Álvaro Saieh was born on 14 September 1949, in Villanueva, La Guajira, Colombia. Of Palestinian and Lebanese ancestry, his parents are Chilean José Saieh and Colombian Elena Bendeck.

At the age of three his family moved to Talca, Chile, where they started Casa Saieh, a family business that offered from electrical appliances to clothing. In this city, he started his education, finishing high school at Liceo Abate Molina. At 17 years old he moved to Santiago to pursue a degree in commercial engineering at Universidad de Chile, from which he graduated in 1972. In 1973 he started a postgraduate degree in Economics at the same university. Later, he attended The University of Chicago, where he pursued a master’s degree in arts (1976) and a PhD in economics.

These first operations were followed by the acquisition, in 1995, of the Banco Concepción, a bank that presented a negative equity and an important subordinated debt to the State. In less than 10 years Saieh would transform it into Chile’s fourth largest private bank, now known as Corpbanca.

Founded in 2002 along with his daughter Soledad, Fundación CorpArtes’ objective is to promote the arts and improve the access to it through transformative cultural experiences. In the last years, it has managed initiatives in the fields of literature, visual arts, theater, music, and film, including the organization of the International Film Festival of Santiago (SANFIC). In 2014 was inaugurated the Centro de las Artes 660, a cultural space that has a multipurpose theater room, a sculpture garden and three visual arts exhibit halls.

In 2007 the Saieh family purchased Unimarc supermarkets, entering the retail business. This marked the beginning of SMU, the third supermarket chain in Chile and the one with the largest national coverage. SMU operates with wholesale chains (Alvi and Mayorista 10), convenience stores (Ok Market), supermarkets (Unimarc), and a hardware chain (Construmart). SMU is also present in Peru, through Mayorsa supermarkets. Saieh resigned from his position as president of SMU in 2018.

Fundación Descúbreme was created in 2010. Its mission is to promote the integral inclusion of people with cognitive disabilities. Born from the initiative of the Sociedad Educacional Colegio El Golf S.A. and Tacal, Mírame y Amigos por Siempre foundations, Fundación Descúbreme conducts awareness campaigns, job inclusion, and social projects.

This institution gradually grew up, entering the global market with operations in several countries of Latin America, such as Peru, Argentina and Colombia, and opening offices in Madrid and New York City. Within this process of growth, in 2011 CorpBanca made the largest investment of a Chilean company abroad, acquiring Banco Santander Colombia in an operation close to US$1.2 billion. Later, Saieh acquired Helm Bank, transforming CorpBanca Colombia into the fifth private bank of the country.

In 2016 Corpbanca merged with the Brazilian bank Itaú. Currently the conglomerate is the fourth largest private bank in Chile, with a market share of around 8% and a stock market capitalization of approximately US$3.4 billion.

During 2017 two major projects are also expected to materialize: Mall Vivo Coquimbo and Mall Vivo Imperio, in addition to the construction of Mall Vivo Santiago.