ADRIANA RIVAS WINS GOLD STEVIE® AWARD FOR THOUGHT LEADER OF THE YEAR IN THE 24TH ANNUAL AMERICAN BUSINESS AWARDS®

Recognized for building rare practitioner-led thought leadership combining operational credibility and public influence across the U.S. and Latin America.

MIAMI, FL, UNITED STATES, April 23, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Adriana Rivas has been named Gold Stevie^® Award winner in the Thought Leader of the Year — Business Products category at the 24th Annual American Business Awards^® (ABA), the premier business awards program in the United States.

More than 3,600 nominations were evaluated by over 250 professionals worldwide. Rivas was the only Gold winner in the Business Products thought leadership category. The recognition honors her award-winning book How to Implement Self-Service Without Failing (Amazon #1 Hot New Release, Silver Nonfiction Book Award 2025), and her platform at adrianarivas.tech, which has become a practical reference for retail operators navigating digital transformation across the U.S. and Latin America.

“This recognition belongs to the retailers and operators who used these guides to make better decisions and to every professional who believed that technical knowledge, shared openly, is its own form of leadership,” said Rivas. “My mission is to keep translating technical complexity into tangible human value.”

What the Judges Said

Members of the 2026 judging panel, 250+ professionals worldwide, provided the following assessments:

“Top-quartile nomination with unusually strong evidence and differentiation. Adriana Rivas combines live operational impact with an award-winning field manual and global credibility signals, putting her clearly above typical single-channel or purely theoretical thought leaders.”

“This is standout, practitioner-led thought leadership with real credibility. Adriana combines hands-on execution, award-winning publishing, and community impact in a way that’s rare and genuinely valuable to the industry.”

“Adriana is a practitioner-educator, not a disruptive thinker, but that probably makes her influence real. What sets her apart is her bilingual, cross-cultural leverage serving both U.S. and Latin American markets with genuinely different insights for each.”

“Very strong nomination with broad industry recognition, thought leadership, and well-documented achievements across multiple areas. Adriana shows clear expertise through publishing, awards, and public industry influence.”

A Different Kind of Thought Leadership

While most industry voices focus on abstract predictions, Rivas has built her platform from the inside, from field deployments, not theory. Three pillars define her work:

Practical Education. Her book became a primary reference for decision-makers seeking to avoid failure in self-service adoption, debuting as Amazon #1 Hot New Release and earning the Silver Nonfiction Book Award 2025.

Cross-Border Influence. Her bilingual platform bridges the information gap between the U.S. and Latin America on retail technology implementation, delivering field-tested guidance to operators across four countries.

Community Leadership. As a WomenTech Network Global Ambassador and Circle Leader, she leads innovation circles that advocate for inclusive and diverse retail technology adoption.

The Gold Stevie Award winners will be celebrated at a gala ceremony at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York on June 9, 2026. The full list of 2026 winners is available at https://aba.stevieawards.com/awards/aba-winners/Thought-Leadership-Category-Winners

About Adriana Rivas

Adriana Rivas is a retail technology executive with 18 years of experience leading large-scale technology implementations across the United States and Latin America. She is the author of How to Implement Self-Service Without Failing (Amazon #1 Hot New Release, Silver Nonfiction Book Award 2025). A WomenTech Network Global Ambassador and Circle Leader, she publishes retail technology insights at adrianarivas.tech and speaks on the intersection of AI, self-service, and store-level infrastructure across the Americas.

About the Stevie Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in nine programs and receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. The American Business Awards^® is the premier business awards program in the United States. Learn more at stevieawards.com.

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