Jaime Gilinski Bacal is a Colombian businessman, the self-made billionaire Chairman of the Gilinski Group and a major force in Latin American banking and real estate. Born in Colombia, in 1957, to a Jewish family descended from Lithuanian immigrants, his father was a banker.

Gilinski received an elite education: he earned a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1978 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1980. His career began on Wall Street in the M&A department at Morgan Stanley, where he gained the high-stakes experience needed for his aggressive banking acquisitions.

• Gilinski Group (Chairman): The core private asset, a conglomerate spanning banking (GNB Sudameris), financial services, and real estate development across Latin America.
• Banking Consolidation: He is famous for acquiring and privatizing banks in Colombia and other Latin American countries.
• Mega-Exits: He sold his controlling interest in Grupo Bancolombia for $800 million (while retaining a minority stake).
• Academic Background: He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech.

Jaime Gilinski Bacal's strategic genius was his ability to identify distressed or privatized banks, acquire them cheaply, restructure them, and monetize them at a massive profit. Upon returning to Colombia in the late 1980s, he bought a small distressed commercial bank (the assets of BCCI), quickly flipped it at a juicy profit, and used the proceeds to acquire Banco de Colombia for $365 million (the largest privatization in Colombia's history). He later sold control of Banco de Colombia for $800 million.

His company, GNB Sudameris S.A., now controls over $16 billion in assets after acquiring the local units of HSBC in Colombia, Peru, and Paraguay in 2012. He is also a major real estate developer, investing $700 million (with the Livingstone brothers) to build a massive master-planned community in Panama City. His wealth is tied to the colossal, long-term profitability of the Latin American banking and real estate sectors.

Jaime Gilinski Bacal's social impact is structural, stemming from his role in privatizing and consolidating the Colombian banking sector, leading to increased efficiency and stability (his companies control over $16 billion in assets). His real estate projects provide large-scale residential and commercial infrastructure in Panama City.

His personal philanthropy supports various educational and community initiatives (including the Jaime Gilinski Endowed Fellowship Fund at Harvard Business School). His career is a testament to the profitability of disciplined financial engineering and opportunistic acquisition in high-growth emerging markets.

Jaime Gilinski Bacal maintains the professional, composed style of a global financier. His attire is consistently bespoke, favoring dark, tailored suits. His aesthetic reflects stability and immense financial authority, befitting a multi-billionaire banker and real estate developer.

Residing in London, U.K., his luxury is the immense security and financial reward derived from his multi-billion dollar fortune. His life is dedicated to strategic banking acquisitions, financial engineering, and large-scale real estate development across Latin America.