In a surprising move, billionaire Jorge Perez denied his son Jon Paul a job at their family’s real estate company, Related Group, until he gained experience working elsewhere. After completing college, Mr Perez eagerly approached his father about joining the family business. However, his father’s unexpected response left him surprised and determined to prove himself.
“You’re not going to work for me,” Mr Perez recalled to CNBC’s Inside Wealth. He added that he did not want to risk his reputation managing their $60 billion asset by hiring his son, just because they’re related.
Instead, he took an unconventional approach, sending Jon Paul to work for a close friend and business partner to prove his abilities. As a result, Jon Paul Perez reluctantly headed to New York to forge his path after graduating from the University of Miami.
Mr Perez told all of his children that to one day work for him, they had to spend at least five years working in the tough New York real estate market and get a master’s degree from a top business school first. He had a strict policy to ensure his children weren’t just following his career path only because of how lucrative it can be.
“I told them, just because I’ve been successful in real estate, don’t pick something you don’t have a passion for. Because life is very tough the way it is and if you wake up every day and do something just for making money or that you don’t like, it’s not going to work. I didn’t want the rest of the company to feel that they were brought in because of their last name,” Mr Perez said.
His son began his career as an analyst at Related Companies, a firm owned by billionaire Stephen Ross, a close family friend and former minority stakeholder in Jorge Perez’s company. He then pursued further education, earning an MBA from Northwestern University’s prestigious Kellogg School of Management, ranked the No. 3 business school in the country by Fortune.
By 2012, he had gained enough experience to join Related Group, but his father didn’t hand him a top role. Instead, Jon Paul started leading the rental business and worked his way up. Years of hard work and determination have finally paid off as Jon Paul is now taking the reins as CEO of Related Group, alongside his brother Nick, while their father becomes executive chairman.
“Both have earned their positions in the company, having worked for over a decade in responsible positions both outside and inside the company,” Mr Perez told The South Florida Business Journal.
