Success story: Ernesto Zarzur

ENAR

This article is part of an in depth special report on the Lebanese in Brazil. Read more stories as they’re published here, or pick up July’s issue at newsstands in Lebanon. Ernesto Zarzur likes to think of himself as the patriarch of his family — one that he considers to be 4,000 strong. The chairman of Eztec, one of Brazil’s largest construction firms with annual post-tax profits of over $200 million, he is unashamedly unconventional in his management style. Wearing his trademark sunglasses, the 80 year old conducts a full tour of his 400-strong head office to check all is running smoothly — a practice he carries out at least twice a day. With the informality common of Lebanese leaders, he stops regularly to kiss employees on the cheek or the head. And when he says his company is his family, he also means it literally — eight of his