Mr. George Schaffer grew up surrounded by business leaders, while soaking up farming, business and trading experience from his family. His grandfather worked honestly and hard, from humble beginnings to eventually become a multi-business owner including a gold trading operation and a general goods store supplied by a team of mules that he would drive along mountain trails to get merchandise. His grandfather was town mayor for nearly 20 years and counselor to the people for much longer. His uncles include many good humanitarians and professionals in their respected fields.
Some of his most valuable lessons came from both his grandfather and his father, a WWII veteran, multinational engineer and businessman. In fact, the elder Schaffer made it a point to expose his son, at a young age, to many aspects of business from the design engineering and project management of sugar factories, to steel fabrication (SS&S Fabricators), as well as sugarcane farming. Renowned in the sugar industry and related agriculture business sectors, Mr. Schaffer’s father Colonel Francis C. Schaffer was known for his work in the sugar industry and his involvement with designing, project managing and consulting sugar mills in over 40 countries. His firm was recipient of the inaugural U.S. State Department Award for Corporate Excellence in 1999.
One of the most important exposures in Mr. Schaffer’s life was the development of the Kenana Sugar factory in Africa during the 1970s and early 1980s. Kenana was and is still one of the world’s largest integrated sugar factories. Mr. Schaffer lived with his family on-site at the 95,000-acre sugar estate in the Sudanese desert where his father was project design and management engineer. Mr. Schaffer watched the development, planning, construction, and start-up of the sugar factory and estate, which at one time included thousands of skilled and unskilled laborers of many nationalities and beliefs.
The site created a community of over 100,000 people where there was once only a small village far out in the desert and faced the challenges of most cities such as transportation, water, education, healthcare, tood supplies, housing, electricity, and more. What many claimed was “impossible,” Mr. Schaffer witnessed firsthand, was made possible by determination and team work.
The core business skills Mr. Schaffer learned were balanced by the life skills taught by his father, grandfather, and many other honest, intelligent men, as well as a strong caring mother and grandmother. He also learned about operating business ventures in the most forthright manner possible, while respecting and caring for peoples rights and wellbeing.
He runs his businesses with a practical approach and a philosophy of staying Real and carrying himself and his businesses in an honorable way. Mr. Schaffer is very involved with his family, various charities and conservation causes, including the Jacinto Bird and Rainforest Reserve in Belize. His hobbies revolve around work, nature and being on the farm with his wife and kids on the weekends.
