Primary Job Title COO and co funder of Solazmar International. Primary Organization Solimar International
Location Los Angeles, California, United States Regions Greater Los Angeles Area, West Coast, Western US Gender Male
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Jerry Azarkman is the COO and co-funder of Solazmar International at Solimar International and Founder & President at Star World. He is a former Founder at Curacao. He attended Bar-Ilan University.
Born in Iran and raised in Israel, Jerry Azarkman arrived in California at the age of 24 with only $20 in his pocket. A determined young man with a
talent for entrepreneurship, he exchanged those $20 for merchandise he bought wholesale in downtown Los Angeles, and became a door-to-door salesperson.
He discovered an underserved, neglected niche of immigrants — mostly from El Salvador and Mexico — with many needs. He sold them the products they had dreamt of one day owning. They became not only his first customers, but in some cases his first employees.
In 1978 he opened what would turn out to be a powerhouse in retail, services and community issues — Curacao. The department store has become one of the most trusted names in Hispanic retail sales. For more than 30 years, the company has proved its dedication to the community by continuing to provide quality products, outstanding customer service and increasing access to financial services for its customers who often have no credit history.
Curacao has been the first to launch many groundbreaking services, including its exports operation, which allows customers to send a variety of products to their relatives and friends in Central America and Mexico. The company is at the forefront of the Latino market, expanding innovative services that include Internet, phone, travel and money transfers.
Azarkman continues to strive toward a better future. In addition to overseeing Curacao Child’s Foundation, a nonprofit that delivers basic needs to families in the neighborhoods surrounding the stores, he is constantly visiting the stores as a speaker, motivating its associates with his story of starting an empire with $20.
