This is the story of a formidable and self-made entrepreneur born in Bolivia to a family of holocaust survivors from Poland whose name is Germán Efromovich. From modest beginnings having been raised in Arica, Chile and later in São Paulo, Brazil, Germán Efromovich began his business career as an aircraft inspector and salesman of encyclopedias after graduating as a mechanical engineer from Centro Universitario da FEI in Brazil. He then spent time dubbing Mexican soap operas from Spanish to Portuguese. Subsequently, teaching at his own school in São Paulo known as São Bernardo do Campo, one of his students was labor union leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva himself who later became one of the most popular presidents in Brazilian history.
Moreover, after being a successful oil-field services operator for oil giant Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., better known by its acronym as Petrobras, in charge of handling marine oil drilling floating and semi-submersible platforms off the shores of Brazil in the Atlantic Ocean, his breakthrough in business came when the late Colombian billionaire Julio Mario Santo Domingo decided to rid himself of Avianca S.A. in 2004 after sustaining heavy losses for several consecutive years. Germán Efromovich, who first became acquainted with the aviation business when one of his subcontractors who owed him money settled his indebtedness with planes, came to the rescue of Avianca paying $ 63 million in cash and assuming $ 220 million of liabilities for a crippled operation in the red while under bankruptcy proceedings. Today, after merging with the Grupo TACA Holdings Limited belonging to Roberto Kriete of El Salvador, the renamed group known as Avianca Holdings S.A. is a massive and growing entity with consolidated sales expected to surpass $ 5 billion this year. Accordingly, the company owns in its portfolio 2 cargo airlines, 1 mixed cargo and passenger airline in Ecuador, 3 aircraft maintenance operators in Brazil and Colombia, one helicopter taxi service, voting and economic control of the Mexican low-cost air passenger carrier known as Volaris S.A.B. de C.V. and full ownership of 11 passenger airlines dispersed throughout Latin America containing around 160 aircraft with 21,000 employees including the flag carrier of Colombia and second oldest airline in the world known as “Avianca”. Altogether, his holding group known as Synergy S.A. gathers under its umbrella besides the portfolio of airlines and the Brazilian oil-field services operation, hotel developments in Colombia, an engineering contractor specializing in power plants, a medical supplies business, two shipyards including the growing EISA Shipping Agency in Brazil and a defense contractor known as EAE Aerospace Solutions in Brazil as well. In addition, due to his involvement in oil exploration in Colombia through personal investment in blocks located in the Rubiales field, which is part of the Llanos Basin where a sizable share of oil production in Colombia takes place including massive output from Ecopetrol S.A. itself, he inherited a 9% shareholding in Toronto-based Pacific Rubiales Energy Corporation which happens to be the fastest growing independent oil and gas production company in the world. Currently, Pacific Rubiales produces more than 100,000 barrels a day from oil fields in Colombia, Peru and Guatemala while containing approximately 300 million barrels of proven reserves of oil-equivalent. Likewise, the oil production company generates over $ 400 million of strong profits from more than $ 4 billion a year in sales nowadays and with a market value presently close to $ 7 billion.
To conclude, I think Germán Efromovich is an entrepreneur that is moving up fast in Latin America and someone to be reckoned with now. In fact, I’m sure he’s already on the radar screen of Steve Forbes himself and accordingly, his business acumen will place him among the top of business leaders in Latin America. A true self-made Jewish Brazilian-Colombian-Polish with vision who made it happened in Latin America and entirely from scratch.