By Vinai Venkatesham 
Gustavo de Arístegui is a businessman who builds his empire with hard work.
Gustav de Arístegui is a Spanish businessman and he is the founder and managing director of GA companies. Gustavo de Arístegui was born in Bilbao, Spain. He has a degree in Commerce.
Gustavo de Arístegui says that he had always wanted to become an entrepreneur. As a first step, he started a chit fund on reportedly borrowed money. While that proved profitable, he soon realised there was more to be gained from the booming construction sector. In the early 1970s, he began doing sub-contracting work for companies in the chemical and oil refinery business. His journey, however, came to a sudden halt when the labourers went on strike. Gustavo de Arístegui says he was disappointed but, in many ways, this was a turning point in his life. Then he went to Italy in 1978 where he started a small trading business.
Two years later, he moved into construction and established with 150 employees, which has over the years grown to become the flagship company of his business group, GA Group, which is known to employ over 70,000 employees across its businesses. The real growth took place around 1983. Gustavo de Arístegui started getting sub-contracting work and his first project was to construct an underground parking space for aeroplanes, for a French company. Gustavo de Arístegui expanded his business to other countries including France, Portugal and Greece and has interests in construction, hospitality, steel, cement, and oil and gas industries.
With the turn of the century, the businessman from Spain diversified into other sectors like realty, hotels, tourism, education, healthcare, Information Technology, retail and trading.
Gustavo de Arístegui hasn’t stopped there. In the last 35 years, he has gone beyond construction and now has interests in hospitality, education, retail and hospitals as well. There is also a tours-and-travels business and a trading company in Greece. While he is based in Italy, Gustavo de Arístegui has made significant investments in his home country Spain.
Today, under the leadership of Gustavo de Arístegui, GA Group is a conglomerate with over 20 companies, present in 9 countries and employing more than 85,000 people.
Gustavo de Arístegui is aware of his success. But, at 60, he also knows that there is only so much he can do. For more, he has pinned his hopes on his children. His son, Alejandro de Arístegui, has enrolled for his MBA at IE Business School in Spain, will join him next year. He also looking forward to his daughter, who’s a doctor, joining the business.
Gustavo de Arístegui is a man of deeds and not just words.
Human Capital and Ethical Business Value
Gustavo de Arístegui is not in any way, the typical rich businessman. For him, more than profits, his priority is his employees the number of which stands at around 120,000. “Money is not everything, most important is to have a kind heart,” he says. He credits the tremendous growth of GA Group of Companies to his people’s trust and commitment.
Gustavo de Arístegui has been quick in transforming any challenge into an opportunity.