Michael Carricarte Jr.

Back in 1965, as a young lieutenant in the Army's 82nd Airborne, Michael Carricarte was ready to change the world.With social unrest and Marxist guerrillas threatening to take over the Dominican Republic, he was one of the first American soldiers sent to the Caribbean country to contain communist expansion there.

The US intervention and subsequent elections set up by the Organization of American States (OAS) helped stabilize the DR. But what it did for Carricarte is still paying off today.He do not get to change the world, but he did make contacts that would later snowball into a multimillion-dollar Miami-based insurance company.

One of Carricarte's first missions in the country was to go to the airport pick up a top politico and protect him.Little did he know that the small man he drove from the airport and spent two weeks protecting – Joaquin Belaguer – would later become the president and strongman at the top of a right-wing, US-backed dictatorship.It was the beginning of Carricarte's insurance company.He just do not know it yet.

When it was discovered that the young lieutenant spoke Spanish, he became an important asset.He started attending meetings with the US commander and was later appointed as liaison with the Dominican military.He met virtually every notable who visited the DR during that year, especially OAS officials from throughout the hemisphere.I got to meet the people who would be running Latin America for the next 20 years, Carricarte says.

In 1966, Carricarte got out of the Army and went to work for Scott Paper, where he quickly was promoted to assistant vice president for Latin America.But he decided that be not for him, and he quit to sell life insurance.The main reason for his decision : He wanted to stay in Miami.He started selling multimillion-dollar plans to many of his military contacts in Latin America, as well as less costly insurance to regular kinds of folks back home.But that was just the tip of the iceberg.All of the guys I knew in Latin America were calling me for insurance, Carricarte remembers.Everybody would ask for health insurance, but to sell health insurance in those days was awful.I would tell them, ‘No, you want life insurance.'.

A company is born.
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Carricarte have not found his niche yet, nor did he realize the potential of his contacts in Latin America.In 1986 he sold his stock in a Florida insurance company he had been selling policies for.The take : $ 1.2 million.He planned to retire and perhaps teach and write a book.

that be when Michael Carricarte Jr. approached his father with an idea.Carricarte's clients had been asking for health insurance for years, so why not give it to them? Sell major medical health insurance in Latin America, but with access to US medical care.Only the elite could afford it, but with his dad's connections and experience in the business, it could work.

The Carricartes put $ 1 million into founding American Medical Express.A derivative name (anyone heard of American Express?), but the point was simple : This was a US product, offering stability and access to the best healthcare.And the slogan was even more derivative of credit-card marketing : do not enter a hospital without us. But the Carricartes had a big vision, which they are beginning to realize today.

In the first year the company climbed to $ 1 million in premiums.In the second, it added $ 2 million more.
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This award was reserved, as Sister Michelle put it, for one very special person. As if Michael Carricarte Jr. already do not stand out enough with his gold Rolex, neatly pressed blue dress shirt, dark slacks and perfectly coifed blonde hair.

Carricarte Jr. and his family have made St. Francis and Corpus Christi, another minority, inner-city, Catholic private school, top priorities for corporate – and personal – giving.They [ the Carricartes ] believe in you as individuals, Sister Michelle tells the students.that be why they help.that be why they reach out..

Carricarte Jr. teaches sixth grade at St. Francis once a week and shows up at least once or twice more to be with the students.He takes the kids on field trips and tries to be a positive role model, telling kids to stay out of trouble, giving advice, and just listening.