Alberto Etchegaray Aubry

Juan Enrique Alberto Etchegaray Aubry (born 5 May 1945) is a Chilean politician who served as minister of State under Patricio Aylwin's government.

Biography His father was Luis Alberto Etchegaray Peyreblanque and his mother Odette Aubry Labarthe. He studied at the Sacred Hearts School in Santiago and later civil engineering at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Despite being an independent, he has historically been politically closely linked to the Christian Democratic Party, a party in which many of his lifelong associates are found.

Married to Beatriz de la Cerda, he had seven children, one of whom, Alberto, served as Superintendent of Securities and Insurance during the first part of the administration of President Michelle Bachelet.

His first public activity of national relevance took place in 1987 when, during the military dictatorship, he was one of the figures who coordinated the visit of Pope John Paul II to the country. This event allowed him to establish contacts with individuals linked to General Augusto Pinochet, the Catholic Church, the opposition, and the businesspeople who contributed to securing the pontiff’s visit during that complex period in the country’s history.

It was at that time that he forged a close relationship with Anacleto Angelini, one of the wealthiest men in the South American country, with whom he would work closely from the second half of the 1990s onward.

In 1995 he assumed the presidency of the National Council for the Overcoming of Poverty, an entity that later evolved into the Foundation for the Overcoming of Poverty. In that position, he had to confront a severe impasse arising from pollution caused by one of the company’s plants in the central-southern zone of the country, an event that placed the company in sharp conflict with authorities and the local community.

He participated in the Banco del Desarrollo, an institution now owned by Scotiabank Sud Americano, and in a large number of other companies, notably the construction and real estate firm SalfaCorp, of which he became president between 2007 and 2015.

He has been a member for more than three decades of the Chilean Chamber of Construction (CChC), a director of Hogar de Cristo, and a member of the Union of Christian Businesspeople.