Hugo Sigman

Sigman is married to biochemist Silvia Gold. Together, they were ranked the sixth wealthiest people in Argentina by Forbes magazine in 2020, with a net worth of US$2 billion. Sigman has three sons—Leandro, Mariano, and Lucas. He is Jewish and a fan of the River Plate football club.

The Public-Private Consortium for Research and Development of Innovative Oncology Therapies, developed the first therapeutic vaccine against lung cancer, Racotumomab (Vaxira), introduced in 2013.

In 2011, Sigman founded, together with other renowned biotechnology companies, the Argentine Chamber of Biotechnology, with the aim of strengthening the public-private collaboration in biotechnology and encouraging its development in the region.

Sigman is an art and culture enthusiast. Between 2010 and 2013, he was a member of the Advisory Council of the National Fine Arts Museum of Argentina. He is a member of the Board of Patronage of Museo Reina Sofía, in Madrid, Spain. Additionally, the venue of Grupo INSUD in Buenos Aires (the traditional Díaz Vélez Palace), built in 1907 and recently restored, has won several architectural awards and has been declared a protected heritage site of Buenos Aires City.

Sigman co-founded the filmmaking company Kramer & Sigman Films (K&S Films) with Oscar Kramer in 2005. They had previously collaborated on the 2004 film El perro. The company has produced the films On Probation (2005), Chronicle of an Escape (2006), Los Marziano (2010), The Last Elvis (2012), Seventh Floor (2013), Wild Tales (2014), The Clan (2015), The Summit (2017), and Heroic Losers (2019).

In 1998, he started agricultural and forestry activities in different locations of Argentina, focused on genetic improvement and sustainable production, with companies Garruchos, devoted to farming and cattle-raising; Pomera, ranked as the top Argentine-capital forestry company; and Cabaña Los Murmullos, a cattle breeding ranch.

Sigman's father-in-law, Roberto Gold, created the non-profit Mundo Sano Foundation in 1993. By the late 1990s, Silvia Gold chaired the foundation, which has funded projects in Argentina, Spain and Ethiopia addressing neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) including Chagas, dengue and soil-transmitted helminths.

In the 1980s, Sigman and his family moved back to Argentina, where he developed his existing businesses and developed new work areas.

In 1978, Sigman and his wife, biochemist Silvia Gold, received a loan of US$400,000 from his father-in-law, Roberto Gold, a businessman in the pharmaceutical industry in Argentina. The couple co-founded Chemo Group, a chemical-pharmaceutical company, and the first company in what would later become Grupo Insud.

In 1970, he joined the Psychiatry Service of Policlínico Lanús as resident. He continued his career, first as Chief of Residents, and then as founder and director of the Psychiatric Emergency Unit at the same hospital. In 1976, Sigman fled to Spain following the Argentine coup d'état. He worked at the Psychiatry Service of Hospital Clínico de Barcelona.

Hugo Sigman (born 1 January 1944) is an Argentine psychiatrist and business mogul. He is the founder, CEO and –jointly with his wife, biochemist Silvia Gold— the only shareholder of Grupo Insud, a business conglomerate with a presence in the fields of pharmaceuticals, agroforestry, cinema, nature and design.

Hugo Sigman was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 1 January 1944. He graduated from the medical school of the University of Buenos Aires in 1969. The same year, he finished his studies in social psychology at the university under Enrique Pichon-Rivière. Sigman completed his residency at Aráoz Alfaro Hospital in Buenos Aires Province.