V I D E O • A G E AP R I L 2 0 1 1 38 (Continued on Page 40) (Continued from Page 36) Father & Daughter Teams SENORABRAVANEL (SILVIOSANTOS) ANDDANIELAABRAVANEL BEYRUTI Silvio Santos and Daniela Abravanel BetterknownasSilvioSantos, 81-yearold Senor Abravanel is one of the most famous Brazilian TV show hosts and entrepreneurs. He is the owner of Silvio Santos Group, which comprises 37 companies, including the Brazilian Television System (SBT) network, one of the top-ranked Brazilian television networks, founded in 1981. Santos was born in Rio de Janeiro, in the Lapa region. He is of Sephardic Jewish descent. Despite his humble beginnings working as a street vendor, he had a strong affinity for artistic endeavors and took up jobs in radio, television and even at the circus. Silvio Santos’ nickname when he was young was, “O peru que fala” (the talking turkey) because of his blushed skin tone. He has always been considered a “born buyer,” or someone born for buying companies. He married twice, to Maria Aparecida (whodiedof cancer in 1977) and Íris, his current wife. He has six daughters, two of them adopted, all working in his group. The second born, Patricia, was kidnapped in 2001 and released soon after, reportedly after her father paid ransom. Daniela Abravanel Beyruti, at 34, is the eldest daughter of Silvio’s second marriage. Married to Brazilian businessman Marcelo Beyruti, she started working at SBT in 2003. From 2008 to 2010 she was president of SBT. Since 2010 she has preferred to be the artistic director and programming manager, considering it most important for her career at SBT. She graduated from two universities in the U.S.: The College of International Communications at Lynn University in BocaRaton,Florida, andRegentUniversity in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where she received a master’s in Performing Arts. After graduating, she worked as a producer and presenter in Virginia Beach at bornagainChristianbroadcasterPatRobertson’s CBN. Beyruti’s accomplishments include hiring nationally known presenters to the SBT includingRoberto Justus andRoberto Cabrini, and running popular shows such as Squadron Fashion, Ten Years Younger, What’s Your Talent? and You Remember That? She was also the executive producer of the Brazilian version of American Idol and responsible for putting the American Supernatural in prime time. Daniela also signed an exclusive advertising contract with Corinthians, one of the most popular soccer teams in Brazil. (Maria Zuppello in Sao Paolo, Brazil) BARUCH AND MICHAL (MIKI) IVCHER Baruch and Michal (Miki) Ivcher Frecuencia Latina (Canal 2) is a Lima, Peru-based TV station, founded in 1962 that became a national network in 1990. At 44, Israeli-born Baruch Ivcher Bronstein became Frecuencia Latina’s main shareholder (54 percent ownership) in 1984, after living in Peru for 14 years. When the station exposed government corruption in 1997, Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori ordered Ivcher stripped of his Peruvian citizenship (acquired in 1984 in order to own radio and TV stations in the country) and forced him into exile. While Ivcher was in exile, the Peruvian government continued to harass him, and even submitted a warrant for his arrest through Interpol. In 1999, while on a family trip to Crete, he was detained at the airport along with his daughter, Michal, but they were later released. Since late 1997 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called on the Peruvian government to reinstate Ivcher as president of Canal 2 and restore his Peruvian citizenship. But only after the fall of Fujimori in the year 2000 did ownership of Canal 2 revert to Ivcher, and he and his family (wife and four daughters) were able to return to Peru, where he found the channel in deficit of the equivalent of $52 million. Michal (Miki) Ivcher is Baruch’s oldest daughter and the founder and CEO of Miami, Florida-based Frecuencia Latina International (FLI), created in 2001 as a company that exclusively distributes Canal 2’s TV productions. In 2004, FLI became independent of Canal 2, even though it continues to distribute its productions and formats worldwide. An ironic footnote is that Fujimori’s 36-year-old daughter, Keiko Sofia, is now one of Peru’s potential presidential candidates. JOSE RAFAEL ANDPIA (ROSINA) FERRARI Jose Rafael and Pia Ferrari In 1957, after graduating from the University of Southern California, 23-year-old Jose Rafael Ferrari returned to Honduras to take over the family business. His parents founded HRN, Honduras’ first commercial radio station, in 1933 and, in 1957, expanded into television, which later became the Televicentro Group (comprised of nine TV and 11 radio stations). In 1987 Rafael tapped the youngest of his two daughters, Rosina (who later changed her name to Pia), as his future back up. At that time, Pia was 15 years old and started as a video DJ after school. Subsequently, Pia left the country to attend college in the U.S. and to be trained at the Univision station in Florida. She returned to Honduras in 1993 to coordinate Televicentro’s productions and co-productions and, for a while, anchored the network’s main news program. Pia also worked in the promo department and she’s currently general programming manager for Latin Acquisitions. XAVIER AND ANA CECILIA ALVARADO Ana Cecilia and Xavier Alvarado Xavier Alvarado began his career as a journalist, founding, in 1958, the monthly publication Vistazo in his native Ecuador. In 1967, at the age of 31, Xavier expanded into television with Ecuavisa, now a national TV network. His oldest daughter Ana Cecilia joined the company at 22 as promotion director in 1984, after receiving a degree in Journalism from Syracuse University, in New York state. In 1988 Ana returned to the U.S. where in 2000 she developed a telenovela unit for Ecuavisa. In November of last year she relocated to Ecuador where she now presides over Ecuavisa’s production unit, Two World Media. Xavier’s other daughter, Silvia, now 45, started to work at Ecuavisa in 1984, climbing to program director. She later moved to Brazil as an advisor to Silvio Santos’ SBT. ANGEL ANDMORELIA GONZALEZ Remigio Angel Gonzalez y Gonzalez (simply known as Angel Gonzalez) is president and owner of Albavision, a Miami, Florida-based group that controls 26 TV stations in 10 Latin American countries, 21 of which it owns while the rest are affiliated for programming. Albavision also controls 82 radio stations (25 of which are owned and operated) and 40 movie theaters in Guatemala and Costa Rica. Born in 1944 in the north of Mexico, Angel started his television career in 1971. He acquired his first two TV stations in Guatemala in 1981, and moved to Miami in 1987. He’s known for using pencils to negotiate license fees so that figures can be easily erased and replaced with his traditional 25 percent cut. Distributors tend to grumble but like to do business with him because he pays on time. Angel Gonzalez is assisted inMiami by his oldest daughter, 35-year-old Morelia, who entered her father’s company at an early age and now runs the group’s financial division. Another daughter, Anita, is a housewife, but her husband, Marco Cuomo, works at Albavision. VideoAge featured an extensive report about Angel Gonzalez in its January 2010 Issue. GUSTAVO, FRANCOISE AND ANDREA NIETO L.to r.: Andrea, Francoise, Gustavo Nieto Gustavo Nieto was born in Tunja, Colombia 60 years ago. He studied Film at New York University and worked at the Film Department of the United Nations in New York City before going back to Colombia where he directed feature films. In 1979 Gustavo founded Centauro Group in Bogotá, specializing in language
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