on their own. When a game fails to perform as expected, the company starts asking why.
Her approach to fashionable technologies is similarly unsentimental. Virtual reality has a place because customers ask for it, but it is not necessarily what sells the most. She describes herself as a middle adopter—neither an early adopter nor a laggard—and sees the ability to abandon formulas that no longer work as one of the industry’s essential skills.
The unpaid presidency
Her path through IAAPA began in 2010, when she joined the Family Entertainment Centers Committee as a volunteer. She later served in strategic planning, governance, and Latin American leadership roles before joining the global board. In September 2023, at a board meeting in Vienna, she was selected for the succession path: second vice chair in 2024, first vice chair in 2025, and chair of the Global Board of Directors in 2026.
The position is unpaid. Periales prefers to turn the usual logic upside down: if she had to pay for the access, learning, and broader perspective it gives her, she says she would.
Founded in 1918, IAAPA now represents more than 9,000 attractions and supplier companies, consultants, and individual members from more than 100 countries. Its membership spans theme and amusement parks, water parks, family entertainment centers, zoos, aquariums, museums, resorts, cruise lines, manufacturers, and suppliers.
International expos remain one of the association’s most visible strengths. Orlando, Europe, and Asia were joined in 2026 by IAAPA Expo Middle East in Abu Dhabi. Education, economic research, safety standards, advocacy, and networking make up the rest of the platform.
Her agenda is organized around three priorities: making the industry stronger through cooperation among operators, suppliers, and regulators; safer through stronger standards; and larger through expansion into emerging markets and deeper connections between regions. Her own shorthand is an industry that becomes “bigger, stronger, and safer.”
What she watches abroad and what she sees in Argentina
Her current references for innovation are in the Middle East. She points to Louvre Abu Dhabi and closely follows the new Disney resort planned for Yas Island. Disney and Miral announced the project in May 2025, although no official opening date has yet been announced.
She has also highlighted Universal’s Epic Universe in Orlando for the quality and depth of its theming and execution.
Her explanation for why projects of that scale happen there rather than in Argentina is political before it is economic. Orlando became Orlando because of a strategic decision to become an attractions destination; the United Arab Emirates is pursuing its own version of that strategy, while Mexico has Xcaret. For Periales, entertainment at that scale is ultimately a country or regional decision.
She is direct about Argentina’s position. The domestic market is small, while Latin America as a whole operates under political instability and changing regulatory frameworks. That volatility, however, has also produced resilient businesses accustomed to constant reinvention.
Asked about Argentina’s broader direction, she moves away from technical policy and toward a question of shared purpose: she believes the country still needs something capable of unifying people around what they have in common.
Beyond Neverland and IAAPA, she participates in Endeavor, AmCham, and Córdoba Acelera, where she serves on the advisory council.
Her sustainability agenda also starts at home. Neverland has been installing solar panels at its Córdoba headquarters while exploring broader sustainable practices across its operations.