Raúl Alcaíno

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Raúl Abraham Alcaíno Lihn (born 24 June 1953) is a Chilean civil industrial engineer, businessman, television host, and politician. He served as Mayor of Santiago from December 6, 2004, to December 6, 2008. An independent aligned with the Alianza por Chile, he won the 2004 municipal election by a narrow margin with support from his predecessor Joaquín Lavín.

Alcaíno comes from a family with political and public-service roots. His father, Raúl Alcaíno Silva, was a mayor, and his grandfather, Abraham Alcaíno Fernández, was a minister of Public Works and Communications. He studied at the German School of Santiago, attended the Arturo Prat Naval Academy, and graduated as a Civil Industrial Engineer from the University of Chile in 1979. He has been married twice; with Esperanza Cueto he has three daughters, and since 2009 he is married to journalist Carmen Gloria López.

In business, he co-founded Resiter Ltda and later Resiter y Cía, focusing on environmental waste management and real estate. He has held leadership roles in engineering and industry groups and has served on several boards, including LAN Chile. In television, he began in 1991 and hosted programs on La Red, Canal 13, and Chilevisión, such as Noche de ronda, El lunes sin falta, and Amigas y Amigos. He has received awards for engineering and entrepreneurship, and his 2004 mayoral victory is noted as a major political battle, with one of his close collaborators later becoming mayor Felipe Alessandri.