Horst Paulmann

Horst Paulmann Kemna (22 March 1935 – 11 March 2025) was a German-Chilean billionaire businessman. He was the founder and chairman of Cencosud, the largest retail chain in Chile and the third largest in Latin America.

According to Forbes, as of July 2022, his net worth was estimated at US$2.3 billion.

Background Paulmann was the son of the SS-Obersturmbannführer and Hilde Kemna. To escape the Nuremberg trials, in 1946 Horst Paulmann and his family, consisting of his parents and seven siblings, emigrated from Germany after the end of World War II. They crossed the Alps towards Italy, continued on to Argentina in 1948, and finally to Chile in 1950.

At the age of 13, Paulmann worked as a telephone operator in Buenos Aires and later worked making wooden toys. His family settled in the city of Temuco in the south of Chile, and his father got a position as a franchisee at Club Alemán and at Club de La Unión.

Paulmann had three children with Helga Koepfer: Manfred, Peter, and Heike. In 2018, he welcomed a son, Hans Dieter Paulmann Bischof, with his partner Katherine Bischof Sepúlveda.

Career Cencosud was founded by Horst Paulmann on 10 November 1978 when he assumed the role of CEO and chairman. Cencosud employs more than 150,000 people in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Peru, where it operates its supermarket chains (such as Jumbo, Santa Isabel, Disco, Vea, Gbarbosa, Prezunic, Bretas, Perini, Wong and ); department stores (such as París and Johnson's); home improvement stores (such as Easy and Blaisten); commercial centers and credit stores (with over 4.3 million credit cards issued).

In 2004, Cencosud began trading its shares on the Santiago Stock Exchange, and on the NYSE starting in 2011. Horst Paulmann never commented on the matter.

Paulmann Kemna has been criticized for alleged connections to the German cult settlement and torture site Colonia Dignidad. Goods manufactured in Colonia Dignidad were sold in Cencosud stores and advertised through videos filmed there.

He was also said to have been an admirer of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. An event planned for February 2012 by the Kassel Lions Club, at which Paulmann Kemna was to give a guest speech, was canceled at short notice due to numerous protests against Paulmann Kemna.

Cencosud has paid its employees only the minimum wage for decades and is known for spying on its employees and rigorously cracking down on misconduct by its workforce, such as petty theft or the use of company property, and for approving arrests in the process. Mass layoffs due to economic downturns are also common.

Other activities Paulmann was the president of the Argentina–Chile Permanent Binational Business Board and a member of Argentine Business Association. He was also director of the Chilean–German Chamber of Commerce and the Chilean Chamber of Commerce. World Entrepreneur of The Year 2012, by Ernst & Young (2012) Konex Awards, Service and Commerce Entrepreneur (2008) Member of The Year, Chilean–German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (2007) University Extension Award, Universidad Mayor (2006) People and Development of Distinction Award granted during the Percade Congress (2006) Chilean citizenship by grace (2005) ICARE Award, Entrepreneur of the Year (2005) ASA Salvador D’Anna Award for best retail entrepreneur of the year - Argentina (2005)