Horst Paulmann Kemna (born 22 March 1935) is a German-Chilean

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The ...

entrepreneur. He is founder and chairman of

Cencosud Cencosud S.A. is a publicly traded multinational retail company. It's the largest retail company in Chile and the third largest listed retail company in Latin America, competing with the Brazilian Companhia Brasileira de Distribuição and the Me ...

, the largest retail chain in Chile and the third largest in Latin America. According to ''

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'', as of July 2022 his net worth is estimated at US$2.3 billion.

Early life

In 1946, Horst Paulmann and his family, consisting of his parents and seven siblings, emigrated from Germany after the end of World War II. They crossed the Alps towards Italy, continued on to Argentina in 1948, and finally to Chile in 1950. At the age of 13, Paulmann worked as a telephone operator in

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and later worked making wooden toys. His family settled in the city of

Temuco Temuco () is a city and commune, capital of the Cautín Province and of the Araucanía Region in southern Chile. The city is located south of Santiago. The city grew out from a fort of the same name established in 1881 during Chile's invasion ...

in the south of Chile, and his father got a position as a franchisee at Club Alemán and at Club de La Unión. In 1952, Paulmann's family bought a local restaurant called Las Brisas and they soon transformed it into a supermarket. Since then and after the death of his father, Horst and his brother Jürgen Paulmann built a series of supermarket chains, beginning with the first hypermarket, located on Av. Kennedy. It measured 4,000 square meters and would become the foundation of the holding company

Career

was founded by Horst Paulmann on 10 November 1978 when he assumed the role of CEO and chairman. Cencosud employs more than 150,000 people in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Peru, where it operates its supermarket chains (such as

Jumbo Jumbo (about December 25, 1860 – September 15, 1885), also known as Jumbo the Elephant and Jumbo the Circus Elephant, was a 19th-century male African bush elephant born in Sudan. Jumbo was exported to Jardin des Plantes, a zoo in Paris, and ...

, Santa Isabel, Disco, Vea, Gbarbosa, Prezunic, Bretas, Perini, Wong and ); department stores (such as

París Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Sin ...

and Johnson's); home improvement stores (such as Easy and Blaisten); commercial centers and credit stores (with over 4.3 million credit cards issued). One of his projects is the complex Costanera Center, which includes the tallest tower in South America, measuring 300 meters, a six-story mall, a hotel, and office towers. In 2004, Cencosud began trading its shares on the Santiago Stock Exchange, and on the

NYSE The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed co ...

starting in 2011. The Paulmann family is the main shareholder of

. Manfred, Peter and Heike Paulmann Koepfer have represented Cencosud in its directory and are part of the agreement of the board of directors, which was formed for the succession of the president in the conduct of the company.

Other activities

Paulmann is the president of the Argentina–Chile Permanent Binational Business Board and a member of Argentine Business Association. In the past, he was director of the Chilean–German Chamber of Commerce and the Chilean Chamber of Commerce.

Awards

* Entrepreneur of the Year Diario Financiero (2012) * World Entrepreneur of The Year 2012, by

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Delo ...

(2012) *

Konex Awards Konex Foundation Awards, or simply Konex Awards, are cultural awards from the Konex Foundation honouring Argentine cultural personalities. History and purpose Konex Awards are granted by the Konex Foundation, created in 1980 in Argentina. The pur ...

, Service and Commerce Entrepreneur (2008) * Member of The Year, Chilean–German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (2007) * University Extension Award, Universidad Mayor (2006) * People and Development of Distinction Award granted during the Percade Congress (2006) * Chilean citizenship by grace (2005) * ICARE Award, Entrepreneur of the Year (2005) * ASA Salvador D’Anna Award for best retail entrepreneur of the year - Argentina (2005) * Decoration from Orden de Mayo for his degree of Commander - Argentina (2004) * Diego Portales Award for outstanding entrepreneur (2004)

Personal life

He had three children with Helga Koepfer: Manfred, Peter and Heike.

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paulmann, Horst Living people 1935 births German emigrants to Chile Chilean businesspeople Chilean billionaires People from Santiago Naturalized citizens of Chile