Álvaro Saieh

Álvaro Saieh Bendeck (born September 14, 1949) is a Chilean academic, economist, and businessman. He is the chairman of CorpGroup, one of Chile's largest conglomerates.

Married to Ana Guzmán Ahnfelt, they have five children: Jorge Andrés, María Soledad, Francisca, Catalina y Consuelo.

As of 2016, Forbes listed him as the 810th wealthiest person in the world, and 7th in Chile.

September 14, 1949 (age 67) Villanueva, Colombia

Álvaro Saieh was born on September 14, 1949, in Villanueva (La Guajira), Colombia. Of Arabic ancestry, his parents are Chilean José Saieh and Colombian Elena Bendeck.

At the age of three his family moved to Talca, Chile, where they started Casa Saieh, a family business that offered from electrical appliances to clothing. In this city, he started his education, finishing high school at Liceo Abate Molina. At 17 years old he moved to Santiago to pursue a degree in commercial engineering at Universidad de Chile, from which he graduated in 1972. In 1973 he started a postgraduate degree in Economics at the same university. Later, he attended The University of Chicago, were he pursued a master´s degree in arts (1976) and a PhD in economics.

His first years as a professional he worked in the public sector, being an economic adviser for the Ministerio de Vivienda y Urbanismo and the Ministerio de Obras Públicas. He was also an economic adviser for the Banco Central de Chile and delegate of the Superintendencia de Bancos at Banco Continental.

In the 1980s Álvaro Saieh started his business activity, acquiring -along with other investors of Arabic roots, including Carlos Abuhomor- the Banco Osorno y la Unión. During the 1990s he also acquired AFP Provida, currently one of the leading pension fund managers in Chile; then, during the same decade, he sold both companies to international groups.

These first operations were followed by the acquisition, in 1995, of the Banco Concepción, a bank that presented a negative equity and an important subordinated debt to the State. In less than 10 years Saieh would transform it into Chile's fourth largest private bank, now known as Corpbanca.

This institution gradually grew up, entering the global market with operations in several countries of Latin America, such as Peru, Argentina and Colombia, and opening offices in Madrid and New York City. Within this process of growth, in 2011 CorpBanca made the largest investment of a Chilean company abroad, acquiring Banco Santander Colombia in an operation close to US $1.2 billion. Later, Saieh acquired Helm Bank, transforming CorpBanca Colombia into the fifth private bank of the country.

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