Last year 2023, Daniel Suchar Zomer, met what he defines as the most special recognition: being one of the 350 leaders of the year in all of Central America, by Summa magazine, the leading magazine publishing group in Central America and the Caribbean in the business sector.
Daniel found out through the LinkedIn network, of course, a publication of the magazine.
For him, it was news that he received with gratitude, commitment and humility, “a job that I have been doing for more than 15 years in Costa Rica, has been paying off. You can imagine, being among the leaders in a market of 45 million inhabitants is a source of pride for me and my family.
In Costa Rica, this studious gentleman, within the area of economics and finance, is known as the person with the largest number of followers in his social networks.
Venezuelan and Costa Rican
Suchar is Venezuelan, born in Maracaibo, Zulia state, where he spent the first 8 years of his life. Later, he moved with his family to Caracas, capital of the country, where he spent his adolescence and his university years.
At the age of 26 he arrived in Costa Rica, you may wonder why? Because his mother is Costa Rican and since 1993 he has dual nationality as the son of Costa Ricans and born outside the country.
He left for Costa Rica exactly in 2005 for his own motivation, because he wanted to live in a new country and wanted to have the experience of doing something new. It has been 19 years in Costa Rica and the first year he lived in the area of Pavas, where an uncle, his mother’s brother, lives and then he went to live in Escazú, where his home has been for 18 years.
Therefore, “Costa Rica has been a country for me, familiar in every way”.
The sweet taste of memories…
Is there anything in Costa Rica that reminds Daniel of Venezuela? I asked him and in his answer looking thoughtful, he said that perhaps “that Latin flavor that people are less stressed as Americans or Europeans, we are in an extension of a Latin American neighborhood that we can practically feel that we are all the same and the best memory I have of Venezuela, I can not define it in only one, because Venezuela gave me my university degrees, my friends from school, high school, university, gave me my first loves, the first parties, the rumbas, took me to play soccer, from 8 years old until almost 26”.
In his time in soccer, he emphasized that he participated in university tournaments, playing in almost all the professional fields in Venezuela.
“I lived many years in Caracas, therefore, the Avila is a beautiful memory, climbing Sabas Nieves and the peaks I know them all; I was born in Maracaibo so I also remember very nice things, the bridge over the lake, the El Milagro promenade, also having played in the “Pachencho Romero” and visiting baseball stadiums because everyone in my family is from Las Águilas del Zulia” he added.
For Daniel, Venezuela is his friends who are scattered all over the world and that WhatsApp reminds him of them every day.
He no longer has anyone in Venezuela, his parents have been in Costa Rica for 5 years, “my brother has lived here for 10 years and the last time I went, was the bridge of the first of May 2015, that just my dad had had an eye operation and I visited him”.
His wife and children (2) are Costa Rican, and for him, the support of his wife has been fundamental in all this time.
Teachings
The teachings of our parents are that treasure with which many of us feel blessed, and Daniel spoke of them with emphasis because now that he is a father, “I learned thanks to my parents that I must have a very clear financial education, I have to teach my children to be good people, to not have problems with people, that I always have to be very clear about the responsibilities that are assumed when one grows up”.
He has worked in several transnational companies and became independent 18 years ago, so his parents have helped him to keep calm in bad times, and also in good times, “not to let myself be carried away by rays of light of a moment, to keep my feet on the ground, I have had the opportunity to receive advice from my parents about some kind of investment and entrepreneurship, not to let myself be carried away by something fleeting. Clearly, there is a slogan and a phrase that I always carry with me and it is -don’t forget where you are from and where you are going-, the second, very Venezuelan -do good and don’t look at who- and the third, -the little bird never knows who hears your song-, that means that you have to work well because you never know who is watching you”.
Numbers: His great passion
Daniel did not visualize himself in the world of economics and finance, in fact, he is a Chemical Engineer, specialist in Natural Gas and worked in the petrochemical El Tablazo, in Petroleos de Venezuela. Something he loves is oil.
Now, he has always been a very mathematical person, he likes numbers, in his opinion, economics and finance are applied mathematics, just like engineering, and that is where he started to get his tastes from. He is not only trained as a chemical engineer, he has two master’s degrees: one in Business Administration with emphasis in Finance and another one in International Finance, which he completed at the Universidad Metropolitana de Caracas.
He has a PhD in economics, which is known as Doctorate in Business Sciences and his thesis was about Macro Economics, which he studied at the Universidad Fidélitas in San José, Costa Rica. I have always liked mathematics, my children are fascinated by it.
His work experience has been satisfactory. Daniel began working through university internships at Petróleos de Venezuela (Pequiven), the natural gas and methane gas plant in El Tablazo. He then worked for a year developing his graduate thesis at Empresas Polar, in the area of food research and development.
At the same time, he started his first formal job at Johnson & Son Inc. whose company has the brands Glade, Baygon, Pride, among others, from there he worked at Diablitos Underwood and in Costa Rica with Coca Cola FEMSA.
Eighteen years ago he founded his company that sells pendrives, and in the evenings he taught for 14 years at the Universidad Latina and, in the last 7 years jointly at the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, in the postgraduate area of Business Administration and Economics.
Above all, he has been very happy with all his professional development.
More recognitions
He has had several recognitions as a professional, including the ones I mentioned at the beginning of this text, which gave me great pleasure to write.
And in our pleasant conversation, Sucharmentioned that in 2019 and 2021 the company CCK of Central America made an analysis of the region on who are the most influential people in different areas, and in Costa Rica, he was the winner twice in a row, as the most influential person in economic and financial issues in Costa Rica.
He has been in the American Chamber AmCham Costa Rica as an award winner; “I obtained the symbolic award of professor of the year at the Universidad Latina and I also received recognition at the academic level, since I obtained my doctorate with honors”.
Imparting knowledge
As a teacher, Daniel has enjoyed the “nicest” experience in his opinion.
At present, he is not teaching because his children have grown up a bit, they are almost teenagers, and he had to step aside, “the two universities told me -go and in five years we will expect you again-. In the careers I have taken, the subjects have had to do with International Finance and Managerial Economics; Macro and Micro Economics; Financial Mathematics, Environmental Analysis, Fiscal Policy and Monetary Policy, which is the one that fascinates me the most”.
He clarified, it is not that he retired but that he took a break after 14 years.
This extraordinary Costa Rican is involved in approximately 370 theses, either as a tutor or as a reader of them.
Costa Rica’s economy
Nine months have already passed, and the expert in Economy and Finance talked to us about the progress in Costa Rica’s numbers.
According to his constant research, Costa Rica is giving good financial results, “it has a primary surplus balance, which has not been achieved for more than 24 months and the country at this time, even with the political arena being complicated, the economy continues to show its face for everything that is happening; It is the fastest growing country in the entire region of continental Latin America, because the Dominican Republic I say is part of the insular, but let’s say it is the second fastest growing country in the entire Latin American region, in Central America I remove the Dominican Republic and we say we are the fastest, we are growing at 4% for this year, 4% for next year”.
The same OECD, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said that of the 38 countries that integrate it, Costa Rica is the fastest, “we can say that the nation has been blessed by issues of foreign and direct investment, development and free zones and that makes the economy is quite well” he said.
Consejos para las PYME
Suchar habló sobre las PYMES en Costa Rica y agregó que, en el país son tratadas como una empresa igual que una empresa grande, «tienen las mismas cargas sociales, los mismos impactos de costos fijos y tienen el mismo tratamiento de patentes municipales, entonces definitivamente uno entra prácticamente perdiendo, eso hace que haya mucha informalidad, ahora, eso ya es un tema de gobierno y eso sería lo que más necesita Costa Rica en materia económica, un poco más de libertad para tener medicinas más baratas y hasta electricidad más barata».
Para Daniel, en Costa Rica hay un error que se comete en muchas PYMES…. «y es que mucha gente se enamora del producto o servicio, pero no están entendiendo bien al cliente o al consumidor, entonces muchas de las PYMES mueren a los dos años, simplemente porque se comen los ahorros en todo eso. Para solucionar este error, la gente debería enfocarse justamente en el consumo de lo que el cliente quiere tener, no enamorarse de un producto, porque lamentablemente esto no va a pasar más allá de Friends & Family, que te van a estar comprando y después el mundo real no te lo va a dar».
Beyond numbers
Life has led Daniel Suchar, to be a person who has been given the opportunity to provide education where social networks have played a key role since its inception. “Of course, in the year 2000 when I went out into the professional world there were no networks and I would never have thought that 25 years later I would have so many followers, obviously this diffusion that one has nationally and internationally, here we can not deny, is something we would never have thought, always taking into account the care of the content”.
Mottos and approaches: Among the principles that characterize him, his mottos or approaches, all of them are based on responsibility, discipline, constancy, “in this professionalism of not falling into tawdry discussions or anything like that, even if you feel like doing it, but you always have to keep your sanity and you cannot lose focus of what you are doing”.
Virtues and defects, in his opinion, the virtues are clearer and easier because obviously there is a transmission of knowledge that one relies on the virtual or video, which has to do with the audiovisual development and that has been learning quickly. Defects? “One as a person is advancing in life and definitely the new generations are using much more technological tools and as much as I would like, I also have a responsibility that is called family: wife and children, then already there begin to arise some conditions that may be limiting the rapid progress of what can be a person who does not have it.
What still needs to be done… For the influential Tico, there are still many things to be done. “There are several plans and ideas that one has in his head of wanting to do and, sometimes, one would like to make a university or institute of knowledge, one could also make some kind of character that can be helping at the public level more than what one does. Only the road and life will take us in due course”.
Inspiring words
Daniel expressed that when you arrive in another country you have to remember that the country does not choose us, we choose it, “so when you land you have to know that there is a different culture, gastronomy, way of thinking and that is where you have to adapt, and if you do not adapt, irritations will start to arise in your mood, This adaptation also entails laws, regulations and you have to read them, know how taxes are paid, how a person is hired, how they are paid, how a municipal patent is paid, how a house is bought and well, there are many things that have to be evaluated”.
His message is that none of the above, regarding adaptation in another nation, is impossible, as long as one has an open mind and wants to get to the place to develop.
“Another important issue in migration is that one has to cut the umbilical cord, one cannot be in Costa Rica thinking about Venezuela every day, in fact I do not do it, I talk about Venezuela because it is my job to analyze all the countries of the world, of Latin America and of course Venezuela gives me an additional spice, but I am not thinking about Venezuela every day because otherwise I do not work in Costa Rica. I have my three clear mottos, you have to have dedication, constancy, discipline and responsibility in everything you are going to do, it is not that the fruit is going to be born tomorrow, you have to give time to time, -there is no path, if you make the path as you go- and although, we all want to have quick fruits, we have to understand that when you plant a tree, the fruit is the last thing the tree bears, so you have to be patient with time, things can be done, you do not have to run, and do it your way, that is, do not compare yourself with the one next to you”.
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