As any Institution with a history of nearly 50 years, ACDE BAHIA BLANCA has lived the back and forth of our city, our region and our country in general.

Thru its history, ACDE has crossed different stages, reaching public recognition, assuring a role in the business world and lecturing with coherence its doctrine. The vision our founders had is still with us and for them and the future generations we want to tell you this story.

Back in August 15, 1959, a group of entrepreneurs, some already recognized in Bahía Blanca and its region, others very young entrepreneurs starting their lives as businessmen, founded the Asociación Cristiana de Dirigentes de Empresa (ACDE – Christian Association of Business Entrepreneurs) Bahía Blanca. They did so based on contacts that some of them had with ACDE Buenos Aires, founded 7 years earlier, in 1952, by a great christian businessman, Enrique Shaw, with the spiritual advise of Monsignor Manuel Moledo, who was ACDE Buenos Aires’ advisor from 1952 until his death on June 24, 1988.

Those Founder-Members of ACDE BAHIA BLANCA where: Mr. Ramón Arestizabal, Eng. Hugo Santiago Bergé, Mr. Francisco Bessone, Eng. Juan Carlos Castagnet, Mr. Víctor Debian, Dr. Alberto De Lasa, Mr. Roberto Gonzalez Martinez, Mr. Carlos Maidana, Accountant César Picco, Accountant Cayetano Pirillo, Mr. José Mario Spinelli and Mr. Nicolás Torello.

The impetus that these Founder-Members instilled in the Institution was quickly shared by the many Members that joined them: Mr. Mario Salvadori, Mr. Alejandro Vlek, Mr. Remiglio Lepouttre, and Mr. Eladio Bautista, to name some of them.

For the official opening of ACDE BAHIA BLANCA a Gala Lunch was organized at the Imperio Room of the Club Argentino, whose President by that time was Dr. Perramón, father of one of our distinguished Members Dr. Gustavo Perramón Pearson (former Major of our city). On that occasion, Eng. Fernando Campos Menendez, Mr. Miguel Alfredo Nouguez and Mr. Diez Peña from ACDE Buenos Aires visited our city to participate in the opening,

For the first 20 years ACDE’s meetings took place at the house of who in that moment exercised the Presidency of the Institution.  It was not until the year 1981 that, during the Presidency of Accountant Cayetano Pirillo, ACDE had its first office located at San Martin 341 – Office 6, which was bought with the money produced by a “raffle”. The prize consisted on a Citroên VISA, a car that was won by one of the Founder-Members of ACDE BAHIA BLANCA: Dr. Alberto De Lasa.

Years later, during the Presidency of Eng. Juan Carlos Castagnet, ACDE BAHIA BLANCA was recognized as a Civil Non for Profit Organization (November 15, 1995) under the number 15.043 – File 76092.

Monthly Bulletins where activities and related institutional news were presented, was the way of communication between Members ;

For its 25th Anniversary (1984), ACDE BAHIA BLANCA organized a big Gala Dinner at the Club Argentino. Father Moledo came from ACDE Buenos Aires to give us a heart feeling message.

By its 30th Anniversary, ACDE BAHIA BLANCA had more than 200 Members, mainly from the cities of Bahía Blanca, Punta Alta and its region.

Seminars

From the very first Seminars for Small and Medium Business (SMB) at Hotel Provincial de Sierra de la Ventana (1976) with the presence of ACDE Buenos Aires President, Eng. Hernando Campos Menendez accompanied by Miss Llorente; and later by Bishop Manuel Moledo and Father Rafael Braun, the quantity and quality of Seminars given with the invaluable collaboration of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Konrad Adenauer Stiftung - KAS), were the basis of the rebirth of ACDE BAHIA BLANCA. New entrepreneurs became part of the Institution, mainly those coming from Chemical and Petrochemical companies that where establishing around Bahia Blanca. This new blood brought former Presidents Eng. Amilcar Ferrari and Eng. Hugo Simoni, and Members such as Eng. Carlos Doré, Eng. Eduardo Pereiro and many others...

Some of the Seminars presented with the sponsorship of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) were:

All these Seminars took place at the Islas Malvinas break-out room of the Banco del Sur Foundation, at the Conference Room of the Instituto Superior Juan XXIII or at the Austral Hotel.

Foro-Dinners

The Foro-Dinners give light to the daily ACDE BAHIA BLANCA activities and facilitate members to have direct contact with various local and regional realities and needs. They are a fountain of permanent contact for younger entrepreneurs who want to make their first contact with VIP.

Some of the many Foro-Dinners that thru the years have been presented at the “Bolsa de Comercio”, “Club Argentino”, “Italia Hotel”, “Central Muñiz Hotel” and others include:   

ACDE BAHIA BLANCA at San Miguel Meetings and ACDE UNIAPAC National and International Congress

ACDE Buenos Aires used to celebrate its annual Meeting at San Miguel Retirement House. Members of our Institution participated of those meetings and, when back home, they spoke in our Foro-Dinners about the general guidelines for the coming year discussed in that Meeting.

In 1964, Eng. Juan Carlos Castagnet with his wife Carmen, participated of the “XII ACDE UNIAPAC World Congress: towards International Solidarity”, celebrated in Mexico City, Mexico.

Two International ACDE-UNIAPAC Congresses took place in Argentina. The first was the “XVI World Congress: Entrepreneur and Society Transformation” celebrated November 1-4, 1972. Mr. Alejandro Vlek (acting President) and Mr. Mario Salvadori (Member) with their respective wives (link a la foto en Galería de Fotos) represented ACDE BAHIA BLANCA. The second Congress “XXI World Congress: Equity and Solidarity-Challenges for Businessmen of the XXI Century,” took place in May 8-11, 2002. Eng. Juan Carlos Castagnet (Acting President), represented our Institution in this event.

Since its foundation in 1959 the spiritual support of its Doctrinary Advisors has been and it continues to be very important to ACDE BAHIA BLANCA’s institutional life. We remember Monsignor Emilio Ognenovich (until his promotion as Bishop of the Lujan Dioceses, Province of Buenos Aires) and our actual advisor Father Pedro María LAXAGUE (Auxiliary Bishop of the Bahía Blanca Dioceses).

ACDE Documents.

One of the many ways that our Institution has found in promoting and sharing its vision to our Leaders is thru the many documents written in the last 50 years. We recommend the document “Thinking in Argentina of the Bicentennial”

FEDE Foundation.

Chapter apart is the creation by some Members of ACDE BAHIA BLANCA of the FEDE Foundation (Fundación para Estudios de la Empresa – Foundation for the Study of Enterprises),

FEDE was created September 7, 1991 by some of ACDE BAHIA BLANCA Members, and its first Administration Council was formed by Mr. Mario Oreste Salvadori, Juan Carlos Castagnet, Alejandro Vlek, Cayetano Pirillo, Norberto Ciamberlani, Hugo Santiago Bergé, Luis Antonio Eizaguirre, Alberto Oscar Compiano, Juan Carlos Medrano and Luis Reale.

The purpose of the Foundation is to promote educational, scientific, technological and cultural activities that will contribute to the development of enterprises in Bahía Blanca and its region.

ACDE BAHIA BLANCA found in FEDE Foundation the sponsorship needed to support the Seminars and Foro-Dinners.

All Institutions have daily work that are done by people who organize, distribute papers, receive calls, send emails, coordinate Seminars, set-up speaker ready rooms, make calls and prepare the daily Agenda of the President, and do endless activities. Ours is not the exception. In the name of Eduardo Ballesteros and, for the last ten years, Miss Antonia (Muñy) Crisol de Gimenez we cordially remember all the staff that helps to keep the Institution’s organization efficient.

Women have had and continue to have an important role in our Association. They bring women’s’ perspective to the business world and help to promote their work in our area.

We remember among all Members Ms. Raquel Fariña (Secretary of past Directive Commissions), Ms. Elsa Morel (as General Manager of the local TELBA Channel 7 TV Station supported our Institution by communicating our values in this region), Ms Maria de las Mercedes Lamon de Medrano (who with her husband, also Member of ACDE, helped to found FEDE Foundation), Ms Lidia B. de Lagleyze, Ms Marta Pereyra, and many others, like the wives of our Members, who shared with their families ACDEs principles and values.

Not to know our history would be forgetting our past and all the people who devoted great part of their lives to insert in our local and regional reality christian sense, faith and respect, sharing principles and values, making it visible that the so called “Corporate Social Responsibility” goes beyond the minimum required by laws and that it is a vocation of any christian entrepreneur to communicate and live this principles in any situation.

Our recognition goes to all our former Presidents:

01. 15-08-59 to 29-07-60	Mr. Carlos MAIDANA
02. 30-07-60 to 19-10-66	Mr. José Mario SPINELL
03. 20-10-66 to 15-01-69	Eng. Juan Carlos CASTAGNET
04. 16-01-69 to 16-10-69	Mr. Víctor DEBIAN
05. 17-10-69 to 07-05-71	Eng. Juan Carlos CASTAGNET
06. 08-05-71 to 04-05-73	Mr. Alejandro VLEK
07. 05-05-73 to 09-04-76	Acc. Mario Oreste SALVADORI
08. 10-04-76 to 16-03-79	Eng. Juan Carlos CASTAGNET
09. 17-03-79 to 09-03-83	Acc. Cayetano PIRILLO
10. 10-03-83 to 28-11-85	Eng. Hugo Santiago BERGE
11. 29-11-85 to 15-12-88	Mr. Luis Antonio EIZAGUIRRE
12. 16-12-88 to 07-12-89	Mr. Luis Antonio EIZAGUIRRE
13. 08-12-89 to 04-03-92	Lic. Ángel Héctor DIAZ
14. 05-03-92 to 16-11-92	Eng. Juan Fernando SCARPATTI
15. 17-11-92 to 20-04-94	Eng. Amilcar D. FERRARI
16. 21-04-94 to 29-06-94	Acc. Oscar BIONDINI
17. 30-06-94 to 17-04-97	Eng. Juan Carlos CASTAGNET
18. 18-04-97 to 16-09-98	Eng. Hugo SIMONI
19. 17-09-98 to 06-12-99	Dr. José G. PERRAMON DÁVALOS
20. 07-12-99 to 27-09-00	Eng. Juan Carlos CASTAGNET (interim)
21. 28-09-00 to 27-09-03	Eng. Juan Carlos CASTAGNET
22. 28-09-04 to 20-11-06	Eng. Juan Carlos CASTAGNET
23. 21-11-06 to 28-03-08	Eng. Hugo SIMONI
24. 29-03-08 – present	Eng. Ernesto Alejandro CASTAGNET