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INDEX
THE STORY
ELIE HORN AND THE FOUNDATION
It all started with Elie Horn, who was born in 1944 in the city of Aleppo, Syria, and arrived in Brazil at just 11 years old. As a teenager, he started working with his brothers at a construction company in São Paulo, where he learned to work with land, cement and bricks. It was then that, already graduated in law and after 20 years as an employee of the construction company, he founded in 1962 his own company, the cyrela.
Until the beginning of 80's, the company was dedicated exclusively to the development of residential and commercial premises, while the construction and sale of projects was outsourced.
In 1981, with the aim of providing more personalized and better services to demanding and sophisticated customers, subsidiaries were created Cyrela Construtora It is Seller Real Estate Consulting and Representations, companies that became responsible for the construction and sale, respectively, of their properties.
BRAZIL REALTY AND THE ARGENTINA CRISIS
in december 1993, a corporate partnership is established with the Argentine company Inversiones e Representaciones SA, and is born to Brazil Realty SA Empreendimentos e Participacoes (former corporate name of the current cyrela), with the aim of operating in the construction and leasing of high-end corporate buildings. As a result, the company was one of the first to develop real estate investment funds in Brazil.
In 2002, during the Argentine economic crisis, Mr. Horn acquired the stake held by Realty, which also began to dedicate itself to high-end residential development. The company knew how to take advantage of the good moment that the real estate market has experienced in recent years.
CAPITAL OPENING
In 2005, when the cyrela went public on the Stock Exchange, the developer was present in two Brazilian cities, operating basically in São Paulo, and owned 74% of in-house construction activities. With the company's geographic expansion, it quickly began operating in seven Brazilian states.
In the two years following the IPO, the cyrela set up ten joint ventures and partnerships: Agra, Concima, Cury, Cytec+, Líder, Lucio Brazil, Mac, Plano & Plano, Goldsztein Cyrela and SK Realty with the aim of expanding across the country, followed-up and set up the living and the Cyrela Commercial Properties.
THE CRISIS
Under Horn's gaze, the cyrela came to operate in 120 cities with 220 construction sites working simultaneously. The advance, however, was not successful. Not knowing the demands of customers in every part of Brazil, Horn tried to replicate his successful formula that worked in São Paulo. Went wrong.
While for many the crisis of 2008 was a disaster, Horn sees it as a blessing. It was the opportunity he had to consolidate the business, reduce the portfolio and resume his focus on his area of greater knowledge.
SUCCESSION
In April 2014, Elie Horn stepped down from day-to-day command of cyrela and continued as chairman of the board of directors. He even considered hiring a headhunter and evaluating executives from outside the company, but opted for a homemade solution. In his place were his two children. Ephraim It is Raphael Horn, who share the presidency.
From their youth, the two sons were groomed in cyrela for a possible succession, but the exchange began to be designed after Horn received the diagnosis of Parkinson's in 2012, which made him think about the future.
In your family office, Horn began investing in healthcare with Hospital Care, with acquisitions of hospitals in Campinas, Curitiba, Florianópolis, Ribeirão Preto and São José do Rio Preto. He has also said he is interested in the education sector, but has not yet entered the sector.
ELIE HORN AND PHILANTHROPY
Out of cyrela, Horn never thought of retiring. For him, retirement is cowardly, as he believes that he has to give back what he has to society.
Throughout his life, Horn grew closer to Judaism, after a childhood and youth away from the religion. He respects the Jewish rules of eating and weekly rest and relies on his belief in God. Through religion, he discovered his vocation on earth, which is to do good.
In 2015, became the first Brazilian to join the Giving Pledge ? initiative by the couple Bill and Melinda Gates and mega-investor Warren Buffett for rich people to donate their money to charity and has been trying, for years, to convince other ultra-rich Brazilians to join the proposal and donate part of their fortune to philanthropy. To this day, Horn and his wife, Susy, remain the only Brazilians on the list, with the promise of donating 60% of your fortune.
Joining the initiative was just one step on a long journey for the charity that gained momentum shortly before Horn left cyrela. As one of his last legacies as president, in January 2011 he founded the Institute cyrela, who receives 1% from the profit of the company he founded and invests in a charity project.
But this is far from being his only concrete initiative in philanthropy. In 2016, Horn created Liberta, an organization to combat the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.
Two years later, he founded the Greater Movement which brings together other businessmen such as the founder of MRV, CNN and Banco Inter, Rubens Menin, the CEO of Localiza, Eugênio Mattar, and personalities such as Luciano Huck. The initiative has dozens of partner companies such as Accenture and Microsoft and supports more than 70 projects in 17 areas of action such as poverty eradication, health, education, gender equality, sanitation, sustainability and entrepreneurship.
CYRELA TODAY
currently the cyrela constantly invests in people through its corporate University and social responsibility programs. A company that makes a point of valuing the neighborhoods where it operates through urban improvements and takes care of the environment, saves on materials, practices waste management in its works and helps the community through various social projects. A company that makes a point of valuing people's lives.
ELIE HORN NO RODA VIVA
Sources: Profile of Elie Horn at InfoMoney It is MDM blog.