Carlos Ardila Lülle, one of Colombia’s wealthiest businessmen, passes away

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to his relatives, Colombian businessman Carlos Ardila Lülle, owner of a conglomerate that includes media, beverage factories, and sugar mills, died on Friday (13) in a clinic in Cali, capital of the department of Valle del Cauca.

Ardila, 91, had been hospitalized for several weeks at the Valle del Lili Clinic, where he died.

The holdings of the Ardila Lülle Organization (OAL) include companies such as RCN Radio and RCN Televisión, beer and soft drink factories such as Postobón, car dealerships, sugar mills, and the Atlético Nacional soccer team, making it one of the most important business conglomerates in Latin America.

Ardila Lülle had a special appreciation for cycling. He sponsored with the Postobón brand several Colombian teams that even competed in major races in Europe, such as the Vuelta de España and the Tour de France.

“I deeply regret the death of business leader Carlos Ardila Lülle. His life was a great example of tenacity, love for Colombia, fraternity with workers, and patriotism. Colombia loses one of its great transformers. Solidarity with his family,” Colombian President Iván Duque wrote on social networks.

Central Cervecera de Colombia, the newspaper La República, the Incauca sugar mill, and the Peldar glass factory are also part of the conglomerate that the businessman formed.

The more than 80 companies that make up the Ardila Lülle Organization (OAL) employ more than 40,000 people throughout the country, and, according to Forbes magazine, his fortune is estimated at US$2.3 billion, making him one of the richest men in Colombia.

Ardila Lülle was born on July 4, 1930, in Bucaramanga, capital of the department of Santander, and studied at the School of Mines of the National University of Medellín. He was married to María Eugenia Gaviria, who died last May 30, with whom he had three children: Antonio José, Carlos Julio, and María Emma.

Ardila Lülle received multiple distinctions for his work as a businessman, among them the Cross of Boyacá, the main Colombian state award, for his contribution to its development. In 1999, the newspaper Portafolio awarded him as the businessman of the 20th Century.

One of the businessman’s greatest concerns was the health of the people. For this reason, he founded the Carlos Ardila Lülle Medical Center, located in Floridablanca (Santander), one of the most modern in the country.

BUSINESS PEOPLE MOURN THE DEATH OF CARLOS ARDILA LÜLLE

“From ANDI, we acknowledge the life of Dr. Carlos Ardila Lülle; he was a great businessman, a great industrialist. He was present in several sectors of the economy,” said today the president of the National Association of Businessmen (ANDI), Bruce Mac Master.

For her part, the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, María Ximena Lombana, lamented the businessman’s death of whom she said he was “one of the great leaders and visionaries of entrepreneurship and national industry. Thanks to his drive, the Ardila Lülle Organization is today one of the benchmarks of the Colombian productive sector, a generator of employment and progress for the country.”

In a statement from her office, the minister added that the businessman leaves “a legacy that goes beyond the economic organization he built, with hard work and tenacity, since the last century. His life and actions were an example of discipline, social responsibility, vision, innovation, and patriotism.”

The Minister recalled that his investments in many sectors and regions of Colombia allowed the development, growth, and diversification of the national goods and services.