Álvaro Noboa: Difference between revisions
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'''Álvaro Fernando Noboa Pontón''' was born to Luis Noboa and Isabel Ponton in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on 21 November 1950. His life is a clear example of leadership, of the capacity to oppose what is improperly established, of the will to stand by his principles, of the discipline required to change habits, of the perseverance to fulfil the cherished dreams of his heart, of the capacity to create and maintain large companies and of the gift to govern. These qualities have made Alvaro excel as the '''entrepreneurial, social and political leader''' of Ecuador. <ref> |
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'''Álvaro Fernando Noboa Pontón''' (born [[November 1]], [[1950]] in [[Guayaquil]]) is an [[Ecuador]]ian businessman and politician. |
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[http://www.pmcomm.com/guayaquil/alvaronoboa.htm PM COMMUNICATIONS ] Published article by PM Communications on 13th July 2004</ref> |
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Noboa is actively involved in politics, running for [[President of Ecuador|president]] in 1998, 2002 and 2006. Noboa is the wealthiest man in [[Ecuador]]. He assumed control of the Noboa Group of companies after a lengthy legal battle with his siblings following the death of his father, a [[banana]] magnate and billionaire, in 1993 <ref>[http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/free_forbes/2003/0317/108.html Slippery Situation - Forbes.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>. His foundation Crusade for a New Humanity <ref>[http://www.prian.org.ec/Paginas/Titulos.php?Med=41 ::Prian ::<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> ([[Spanish language|Spanish]]: ''Cruzada Nueva Humanidad'') draws on his personal fortune to fund social projects. Some have criticized this work, including former President [[Rodrigo Borja]], who said that "Alvaro Noboa doesn't give out ideas; he gives out gifts."<ref>[http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/ecuador/presidency.htm Ecuador's presidency seen as 'up for grabs'<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> |
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==Education== |
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Noboa has opposed campaigns for workers' rights within his own companies, and Noboa Group workers have been illegally dismissed for joining [[trade union]]s.<ref>http://www.usleap.org/Banana/Noboa%20Company%20Page.htm</ref> <ref>http://www.usleap.org/Banana/Noboa/NoboaBlockNegUpdate7-7-02.html</ref>. In one 2002 incident striking workers at a Noboa subsidiary were attacked and–according to a [[Human Rights Watch]] report–several were shot by organized assailants.<ref>[http://hrw.org/english/docs/2002/05/22/ecuado3997.htm Ecuador: Escalating Violence Against Banana Workers (Human Rights Watch, 22-5-2002)<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> <ref>[http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0616-04.htm Workers Pay Brutal Price for Cheap Fruit<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Noboa Group was also criticized in a HRW investigation into [[child]] labor practices in the banana industry. <ref>[http://hrw.org/english/docs/2002/04/25/ecuado3876.htm Ecuador: Widespread Labor Abuse on Banana Plantations (Human Rights Watch, 25-4-2002)<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> |
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Alvaro was first educated at San Jose La Salle Catholic School in Guayaquil, where he scored top grades. At the age of 13 he travelled to Switzerland to study at [[Institut Le Rosey]], one of the most prestigious schools in the world. Alvaro, surrounded by classmates made up of both European royalty and future magnates, excelled by winning the Coupe Lutteur prize, awarded only to the school’s most academically distinguished students. After his graduation, Alvaro returned to Ecuador and revalidated his social/philosophical studies when he once again excelled by obtaining the single highest grade in his class. |
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He chose law as a career and chose to attend, from amongst all the universities in the country, the State University of Guayaquil. This astonished his classmates and teachers as Alvaro had chosen a school intended for students from lower-income families. His choice enabled him to meet, understand and become friends with lower- and middle-income students with whom he has since maintained contact throughout his life. His fine academic performance earned him a degree allowing him to practice law in Ecuador. Alvaro, however, decided to pursue his professional career in the business field as a successful entrepreneur. |
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Noboa is the leader of the [[Institutional Renewal Party of National Action]] (''Partido Renovador Institucional de Acción Nacional'', PRIAN)<ref>[http://www.prian.org.ec :: PRIAN - Alvaro Noboa ::<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>, a populist party he founded himself after separating from the populist center-right [[Ecuadorian Roldosist Party]] (''Partido Roldosista Ecuatoriano'', PRE). He was presidential candidate of the PRE in 1998 and of PRIAN in 2002 and 2006. Both times he was defeated, placing second to winners [[Jamil Mahuad]] (in 1998) and [[Lucio Gutiérrez]] (in 2002). In 2006, he decided to run once again as presidential candidate for his party. With 99.5 percent of votes from the [[October 15]] election officially counted, Noboa won 26.83 percent of the vote. His closest rival, [[Rafael Correa]] of the leftist [[Alianza PAIS]] party, received 22.84 percent of the vote. Noboa lost in the presidential run-off on [[November 26]], making it the third time in a row that he has lost in a run-off. |
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==The Entrepreneur== |
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==Working conditions in banana plantations== |
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Alvaro acquired most of his fortune through hard work. Alvaro Noboa is a self-made billionaire, and although his father was also a billionaire, Alvaro pursued his own business path. On the television programme ‘Quiero ser Presidente’ (‘I want to be President’) Noboa confessed: "I was already a multi-millionaire by the age of 27. When I turned forty-three, my father passed away, leaving me 7 million dollars out of a fortune of 1.2 billion dollars. I'm grateful." |
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In 2002 the ''New York Times'' reported on working conditions in Álvaro Noboa’s banana plantations in Ecuador. The article specifically mentioned the 3,000-acre plantation known as Los Álamos that employed about 1,300 people. <ref>Forero, Juan. In Ecuador's Banana Fields, Child Labor Is Key to Profits, The New York Times, July 13, 2002.</ref> |
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Indeed in 1973, at the age of 23, he began in the real estate business by establishing [Promandato Global S.A.], a firm that unites a construction company, an urban development company and several real estate companies, with assets hovering around £90 million. In 1998 it was considered to be one of the largest firms in Ecuador. In 1986, he established [‘Revista La Verdad’], a monthly magazine. In 1990, he founded [Banco del Litoral], one of Ecuador’s most reliable banks. Two years later, he established the [Global Financing Company] and other investment companies on an international scale. All these companies and businesses together became known as [Grupo de Empresas Ab. Alvaro Noboa P.] |
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The workers of Los Álamos unionized in March 2002. Noboa’s company responded by firing more than 120 of them. The article read: “When the workers occupied part of the hacienda, guards armed with shotguns, some wearing hoods, arrived at 2 a.m. on May 16, according to workers, and fired on some who had refused to move from the entrance gate, wounding two.” |
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The experience that Alvaro Noboa gained from handling his own companies, in addition to the courses he took in business administration at the American Management Association, helped him assume the leadership of two more groups of companies: Noboa Group in 1994 and Noboa Corporation in 1997. Today, he controls more than one hundred companies, which include industrial, agro-industrial, shipping, automotive, real estate and financial concerns. |
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Also, several workers spoke of child laborers at Los Álamos. The article quoted a 10-year-old worker, Esteban Menéndez, as saying: "I come here after school and I work here all day.” The boy’s job consisted of tying insecticide-laced cords between banana plants. |
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In April 2002 Human Rights Watch released a report <ref> [http://hrw.org/english/docs/2002/04/25/ecuado3876.htm Ecuador: Widespread Labor Abuse on Banana Plantations], Human Rights Watch, April 25, 2002.</ref> that “found that Ecuadorian children as young as eight work on banana plantations in hazardous conditions, while adult workers fear firing if they try to exercise their right to organize.” Chiquita, Del Monte, Dole, Favorita and Noboa’s company were all accused of being supplied by plantations on which children worked. |
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| ⚫ | In November 2002 a London judge found that Álvaro Noboa rightfully owned a 50.1% stake in Fruit Shippers Ltd., the holding company for the family business. That stake is worth $300 million, we estimate. Álvaro, who has made Forbers' billionaire's list previously, claims his assets are worth at least $1 billion. |
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The estate of Álvaro Noboa’s late father, Luis Noboa, the founder of the family’s banana business, was the subject of protracted litigation. |
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From the court’s ruling:<ref>De Molestina and others v Ponton and others. Queens Bench Division [2002] EWHC 2413.</ref> |
From the court’s ruling:<ref>De Molestina and others v Ponton and others. Queens Bench Division [2002] EWHC 2413.</ref> |
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“The principal business of [Luis Noboa] was the export of bananas. But at the time of his death his interests also included coffee, sugar refining, flour milling, shipping, banking, insurance and soft drinks. The principal Ecuadorian company engaged in the banana business was Exportadora |
“The principal business of [Luis Noboa] was the export of bananas. But at the time of his death his interests also included coffee, sugar refining, flour milling, shipping, banking, insurance and soft drinks. The principal Ecuadorian company engaged in the banana business was Exportadora Bananera Noboa S.A. (EBN). The ultimate holding company and the company owning most of the overseas business was [Fruit Shippers Ltd.] a company incorporated in the Bahamas.” |
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The court found Álvaro Noboa “an impressive and attractive witness” who “gave his evidence in a forthright manner.” He was described as “plainly intelligent, direct, tough, strong-minded and a dominant personality.” |
The court found Álvaro Noboa “an impressive and attractive witness” who “gave his evidence in a forthright manner.” He was described as “plainly intelligent, direct, tough, strong-minded and a dominant personality.” |
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==The humanitarian== |
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==Business practices== |
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===Shell companies=== |
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In 1977, the special social sensitivity that his mother Isabel Ponton and his grandmother Zoila de Noboa always instilled in Alvaro took shape in the establishment of [Fundación Cruzada Nueva Humanidad (Crusade for a New Humanity Foundation)], which began with the philosophy of fighting misery, disease, ignorance, spiritual weakness, hatred and other misfortunes that afflict man. The Foundation is based on the Christian beliefs of love, unity and self-improvement; beliefs manifested in its deeds. Twenty-seven years later, the foundation continues with its mission. <ref> |
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An 2005 investigation<ref> |
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[http://www.cruzadanuevahumanidad.org Fundación Cruzada Nueva Humanidad] http://www.cruzadanuevahumanidad.org </ref> |
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[http://elcomercio.terra.com.ec/solo_texto_search.asp?id_noticia=9427&anio=2005&mes=12&dia=9 Unas 360 tercerizadoras solo son empresas de papel en Guayaquil], El Comercio, December 9, 2005.</ref> uncovered 99 companies in Ecuador registered to fictitious addresses. All were associated with Noboa’s business. |
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The companies, with names like Dalioca, Domintini, Abacus and Carani, were listed in the archives of Ecuador’s Ministry of Labor as being third-party labor-placement businesses, which served other, larger companies by hiring workers on their behalf. The same telephone number was found in all companies’ files and it connected to a recording that said that Corporacion Noboa had been reached. Then a person got on the phone and said that no companies with those names functioned at that location. |
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==The politician== |
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The shell companies were also traced to an address that corresponded to an abandoned warehouse in the city of Guayaquil. One company’s file, Empacadora Tropical, had written the warehouse as the address of Corporacion Noboa. The company’s shareholders were Fruit Shippers and New York Commodities, two companies based in CANADAand the Bahamas respectively. |
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In August 1996 he was appointed president of Ecuador's monetary board. While running this institution Alvaro managed to raise the international monetary reserves of Ecuador from £787 million to £1.1 billion in six months, and to lower interest rates by 12 percentage points. Since then, the monetary reserves of Ecuador, despite the country adopting the US dollar as its currency, have not reached the peak that Alvaro Noboa achieved. |
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The shell companies were used to dodge labor obligations on the part of the employer. Victoria Oliveira, Communications Director of Grupo Noboa, said to a newspaper that Noboa’s company knew nothing about these links.<ref> |
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[http://elcomercio.terra.com.ec/solo_texto_search.asp?id_noticia=9525&anio=2005&mes=12&dia=10 El camino de las tercerizadoras de papel lleva al Grupo Noboa], El Comercio, December 12, 2005.</ref> |
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In 1998, Alvaro Noboa became the outside runner in the presidential elections. He achieved a technical draw with the man who then became President of Ecuador. Alvaro’s popularity was left unscathed, and on 20 September 2002 all polling companies with the exception of one predicted that Alvaro Noboa would have become President of Ecuador if the elections had been held on that day. Today, polls show that Alvaro Noboa remains the number one choice of the Ecuadorian citizen to become the next President of Ecuador. |
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===Tax evasion=== |
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In 2002, Alvaro inspired and guided the foundation of the [[Institutional Renewal Party of National Action]] (Partido Renovador Institucional de Acción Nacional, PRIAN) <ref>[http://www.prian.org.ec Partido Renovador Institucional de Acción Nacional ]. PRIAN</ref> |
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In March 2005, Ecuador’s government closed one of Noboa’s companies, Elaborados de Café, a coffee-processing business, for failing to file a tax return.<ref> |
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[http://elcomercio.terra.com.ec/solo_texto_search.asp?id_noticia=122255&anio=2005&mes=3&dia=19 Una firma de Alvaro Noboa fue cerrada], El Comercio, March 19, 2005.</ref> |
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The Party was an immediate success and gained ten seats in congress in less than six months after its establishment |
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During the last presidential campaign, Alvaro’s mission was consistent with his career path and life. The mission stated the need to fight corruption, reactivate the economy, provide jobs for all Ecuadorians, promote low-income housing for all citizens, establish a national health plan and implement an education plan. Today, Alvaro Noboa is seen as a political, economic and social leader in Ecuador. |
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Also, the government determined that another Noboa company, Frutería Jambelí Frujasa, owed almost $20 million in back taxes, including about $7 million due to interest accrued. The amount was calculated as part of an audit of Noboa’s 114 firms. A newspaper contacted the firm and was told by employees that it no longer existed. The number was that of Corporacion Noboa.<ref> |
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[http://elcomercio.terra.com.ec/solo_texto_search.asp?id_noticia=122548&anio=2005&mes=3&dia=22 Jambelí debe 20 milllones a Rentas], El Comercio, March 22, 2005.</ref> |
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Other Noboa enterprises were notified that they owed taxes, including: Industrial Molinera, a flour mill, ($2.4 million), Compañía Nacional de Plásticos, a plastic-manufacturing firm, ($1.1 million) and Manufacturas de Cartón, a cardboard box factory, ($3.1 million). A member of Noboa’s party and member of Ecuador’s congress, Sylka Sanchez, called the audits “blackmail” and said the arrears came to light after Noboa refused to join a legislative coalition headed by then-president of Ecuador [[Lucio Gutierrez]].<ref> |
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[http://elcomercio.terra.com.ec/solo_texto_search.asp?id_noticia=123439&anio=2005&mes=3&dia=30 Alvaro Noboa suma más deudas con el Servicio de Rentas Internas], El Comercio, March 30, 2005.</ref> |
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Ecuador’s internal revenue director, Vicente Saavedra, denied that Noboa was being singled out and said audits were done on a million and a half taxpayers. “If that’s what they call persecution, then there ought to be a law so that politicians don’t have to pay their taxes,” he said to a newspaper.<ref> |
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[http://elcomercio.terra.com.ec/solo_texto_search.asp?id_noticia=122896&anio=2005&mes=3&dia=25 El SRI aún no puede cobrar a A. Noboa], El Comercio, March 25, 2005.</ref> |
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==Political experience== |
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In 1996, Álvaro Noboa was named President of Ecuador’s Monetary Board by then-President of the Republic [[Abdala Bucaram]]. |
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According to an account of Bucaram’s last day in office (he was overthrown before his term expired) Noboa was the last person to leave the presidential palace in Quito before Bucaram himself left the building 30 minutes later in the evening of [[February 7]], [[1997]].<ref>Cevallos, Marcia. |
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[http://www.hoy.com.ec/libro/cap9.htm Que Se Vaya, Chapter 9]. Quito: Diario Hoy</ref> |
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While in office Bucaram used his presidential powers to sway the dispute between Noboa and his siblings. Early in his short-lived administration, when Exportadora Bananera Noboa was not yet in Noboa’s hands, Bucaram ordered the Superintendent of Companies to intervene in the company citing as a pretext the lowering of the price paid for bananas in bulk.<ref>Freire, Juan Francisco. |
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[http://www.hoy.com.ec/libro/cap11.htm Que Se Vaya, Chapter 11]. Quito: Diario Hoy</ref> Then in January 1997 Bucaram threatened Noboa’s siblings with the possibility of expropriating a large estate.<ref>Ponce, Xavier. |
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[http://www.hoy.com.ec/libro/cap4.htm Que Se Vaya, Chapter 4]. Quito: Diario Hoy</ref> |
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During his short tenure as head of Ecuador’s Monetary Board (August 1996-February 1997) Noboa owned a small bank, Banco Litoral, and collaborated as part of an economic team that included [[Domingo Cavallo]], the architect of Argentina’s monetary convertibility policy during the 1990s and special foreign advisor to Bucaram,David Goldbaum, head of the National Finance Corporation and owner of Banco Territorial, and Roberto Isaias, then-president of now-defunct Filanbanco, one of Ecuador’s largest banks, who served as economic advisor.<ref>Peagam, Norman. |
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[http://salsa.babson.edu/Pages/Articles/96-12%20Ecuador%20Currency%20Bd-EM Crazy man in power], Euromoney, December 1996.</ref> |
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Noboa pledged to stop the privatization program began by the previous administration of [[Sixto Durán Ballén]] and replace that with a policy of capitalization of state-owned enterprises, like the program implemented by [[Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada]] in Bolivia.<ref>Latin America Weekly Report, August 1, 1996.</ref> However, Noboa did not outright dismiss the idea of privatizing some state-owned companies.<ref>Latin America Weekly Report, August 8, 1996.</ref> |
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The administration planned to eliminate gas subsidies, except for the poorest, and to sell off part of EMETEL, the national telephone company, as well as parts of state-owned energy industries. Noboa, faced with a budget shortfall, claimed that Ecuador’s government could have raised hundreds of millions of dollars by going after tax evaders and late-payers of taxes.<ref> |
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Haq, Farhan. Bucaram Woos U.S Bankers After Populist Campaign, Inter Press Service, August 6, 1996.</ref> |
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===Presidential runs=== |
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In 1998 Noboa ran for president for the first time. In the first round of elections, held on [[May 31]], Noboa got 1,022,026 votes, 26.61% of valid ballots. That placed him second behind [[Jamil Mahuad]] (1,341,089 votes, 34.92% of valid ballots) and both battled in a runoff held on [[July 12]]. Noboa lost the runoff by 102,519 votes. Mahuad won with 2,243,000 votes.<ref>[http://www.electionguide.org IFES Election Guide.]</ref> |
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After the election Noboa claimed that fraud had been committed. He accused Supreme Electoral Tribunal President Patricio Vivanco of refusing to conduct a recount as was his request. He said that some precinct acts had been corrected using whiteout and others showed no blank votes.<ref>Notimex, July 15, 1998.</ref> |
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He ran for president a second time in 2002, again reaching the runoff, though he received only 17% of the vote in the first round. He lost the [[November 24]], [[2002]] second round to [[Lucio Gutiérrez]] (2,803,243 or 54.79% to 2,312,854 or 45.21%).<ref> |
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[http://www.electionguide.org IFES Election Guide.]</ref> |
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In 2006, he decided to run once again as presidential candidate for his party. With 99.5 percent of votes from the [[October 15]] election officially counted, Noboa won 26.83 percent of the vote, [[Rafael Correa]] the closest opponent received 22.84 percent of the vote. The two candidates contested a run-off on [[November 26]]. With 98.91% of the votes cast, Correa had an unassailable lead with 56.8% of valid votes cast. Noboa refused to accept defeat, and has suggested that he might challenge the legitimacy of the ballot count. |
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===Campaign spending=== |
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Noboa was fined more than $2 million for exceeding campaign spending limits in 2002. Noboa spent $2.3 million in his campaign, 98% above limit. The fine equaled twice the excess.<ref>Big bucks fail to deliver votes, Latin America Weekly Report, October 29, 2002.</ref> |
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In 2004 Noboa offered to pay not with cash but with financial instruments which would lose up to half their face value when exchanged.<ref> |
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[http://elcomercio.terra.com.ec/solo_texto_search.asp?id_noticia=84558&anio=2004&mes=1&dia=29 Villaquiran dimite y la coactiva se fue al piso], El Comercio, January 29, 2004.</ref> Ecuador’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal, the agency responsible for enforcing campaign spending law accepted Noboa’s terms. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal was first headed by Nicanor Moscoso, a member of Noboa’s party and his former campaign treasurer, and then by Wilson Sanchez, co-founder of Noboa’s party and his personal friend.<ref> |
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[http://elcomercio.terra.com.ec/solo_texto_search.asp?id_noticia=123959&anio=2005&mes=4&dia=4 El clan Sánchez tiene gran influencia en el partido Noboa], El Comercio, April 4, 2005.</ref> |
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==References== |
==References== |
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</div> |
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== External links == |
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* {{es icon}} [http://www.prian.org.ec/ PRIAN campaign official website] |
* {{es icon}} [http://www.prian.org.ec/ PRIAN campaign official website] |
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* {{en icon}} [http://www.pmcomm.com/guayaquil/alvaronoboa.htm PM COMMUNICATIONS ] |
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* {{en icon}} [http://www.alvaronoboa.com/Eng/AlvaroNoboaEmpresarioDominicanPresident.htm Alvaro Noboa The Entrepreneur] |
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* {{en icon}} [http://www.alvaronoboa.com/Eng/LaFundacionActividades.htm Activities of New Humanity Crusade] |
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* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgJAyeMkVlA&search=Rafael%20Correa%20Ecuador%20Presidente%202006%20Alianza%20Pais%20lista%2035%20leon%20roldos%20alvaro%20noboa%20cynthia%20viteri%20cintia Documentary excerpt – Attacks on strikers at Los Alamos plantation] |
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* [http://www.cepr.net/documents/ecuador_elections_economic_issues.pdf Ecuador's Presidential Election: Background on Economic Issues], issue brief from the Center for Economic and Policy Research |
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Revision as of 16:25, 7 August 2008
Álvaro Fernando Noboa Pontón was born to Luis Noboa and Isabel Ponton in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on 21 November 1950. His life is a clear example of leadership, of the capacity to oppose what is improperly established, of the will to stand by his principles, of the discipline required to change habits, of the perseverance to fulfil the cherished dreams of his heart, of the capacity to create and maintain large companies and of the gift to govern. These qualities have made Alvaro excel as the entrepreneurial, social and political leader of Ecuador. [1]
Education
Alvaro was first educated at San Jose La Salle Catholic School in Guayaquil, where he scored top grades. At the age of 13 he travelled to Switzerland to study at Institut Le Rosey, one of the most prestigious schools in the world. Alvaro, surrounded by classmates made up of both European royalty and future magnates, excelled by winning the Coupe Lutteur prize, awarded only to the school’s most academically distinguished students. After his graduation, Alvaro returned to Ecuador and revalidated his social/philosophical studies when he once again excelled by obtaining the single highest grade in his class.
He chose law as a career and chose to attend, from amongst all the universities in the country, the State University of Guayaquil. This astonished his classmates and teachers as Alvaro had chosen a school intended for students from lower-income families. His choice enabled him to meet, understand and become friends with lower- and middle-income students with whom he has since maintained contact throughout his life. His fine academic performance earned him a degree allowing him to practice law in Ecuador. Alvaro, however, decided to pursue his professional career in the business field as a successful entrepreneur.
The Entrepreneur
Alvaro acquired most of his fortune through hard work. Alvaro Noboa is a self-made billionaire, and although his father was also a billionaire, Alvaro pursued his own business path. On the television programme ‘Quiero ser Presidente’ (‘I want to be President’) Noboa confessed: "I was already a multi-millionaire by the age of 27. When I turned forty-three, my father passed away, leaving me 7 million dollars out of a fortune of 1.2 billion dollars. I'm grateful."
Indeed in 1973, at the age of 23, he began in the real estate business by establishing [Promandato Global S.A.], a firm that unites a construction company, an urban development company and several real estate companies, with assets hovering around £90 million. In 1998 it was considered to be one of the largest firms in Ecuador. In 1986, he established [‘Revista La Verdad’], a monthly magazine. In 1990, he founded [Banco del Litoral], one of Ecuador’s most reliable banks. Two years later, he established the [Global Financing Company] and other investment companies on an international scale. All these companies and businesses together became known as [Grupo de Empresas Ab. Alvaro Noboa P.]
The experience that Alvaro Noboa gained from handling his own companies, in addition to the courses he took in business administration at the American Management Association, helped him assume the leadership of two more groups of companies: Noboa Group in 1994 and Noboa Corporation in 1997. Today, he controls more than one hundred companies, which include industrial, agro-industrial, shipping, automotive, real estate and financial concerns.
His exporting company, Exportadora Bananera Noboa, had sales of $220 million in 2004 and $219 million in 2005 [2].
Family business
In November 2002 a London judge found that Álvaro Noboa rightfully owned a 50.1% stake in Fruit Shippers Ltd., the holding company for the family business. That stake is worth $300 million, we estimate. Álvaro, who has made Forbers' billionaire's list previously, claims his assets are worth at least $1 billion.
From the court’s ruling:[3]
“The principal business of [Luis Noboa] was the export of bananas. But at the time of his death his interests also included coffee, sugar refining, flour milling, shipping, banking, insurance and soft drinks. The principal Ecuadorian company engaged in the banana business was Exportadora Bananera Noboa S.A. (EBN). The ultimate holding company and the company owning most of the overseas business was [Fruit Shippers Ltd.] a company incorporated in the Bahamas.”
The court found Álvaro Noboa “an impressive and attractive witness” who “gave his evidence in a forthright manner.” He was described as “plainly intelligent, direct, tough, strong-minded and a dominant personality.”
The humanitarian
In 1977, the special social sensitivity that his mother Isabel Ponton and his grandmother Zoila de Noboa always instilled in Alvaro took shape in the establishment of [Fundación Cruzada Nueva Humanidad (Crusade for a New Humanity Foundation)], which began with the philosophy of fighting misery, disease, ignorance, spiritual weakness, hatred and other misfortunes that afflict man. The Foundation is based on the Christian beliefs of love, unity and self-improvement; beliefs manifested in its deeds. Twenty-seven years later, the foundation continues with its mission. [4]
The politician
In August 1996 he was appointed president of Ecuador's monetary board. While running this institution Alvaro managed to raise the international monetary reserves of Ecuador from £787 million to £1.1 billion in six months, and to lower interest rates by 12 percentage points. Since then, the monetary reserves of Ecuador, despite the country adopting the US dollar as its currency, have not reached the peak that Alvaro Noboa achieved.
In 1998, Alvaro Noboa became the outside runner in the presidential elections. He achieved a technical draw with the man who then became President of Ecuador. Alvaro’s popularity was left unscathed, and on 20 September 2002 all polling companies with the exception of one predicted that Alvaro Noboa would have become President of Ecuador if the elections had been held on that day. Today, polls show that Alvaro Noboa remains the number one choice of the Ecuadorian citizen to become the next President of Ecuador.
In 2002, Alvaro inspired and guided the foundation of the Institutional Renewal Party of National Action (Partido Renovador Institucional de Acción Nacional, PRIAN) [5]
The Party was an immediate success and gained ten seats in congress in less than six months after its establishment
During the last presidential campaign, Alvaro’s mission was consistent with his career path and life. The mission stated the need to fight corruption, reactivate the economy, provide jobs for all Ecuadorians, promote low-income housing for all citizens, establish a national health plan and implement an education plan. Today, Alvaro Noboa is seen as a political, economic and social leader in Ecuador.
References
- ^ PM COMMUNICATIONS Published article by PM Communications on 13th July 2004
- ^ Las 25 que más vendieron, Revista Vistazo No. 938, September 14, 2006.
- ^ De Molestina and others v Ponton and others. Queens Bench Division [2002] EWHC 2413.
- ^ Fundación Cruzada Nueva Humanidad http://www.cruzadanuevahumanidad.org
- ^ Partido Renovador Institucional de Acción Nacional . PRIAN
External links
- Template:Es icon PRIAN campaign official website
- Template:En icon PM COMMUNICATIONS
- Template:En icon Alvaro Noboa The Entrepreneur
- Template:En icon Activities of New Humanity Crusade