Andrónico Luksic Craig
Andrónico Mariano Luksic Craig (born April 16, 1954) is a Chilean businessman and former chairman of Quiñenco S.A., the primary holding company of the Luksic Group, one of Chile's largest and most influential business conglomerates. He is widely recognized as the wealthiest individual in Chile according to Forbes, though the family's wealth is typically attributed collectively to his stepmother Iris Fontbona.
Beyond his business achievements, Luksic Craig is known for completing the Seven Summits mountaineering challenge, reaching the highest peak on each of the seven continents, including Mount Everest in 2004. He received the Gold Medal of the Americas Society in 2011 for his contributions to education—the first Chilean businessman to receive this distinction.
In September 2023, Luksic announced his retirement from all executive and board positions at the Luksic Group companies, marking the end of an era of family leadership.
Early life and family background
Andrónico Mariano Luksic Craig was born on April 16, 1954, in Antofagasta, a mining city in northern Chile. He is the eldest son of Andrónico Luksic Abaroa, the Croatian-Chilean entrepreneur who built the Luksic business empire, and Ena Craig, his father's first wife.
The Luksic family's origins trace back to Croatia (then part of Austria-Hungary). Andrónico's grandfather, Policarpo Luksic Ljubetic, emigrated from the Dalmatian coast to Chile in the early 20th century, joining a significant Croatian immigrant community in northern Chile's mining regions. Andrónico Luksic Abaroa, born in Antofagasta in 1926, would transform the family's modest mining interests into one of Latin America's largest business empires.
Andrónico spent his early childhood alongside his younger brother Guillermo in the mineral deserts of northern Chile, surrounded by the mining operations that formed the foundation of the family's wealth. Tragedy struck the family when Andrónico was just four years old—his mother Ena Craig died during a heart operation, leaving the two young boys without a mother.
Fourteen years after Ena's death, Andrónico's father married Iris Fontbona, who would become the family matriarch and is now recognized as Chile's wealthiest person. Together, Andrónico Luksic Abaroa and Iris Fontbona had three children: María Paola, María Gabriela, and Jean-Paul, who would later lead the family's mining operations.
In 1960, the Luksic family relocated from Antofagasta to Santiago, the nation's capital, as the family's business interests expanded beyond mining into diversified industries.
Education
Luksic Craig attended The Grange School, one of Chile's most prestigious private schools in Santiago, which follows the British educational tradition. At the age of 16, he moved to the United States to continue his education at the Dublin School for Boys in New Hampshire, a college preparatory boarding school.
After graduating from high school, Luksic relocated to Boston to study business. In 1976, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Babson College, a private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, known for its entrepreneurship programs. The American education provided him with international perspective and business knowledge that would prove valuable in managing the family's increasingly global operations.
Business career
Early career and Argentina
By the 1970s, around age 20, Luksic Craig returned from the United States to take charge of the family's business interests. Following his father's relocation to the United Kingdom for strategic reasons related to the Pinochet government, the young Luksic took responsibility for managing the family's operations in Argentina, gaining experience in running complex business operations in a challenging economic environment.
It was during his time in Argentina that Luksic met his future wife, Patricia Lederer Tcherniak, an Argentine national.
Division of family responsibilities
As the Luksic business empire grew, the family divided responsibilities among the three brothers. Andrónico Luksic Craig was assigned oversight of the financial sector of the Luksic Group, including banking and financial services. His brother Guillermo Luksic Craig (1956–2013) handled the industrial operations, while their half-brother Jean-Paul Luksic Fontbona managed the mining industry through Antofagasta plc.
This arrangement allowed each brother to develop deep expertise in their respective sectors while maintaining the family's unified ownership structure.
Chairman of Quiñenco
Following the death of his brother Guillermo in 2013, Luksic Craig assumed the role of Chairman of the Luksic Group and several of its associated companies, including Quiñenco S.A., which manages the family's non-mining investments. Quiñenco's portfolio includes stakes in major Chilean companies across diverse sectors:
- Banco de Chile – One of Chile's largest banks
- Compañía Cervecerías Unidas (CCU) – One of Latin America's largest beverage companies
- Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV) – A major shipping company
- Enex – Energy distribution
- Invexans (formerly Madeco) – Cable manufacturing
During his tenure as chairman, Luksic Craig oversaw the continued expansion and diversification of the Quiñenco portfolio. He also served as Vice Chairman of CSAV and Banco de Chile, and as a member of the board of directors of Madeco/Invexans and SOFOFA (Sociedad de Fomento Fabril), Chile's leading business organization.
Retirement
In September 2023, Luksic announced plans to resign from all executive and board positions at Quiñenco, Banco de Chile, CCU, CSAV, LQIF, and Invexans, effective at the end of 2023. The announcement, filed with Chile's securities regulator, marked the transition of leadership to the next generation of the Luksic family.
In a letter to shareholders, Luksic expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to serve the companies and his confidence in the leadership teams he was leaving behind.
Personal life
Marriage and family
During his time overseeing family operations in Argentina, Andrónico Luksic Craig met Patricia Lederer Tcherniak, an Argentine national of Central European descent. The couple married and had five children together: Andrónico, Davor, Dax, Maximiliano, and Fernanda.
After many years of marriage, Luksic and Lederer divorced in 2016. Despite the separation, the family maintains cordial relations, with Patricia attending family events such as their daughter Fernanda's graduation from Harvard Business School.
Since 2016, Luksic has been in a relationship with Rocío González.
Seven Summits achievement
Perhaps Luksic Craig's most remarkable personal achievement outside of business is his completion of the Seven Summits—reaching the highest peak on each of the seven continents. In May 2004, at the age of 50, Luksic climbed Mount Everest despite having no prior mountaineering experience. This achievement was followed by expeditions to:
- Mount Elbrus (Europe)
- Denali (North America)
- Mount Kilimanjaro (Africa)
- Aconcagua (South America)
- Vinson Massif (Antarctica)
- Carstensz Pyramid (Oceania)
By 2005, Luksic had completed all seven summits, demonstrating remarkable physical determination and mental fortitude for someone who had spent his career in boardrooms rather than on mountain slopes.
Art collection
Luksic Craig is known as an avid art collector, with a significant collection of Chilean and Latin American art that he has assembled over decades.
Social media presence
In an unusual move for a billionaire of his generation, Luksic became active on Twitter (now X) under the handle @aluksicc, sometimes engaging directly with critics and sharing his views on business and Chilean affairs. This presence has occasionally generated controversy.
Philanthropy and education advocacy
Luksic Craig has demonstrated a strong commitment to education, founding organizations that promote early and youth education in Chile. He serves as an advisor and board member for educational institutions and universities in the United States, leveraging his own international educational background to support others.
In 2011, Luksic was awarded the Gold Medal of the Americas Society for his involvement in the education field. He was the first and only Chilean businessman to receive this prestigious distinction, which recognized his philanthropic contributions to educational causes.
Controversies
Caso Caval (2015)
In February 2015, Luksic became embroiled in one of Chile's most significant political scandals during the administration of President Michelle Bachelet. It was revealed that Caval Limitada, a company 50% owned by Bachelet's daughter-in-law Natalia Compagnon, had received a credit of 6.5 billion Chilean pesos (approximately $10 million) from Banco de Chile to purchase land in Machalí that was expected to increase in value following a zoning plan change.
Andrónico Luksic Craig, as vice president of Banco de Chile, was confirmed to have personally met with Compagnon regarding the loan. The scandal created a political crisis for President Bachelet and raised questions about potential influence-peddling and conflicts of interest involving the banking establishment.
In an unusual video statement, Luksic admitted that the meeting that originated the Caval loan was a mistake, and apologized publicly for errors made during what he described as "60 years of business trajectory"—a trajectory that was "not free of legal conflicts." The scandal damaged the reputation of both the Bachelet administration and the Luksic family's financial institutions.
Additionally, CCU, the beverage company in which Luksic held interests, was implicated after a CCU manager testified that at a breakfast meeting with Luksic and Natalia Compagnon, the President's daughter-in-law suggested they could help with permits for a plant.
Twitter parody lawsuit (2011)
In 2011, Luksic filed a criminal complaint for identity theft against a young Chilean man named Rodrigo Ferrari, who had created a Twitter parody account @losluksic to post satirical jokes about Chile's wealthiest family. The prosecution of a private citizen for creating a parody account drew criticism from free speech advocates.
Luksic argued that the parody account's comments "ridiculed him, diminishing his intellectual capacity for his lack of knowledge about using the social network and using vulgar language." Critics viewed the lawsuit as a disproportionate response to harmless satire and an example of wealthy individuals using legal resources to silence criticism.
Lucchetti/Montesinos scandal (2001)
In mid-2001, an investigation was opened in Lima, Peru, for alleged influence peddling by executives of Lucchetti, a Chilean pasta company owned by the Luksic family. A video was made public showing Vladimiro Montesinos, the notorious intelligence advisor to President Alberto Fujimori, meeting with Chilean manager Gonzalo Menéndez in 1998.
The meeting occurred during a period when Lima's municipal government had rejected authorizations for building a Lucchetti factory in the protected Pantanos de Villa wetlands zone. The implication was that the company may have sought to use Montesinos's influence to overcome regulatory obstacles. The scandal damaged the company's reputation and raised questions about the Luksic Group's business practices in Peru.
Visit to Horacio Cartes (2023)
In June 2023, Luksic sparked controversy when he, along with former Chilean Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter and other Quiñenco executives, visited Horacio Cartes, the former President of Paraguay, on a private jet. The visit drew criticism because Cartes had been classified as "significantly corrupt" by the United States Department of State and sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act.
The visit raised questions about the judgment of Luksic and his associates in maintaining business relationships with individuals subject to international sanctions for corruption.
Awards and recognition
- Gold Medal of the Americas Society (2011) – First and only Chilean businessman to receive this distinction, for contributions to education
- Seven Summits completion (2005) – Completed the mountaineering challenge of climbing the highest peak on each continent
Net worth
The Luksic family is South America's wealthiest family, with a combined fortune estimated at approximately $25 billion as of 2024. The family's net worth is typically attributed collectively to Iris Fontbona, the family matriarch, rather than being broken down by individual family member.
Andrónico Luksic Craig's personal share of the family wealth has been estimated at approximately $4.6 billion, derived from his stake in the family's business empire. The Luksic family's largest asset is a $12 billion stake in Antofagasta plc, the copper mining company listed on the London Stock Exchange.
According to the Forbes Billionaire List of November 2022, the family's net worth increased to $22.8 billion despite the challenges posed by the COVID pandemic, making them the 83rd richest family in the world.
See also
References
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