Hugo Sigman

Hugo Sigman
Born Buenos Aires, Argentina
Occupation CEO of Grupo Insud

Hugo A. Sigman (1944) is an Argentine entrepreneur [1] and producer, whose last film is Wild Tales (Relatos Salvajes), directed by Damián Szifron. With a multifaceted profile and long-term projects, Hugo Sigman has an active role in the pharmaceutical, farming, forestry and cultural industries, and drives scientific research on innovative treatments for cancer. He also publishes about 60 books a year through Editorial Capital intelectual. Hugo Sigman is CEO of Grupo Insud, a conglomerate of companies with Argentine capital, founded in 2010.

Experience

Hugo Sigman graduated as Medical Doctor from University of Buenos Aires and completed his residency in Psychiatry at Hospital Aráoz Alfaro, in Lanús, Buenos Aires Province, where he was Chief Resident and Chief of the Psychiatric Emergency Room. He is married to biochemist Silvia Gold, and they have three children: Leandro, Lucas and Mariano. In Corporate Social Responsibility, Hugo Sigman supports Mundo Sano, a foundation established by his father-in-law, Roberto Gold, and managed by Silvia Gold. Mundo Sano is an NGO committed to community work and scientific research focused on communicable diseases including dengue fever, Chagas disease, hantavirus, leptospirosis and leishmaniasis.

In the healthcare field, he and his wife founded Chemo in Barcelona, in 1977. Chemo today is an international group that develops, produces and distributes APIs and medicines, with a presence in more than 46 countries, 14 chemical and industrial plants, 9 R&D centers, and a portfolio of own brands. Chemo is based in Madrid and is led by the eldest son of the Sigman-Gold couple, Leandro Sigman.

The pharmaceutical business –still the largest business of the Group- has three areas: the industrial area; the Exeltis line of products, with its own brand and a commercial and sales organization present in 46 countries, and the biotechnology arm mAbxience, specializing in research, development and production of biosimilars and the discovery of new products for the treatment of cancer. The active pharmaceutical ingredients of mAbxience are manufactured at the pharmADN plant, specialized in biotechnology.

In Argentina, Grupo Insud is a partner in Elea Laboratories, which has over 70 years of experience in pharmaceutical research and production, in Biogénesis Bagó, which runs a world-class facility for foot-and-mouth vaccine production, and in Sinergium Biotech, a pharmaceutical company focusing on research, development, production and distribution of highly complex immunization and biotechnology products. At Sinergium Biotech’s last-generation plant, mAbxience performs the formulation and fill and finish operations of the biotech products manufactured at pharmADN, in an exclusive facility that is compliant with the highest international standards and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs).

Hugo Sigman is also a shareholder of Maprimed, a laboratory with a 40-year track record in the manufacturing of APIs for the pharmaceutical industry.

In the field of scientific research, Dr. Hugo Sigman has 19 years of experience leading the Research, Development and Innovation Consortium, an initiative that pools the efforts of university researchers, State institutions and the private sector, with a focus on research and development of monoclonal antibodies to provide new treatments against cancer. The initiative is working on a line of innovative medicines, including the therapeutic vaccine against lung cancer Racotumomab. The vaccine has been approved by the Food and Drug Authority (ANMAT) of Argentina and by the authorities of Cuba, and has licenses in 25 additional countries. It represents a new therapeutic option for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in advanced phases of the disease.

Communication and Art

Hugo Sigman owns publishing house Capital intelectual, which issues the Southern Cone edition of Le Monde Diplomatique, directed by journalist Jose Natanson. Capital intellectual has a focus on the dissemination of culture and social analysis. Its vast catalog is organized in collections dedicated to science, politics, literature, philosophy, sports, psychology and public outreach. Some of its collections include: Los Recobrados, directed by Abelardo Castillo, and Claves Para Todos, directed by José Nun. Las mujeres más solas del mundo, by Jorge Fernández Díaz, was a best-selling book in 2012.

In the cultural sphere, Sigman founded, jointly with his friend Oscar Kramer –who passed away in 2010— Kramer&Sigman Films, a film-making company with a strong policy to support new Argentine talents. The company has been behind some of the most successful Argentine movies of recent times, including Kamchatka and Burnt Money, directed by Marcelo Piñeyro; The Dog, directed by Carlos Sorin; On Probation, directed by Damián Szifrón and starring Diego Peretti; Gone Fishing, directed by Carlos Sorin; The Marzianos, directed by Ana Katz and starring Guillermo Francella and Mercedes Morán; 7th Floor, directed by Patxi Amezcua; The Last Elvis, directed by Armando Bo; The Past, directed by Héctor Babenco and starring Gael García Bernal; and Chronicle of an Escape, directed by Israel Adrián Caetano and starring Rodrigo de la Serna; among others. Many K&S films have been selected and won prizes at some the world’s most prestigious film festivals.

His passion for the arts led him to join the Advisory Committee of the National Fine Arts Museum, and to support the participation in the Venice Biennale of Argentine artists Jorge Macchi, Guillermo Kuitca and Luis Felipe Noé.

Wild tales

Produced by Hugo Sigman for Kramer& Sigman Films and by El Deseo (Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar’s production company), and directed by Damián Szifron, Wild Tales (Relatos Salvajes) is an anthology film comprising six standalone shorts united by common themes: hilarity, horror, love, violence, greed and empathy. Ricardo Darín is a demolition engineer; Julieta Zylberberg and Rita Cortese are the waitress and cook of a rundown restaurant; Darío Grandinetti is involved in an perplexing episode on a plane; Érica Rivas is the unpredictable bride of a wedding that progresses to a finale of catastrophic proportions; Oscar Martínez is a tycoon trying to fix a shady deal in the context of a family tragedy, and Leonardo Sbaraglia is suddenly drawn into abizarre road-rage battle.

Co-produced by Telefé and Corner, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, Wild Tales was premiered on August 21, 2014, and during the first weekend it convened more than 450,000 theater-goers in almost 300 theaters throughout Argentina, reaching a new box-office record for an Argentine film within four days of its theatrical release. A record that, as a matter of fact, it broke again during the second weekend, when it was viewed by more than 460,000 people, exceeding1 million tickets sold in its firstten days of screening.

Forestry and Agriculture

The diversification of Grupo Insud includes the agricultural and forestry business, with companies Garruchos and Pomera, cattle-raising farm Cabaña Los Murmullos, and the caiman farm Yacaré Porá, a sustainable undertaking that enabled the growth of the native caiman population in Corrientes Province, while producing international-quality leather.

Through Garruchos, Hugo Sigman develops long-term agricultural and cattle-raising projects, with sustainable land management and a commitment to ensure good conditions for rural labor and local communities. In the fields located in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Corrientes, Córdoba, San Luis, Chubut and Santa Cruz, Garruchos raises Merino sheep for wool production, and Braford, Brangus, Angus and Hereford cattle. In agriculture, through the direct sowing system, the company produces soy, sunflower, corn, wheat and barley, as well as pastures and grazing areas for cattle. Cabaña Los Murmullos is devoted to raising and producing genetically superior herds, with award-winning specimens at the Argentine Rural Exhibit.

Hugo Sigman conducts his forestry and industrial activity through Pomera Maderas, a company with plantations in the Argentine provinces of Corrientes and Misiones, and in Paraguay. Pomera produces boards, poles, tongued-and-grooved panels, and impregnated poles for fencing and power lines. In Ituzaingó, Corrientes Province, Pomera has a clonal nursery with a genetic base of eucalyptus. Grupo Insud is also a shareholder of Bioceres, an Argentine biotech company focused on agricultural production. This young company has developed a gene that enables the production of wheat, corn and soybean resistant to drought and soil salinity.

International Awards and Accolades

In 2013, the Endeavor Foundation named Dr. Sigman “Model Entrepreneur” for his values and track record. In 2008, Hugo Sigman received the Konex Award Merit as one of the most Innovative Entrepreneurs. In 2011, he and Silvia Gold won an award from Asociación de Dirigentes de Empresa (ADE) in the Agroindustry category.

Sigman presented the achievements of the Research, Development and Innovation Consortium at Endeavor Experience in August 2013, and at the 11th AIDS Symposium organized by Fundación Huésped in 2012.

In September 2011, Sigman was guest speaker at the UN Conference on Trade and Development held in Geneva, Switzerland. His lecture was about the manufacturing of vaccines and biotechnologicals in Argentina. The Sinergium Biotech model of integration for the production of vaccines and biotech products involves technology transfer, export potential and the creation of 320 jobs, said Sigman. Also in 2011, Sigman delivered a presentation on global entrepreneurship at the IDEA Colloquium.

In April 2012, he was a speaker at the UN World Investment Forum in Qatar. His lecture was about the productive investment model with state-of-the-art technology based on partnerships with other pharmaceutical companies and public institutions.

References

  1. ↑ “My greatest challenge is to achieve the chronification of Cancer”

External links

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