F. Herbert Engel, founder, President and CEO, was born in Hamburg, Germany, and at the age of eight left his homeland with his family to the place where his mother was born in the late 19th century.
He attended The Grange School in Santiago where he graduated in 1944. As his father had paseed away when he was only eleven years old, had to start working immediately after graduation from high school. He always said he had studied in the best universities: The University of Life. When asked always said, if it were possible, I would have loved to study history and become a teacher.
As soon as he left school, at the age of seventeen, he started working for the firm Gibbs & Co., after two years moved on to Perez, Reitze and Benitez in charge of imports of that company. It was here where his contact wiith the company E.I. Dupont de Nemours & Co. Inc. (Wilmington, DE, USA) began.
F. Herbert and his brother Harald started their own business in 1952. F. Herbert was in charge of imports meanwhile Harald managed the export area. They began representing E.I. Dupont de Nemours for the Explosives and Cellophane sales in the Chilean market.
In 1979 F. Herbert and Harald parted ways and F. Herbert founded his own company, F.H. ENGEL SA, dedicated exclusively to imports. The idea was to diversify and not only sell DuPont products as had been the main activity so far (by that time most of the departments of this multinational had entrusted him the sale of their products). In this way the company entered the business of retail consumer products, including liquor and canned food, as well as supplying the trading areas of petroleum, gas, biotechnology, chemistry and food ingredients and seasonings. In 1992, and so as to celebrate 40 years together with DuPont, Mr. John Krol, Vice President of DuPont visited Chile. In 2002 as well as a new celebration, this time by 50 years together, F. Herbert was invited to Wilmington by the chairman of DuPont, Mr. C. Holliday. Unfortunately, for health reasons, Herbert could not attend.
The first offices of F.H. ENGEL S.A. were located in Providencia, Av. 11 de Septiembre 1480, Santiago, and in the late nineties moved to the Pudahuel, off west of Santiago, to Av. Claudio Arrau 7000. The idea was to have the warehouse and sales and corporate offices under the same roof.
He married Renate Goetz and they had two sons: Eduardo and Claudio. Eduardo, Mathematical Engineering from the Universidad de Chile also holds a Ph.D. in statistics from Stanford University and another in Economics from MIT, is a successful economist, Tenured Professor at Yale University. Claudio is nows a days in charge of the family firm. His six grandchildren were always a matter of pride for him.
F. Herbert and Renate celebrated their golden wedding anniversary (50 years of marriage) eight months before he passed away. This was for him one of the dates he always wanted to reach and he enjoyed it thoroughly. His marriage was an example to many people.
He was a very hard worker and put all his heart into what he did. He was strict, but fair, and always ready to help employees to solve their problems. Self-discipline and honesty were for him very important values and he applied them in his daily life. It was a real example for younger generation.
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