Marcel Jacobo Laniado de Wind

After Laniado de Wind's death, Banco del Pacifico became a casualty of the 1998–99 Ecuador banking crisis and the bank was nationalized.

He died in Houston, United States on August 5, 1998.

In 1996, Laniado de Wind and Zamoranos founded the Wilson Popenoe Foundation, with the sole purpose of funding scholarships for Ecuadorians to attend Zamorano. It started with an endowment from Wilson Popenoe "Doris Stone" to finance the education of Ecuadorians in El Zamorano, with the Banco del Pacifico intervening as a counterpart. When he was minister of agriculture in 1984, he obtained a U.S. Aid fund for the same purpose. He later became a member of the Board of Trustees of El Zamorano in Boston, USA.

In 1992, Laniado created a subsidiary of Banco del Pacifico called EcuaNet, whose purpose was to provide Internet service to Ecuador via a second node. It was especially intended to be free for educational institutions and non-profit organizations. Already a year before the first Internet node had been formed and developed, Ecuanex offered the service solely to nonprofit institutions in Quito such as Accion Ecologica, ALAI, CAAP, CITY, CONUEP, FLACSO, and the Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar.

In Ecuador, the first institution to provide access to the Internet was Ecuanex, an Internet node established in 1991 by the Agency for Electronic Communication Corporation, or Intercom. This network is part of the global network for Global Communications Institute / Alliance for Progressive Communications (IGC / APC), which provides this service to NGOs and development."

From 1984 to 1986, he was Minister of Agriculture in the administration of Leon Febres Cordero. In the short period that he served as minister, he established significant changes in the sector. Established a weekly official price in USD for a box of bananas. He also determined the actual import cost to produce a box of bananas. He formed the Agricultural Commodity Exchange. He worked on controlling smuggling and encouraging domestic production.

In 1979, it installed the first ATM Bancomático in the country, which was also the first in South America. In 1980, Banco del Pacifico was the first and only financial institution that offered a loan program for studies in foreign universities. He also promoted the Swift system for Ecuador. The company installed the first Foreign Currency computer system, and later through the promotion of a third party created the Foreign Currency Trade market among Banks in Ecuador. After analyzing how gold was traded, and the complaints of small gold producers, the Bank installed the first gold buying program to small producers, and in few months became the major exporter of Gold in Ecuador, until a few years that Banco Central changes the rule and the Gold business was no longer was possible.

In 1977, the bank established the Artisan Credit program, later renamed Credit to the Community. This program was unique in its kind, only also offered by the Ford Foundation. This program provided micro loans to artisans in more deprived peripheral regions of the country. The loans were made without collateral or targeted preferential interest rates, with the warranty and ability to pay determined by references from within the artisan community. The bank managed the loan and provided assistance with accounting if needed, and helped create accessible systems for the time and amount of payment.

Laniado de Wind gained a reputation as an innovator in developing electronic banking products. In 1975 Banco del Pacifico installed the first computer system in Ecuadorian banking, with a network of five line terminals. He also helped introduce the Audiomático, phone banking, Telebán, Intermático, computer banking, internet banking, and helped advance the processing of receipts and payments so that transactions could be completed from home or the office 24 hours every day.

The day after resigning he started the process of founding a new bank. He presented the project to private investors and friends and convinced 447 investors to contribute 40 million sucres, and also to form the initial list of shareholders. On April 10, 1972, he went public with Banco del Pacifico.

In 1972, a military coup ended the last Velasco period, initiating the country's oil era and the development of the state as an entrepreneur with strategic resources. The Banco del Pacifico began to provide credit and resources to regions that had previously been neglected, chiefly serving the middle class and the onslaught of private entrepreneurial companies appearing in the 1970s and 1980s. The bank grew extremely quickly, becoming one of the largest banks in the country, and eventually the largest.

He founded both the "Banco de Machala," which helped develop the trade of bananas in the El Oro Province of Ecuador, and later in 1971 founded "Banco del Pacifico." He was known for creating credit approval policies friendly to all economic groups, including loans for small farmers and small businesses; microcredit for artisans and low income people. He was influential in bringing internet to much of Ecuador in the early 1990s. From 1984 to 1986, he served as Ecuador's Minister of Agriculture under Leon Febres Cordero, as well as a number of other positions.

During 1970 and 1971, Marcel Laniado de Wind and his main partner Esteban Quirola developed different visions of the farm and bank business. Laniado de Wind proposed to his partner to either buy or sell the farm shares from or to him. Quirola agreed to sell to Laniado de Wind his 75% shares of the farm for an agreed price, as a "gentlemen's agreement." Quirola had already started to buy Banco de Machala shares from other shareholders and became the majority shareholder. Laniado de Wind traveled to New York to talk to contacts at Citibank for financing to buy Alamos. Standard Fruit Company committing to retain a percentage of the banana box price to repay the loan to Citibank, the loan was approved. Laniado de Wind returned to the country to close the deal, but Mr. Quirola changed his mind and decided to buy Laniado de Wind's 25% instead. Marcel Laniado de Wind resigned the day after Quirola's actions, selling his stake in Hacienda Los Alamo, resigning as General Manager of Los Alamos, and leaving his post as General Manager of Banco de Machala.

Around 1964, a partnership 75% Esteban Quirola Figueroa and 25% Marcel J Laniado acquired 11,000 Has. of a farm called "Los Alamos" located in Guayas Province, Churute Region, between the Gulf of Guayaquil and a town called Puerto Inca, a farm originally owned by Standard Fruit Company (later known as Dole), the largest independent producer of bananas in the world. Laniado de Wind was the first General Manager. Basically Standard Fruit Company was losing this farm with a Communist labor Union, which did not allow working properly on the farm, low morale and a German origin manager incapable to bring the farm up to good production. Under this circumstances Standard Fruit Company proposed for Laniado de Wind to buy the property. Laniado spoke fondly of "Los Alamos" as his favorite project. Under his management, the property began producing an average of 125,000 annual weekly boxes of bananas from a banana plantation of 3,000 Has. A new method of protection for each finger of the banana clusters was developed, allowing minimum shrinkage and high quality; a new banana packing plant design took place; new banana production methodology, new irrigation systems, etc. The technologies applied in Alamos soon became standard practices in Ecuadorian farming. In addition and in order to diversify a 300 Has. of oranges were planted; a 100 has. of vegetables were planted, and a ranch of 7,500 Santa Gertrudis cattle for beef was added, which routinely won awards at livestock fairs for the best specimen of the breed. He organized the estate to fit the needs of employees, and the farm had a commissary, infirmary, church, cinema, and parks for workers. A team of resident physicians provided the workers and their families with free health care. In addition, all employee children had to attend the in-house based school, which at the time had a top curriculum, including the practice of the English language as a mandatory course. It installed a rural telephone network, linking offices, houses and other buildings of the farm, for internal use, and connect with the rest of the country or internationally. this infrastructure were not found in other farms or rural towns in Ecuador at that time, was the first of its kind.

He ceased to be Governor in 1962, and after fund-raising five million sucres using local capital, he founded the Banco de Machala later that year. It was the first and to date the only Machalan bank started with local funds. Within a few months the bank had a large modern building in Machala, which was comparable to major bank buildings of the time in cities such as Quito and Guayaquil.

At 30 years old, in 1957, he became president of the Machala Rotary Club, and spearheaded paving the first three streets in the city after raising money from the Municipality and the Development Bank. According to de Wind, "That made the machaleños think I could be a good mayor." He decided to run for office, and his win was considered an upset to the political order of the time, which was dominated by families with tight political and economic control of the region. As mayor of Machala, he depoliticized fiscal and municipal actions, and focused on infrastructure for drinking water, telephone communications, and wastewater management.

He completed undergraduate studies at the Pan American Agricultural School at El Zamorano, Honduras, where he graduated in 1949 with a degree in agronomy. That year he returned to Machala. His father died a few months later, and at 22 years old he became head of the household and the family business. He helped care for his young siblings and helped educate Cecil in the United States and Rodrigo in Chile.

In 1941, at age 14, Marcel Jacobo Laniado de Wind and his family were forced to seek refuge in Zaruma in the Province of El Oro during the Peruvian invasion of Ecuador, the family lost its home and belongings. After the invasion Hassig and family moved momentarily to Guayaquil, and then to Machala in the El Oro Province where they started from scratch. In Machala, his father began making iron components for ice makers and gasoline pumps, and put together an ice maker factory and a gas station as a distributor for the British company Anglo Ecuadorian Oilfields, and managed to save enough to educate the children, chiefly in culture and Jewish tradition. After the war, his mother Wind Fredika of Laniado had to recreate personal documents and re-obtain a passport. She changed her name to Harriet instead of Fredika and was affectionately called "Rica".

Marcel Jacobo Laniado de Wind (June 4, 1927 – August 8, 1998) was an Ecuadorian agricultural engineer and banker who held a number of important public and private positions in Ecuador. He was a humanist, and a public figure in Ecuador for his efforts to improve the country.

Marcel Jacobo Laniado de Wind was born on June 4, 1927, in Guayaquil, Ecuador. His father, Maurice Jacob Laniado Hassig, was born in French Algeria, and had both Jewish roots and roots in Haifa in Palestine (of the Ottoman Empire). Laniado Hassig emigrated to Ecuador via Manaus, Brazil, and began living in a Jewish community in Quito. There Laniado Hassig met and married Fredika Wind Davila, a Dutch-Jewish woman who was born in Quito. Fredika Wind Davila's father was Maurice de Wind, a Dutch Jew, and her mother was Mercedes Davila Peñaherera of Quito.

At this time, three of his four children were born. Marcel was born in 1927, Cecilia was born in 1928, Marta was born 1930, and Rodrigo was born 1933. Marcel Laniado de Wind attended elementary school at the camp in Anco, and later boarded at La Salle School in Quito, where he completed secondary studies.