Ernesto Perez-Carrillo Jr. (born 1952), is a

Cuban American Cuban Americans ( es, cubanoestadounidenses or ''cubanoamericanos'') are Americans who trace their cultural heritage to Cuba regardless of phenotype or ethnic origin. The word may refer to someone born in the United States of Cuban descent or t ...

cigar A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder l ...

maker who resides in

Coral Gables, Florida Coral Gables, officially City of Coral Gables, is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248. Coral Gables is known globally as home to the ...

, and the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

Career

Perez-Carrillo, is behind the cigar brand La Gloria Cubana. As a young adult, Perez-Carrillo's passion was for jazz. He worked to become a jazz drummer and, at the age of 25, moved to New York City to pursue a career as a musician. After exhausting his efforts to catch on with

Stan Getz Stanley Getz (February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of ...

and his band, he returned to Miami, and began to work on cigars. He took over El Credito, his father's cigar company, and set out to create a better cigar. The La Gloria Cubana was popular in the cigar craze of the early 1990s and, in 1999,

Swedish Match Swedish Match AB is a Swedish multinational tobacco company headquartered in Stockholm. The company manufactures snus, nicotine pouches, moist snuff, tobacco- and nicotine-free pouch products, chewing tobacco, chew bags, tobacco bits, cigars, ...

purchased El Credito from the Perez-Carrillo family. After working for Swedish Match/ General Cigar until March 2009, Perez-Carrillo's children proposed for him to craft a new cigar. With the start of E.P. Carrillo, Perez-Carrillo worked with his daughter, Lissette and son, Ernesto III. The company's factory, La Tabacalera Alianza, is in the Dominican Republic. In 2014 Perez-Carrillo made the La Historia EIII, the No. 2 Cigar of the Year according to ''

Cigar Aficionado ''Cigar Aficionado'' is an American magazine that is dedicated to enjoying the good life and the world of cigars. Published since September 1992, the magazine is known for its profiles on celebrities including Michael Jordan, Jack Nicholson, Th ...

'' magazine. Then in 2018 the Carrillo cigar, Encore Majestic received the highest honor as No. 1 Cigar of the Year from ''Cigar Aficionado''. In 2020 Perez-Carrillo won the No. 1 Cigar of the year from ''Cigar Aficionado'', with the Pledge Cigar.

Marriage and children

Perez-Carrillo learned the trade from his father. He has two children. Prior to joining EPC Cigar Co., his son Ernesto Perez-Carrillo III worked for

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strate ...

and McKinsey & Company in New York City. His daughter Lissette McPhillips Perez-Carrillo worked for

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (known as Paul, Weiss) is an American multinational law firm headquartered on Sixth Avenue in New York City. By profits per equity partner, it is the fifth most profitable law firm in the world. ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Perez-Carrillo, Ernesto 1951 births American people of Cuban descent Businesspeople in the tobacco industry Cigar makers Living people