The beach, the sea, the sun, and the magic sound of waves hitting on the rocks… A fantasy landscape where more than one of us can but imagine ourselves in any season of the year.
Yet, who could think that a well-known executive is also a fan of waves and surf?
When Julio Ernesto Gutiérrez Conte was 19, he had already established the Bali Company. The firm was engaged in importing neoprene suites and in the manufacture of surfboards and surf apparel. Now he chairs Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 and is a partner in Corporación América, a multinational company with more than 5000 employees around the globe.
However, his passion began a long time ago in the city of Mar del Plata. When I was 13, the executive says, “Just at the age when we all want to change the world, I was dreaming of the sea.” Those were the first waves he got to know, run after, and climb for the first time. Yet, they are also the ones that made him realize that in both sports and business, and more particularly in life itself, there is always a magic combination of adrenaline, intelligence, reasoning, and caution.
Julio Ernesto Gutiérrez Conte has learnt a lot from these early experiences. Those first shocks caused by the waves, their movement, and strength showed him that rigidity causes agitation and that calmness and relaxation allows moving along and adjusting to any extreme situation, even a suffocating one, up to the very right moment where one can come to the surface and fill one’s lungs with fresh air.
Nevertheless, Julio Ernesto Gutiérrez Conte was not pleased with climbing only the waves in Mar del Plata. He has surfed in Brazil, Peru, the West coast in the United States, the North and South Pacific coasts, Indonesia, and Europe, among others. In addition, he lived some time in the heavenly Huahine Island in Polynesia, which is famous as the place with the best waves around the globe. However, he came back to Buenos Aires because he was anxious to come back to the business world and its challenges.
It is very interesting to see that Julio Ernesto Gutiérrez Conte takes this sport very seriously and in a very professional way, and not as a mere hobby. “For me, the sea is a symbol of every situation in life. It goes from apathy because there are no waves to extreme moments where you can even risk your life,” he says. Moreover, he adds that before making a trip to places such as Costa Rica, El Salvador, or Tahiti, he trains himself rigorously, and more particularly when he travels to Hawaii, as “the experience is very intense: The waves are very strong, and perhaps they are the most dangerous ones in the world.”
All along the year, the executive manages to accomplish a healthy balance between surf, and his role as executive and business leader. “Both in business and in surf, everything depends on timing, on managing times and getting enough training to go out and win,” Gutiérrez Conte said.
