Lorenzo Mendoza

Lorenzo Alejandro Mendoza Giménez (born 1965 in Caracas ) is a Venezuelan entrepreneur in the food industry. He is the chairman ( presidente ejecutivo ) the undertaking Grupo Polar, which is largely owned by his family. Forbes magazine valued the assets of Mendoza and his family in 2009 to 2.0 billion U.S. dollars.

Background and Career

Lorenzo Mendoza is the descendant of a family of entrepreneurs. His grandfather and his father of the same name played a decisive role in the development of the polar group. His grandfather Lorenzo Alejandro Mendoza Fleury had changed in the 1930s, the family of soap on beer production and the Polar brand established in Venezuela ( a pilsner ). Mendoza's father, Lorenzo Alejandro Mendoza Quintero, psychologist and psychiatrist, took over in 1969 the company's management, after his older brother, who had headed the company, died and his father had retired for reasons of age. He headed the group until 1987, when he died at the age of 55 years. His son and designated successor Lorenzo studied at this time industrial engineering at Fordham University in New York. Therefore, first took over his mother Leonor corporate management, while Lorenzo completed his studies, practical experience gained in the financial sector and his MBA in 1992 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology acquired.

Entrepreneurial activity

After the completion of the MBA studies Mendoza returned to Caracas and took over the chairmanship of the Grupo Polar. Under his leadership, the group grew into new industries outside the food sector, particularly in the banking sector and the petrochemical industry, a. In 1996, the polar group of the Cisneros Group of Companies, the Pepsi- license for Venezuela after he had opted for Coca -Cola. The corporate group today includes about 40 companies with more than 17,000 employees who produce a beer, ice cream, pasta, rice, corn oil and corn flour, wine, soft drinks, plastic bottles and beer cans. The brewery branch in Venezuela has over 50 % market share, was in 2001 as the 14th - largest company of its kind in the world. Despite some investments in neighboring countries of the activity focus of Grupo Polar is well in Venezuela.

Unlike other Venezuelan entrepreneurs like Gustavo Cisneros he had long not openly expressed against the policies of President Hugo Chávez. Once a company site of Grupo Polar in the state of Barinas, whose governor is Chavez's father, Hugo de los Reyes Chávez, was confiscated because of " sub- use of the land " in September 2005, Mendoza spoke against the policy measure and appealed to the Supreme Court. On the site of a marketing department as well as by the government were as vacant classified corn silos. Background was an industrial policy scheme Chávez 'in which " under -producing " seized companies and are the " Venezuelan people " passed for production. In November 2005, the Supreme Court accepted the appeal of the Grupo Polar, and decreed to suspend the expropriation activities until further notice.

Private life

Mendoza lives in Caracas, is married and has six children. His family has since 1977 one of the largest charitable foundations in the country, the Fundación Polar.