Donald Pearson, owner, and Chairman of Kurfiss Sotheby's International Realty, is an international businessman and entrepreneur. A 1965 graduate of Brown University, he earned the Samuel T. Arnold Fellowship Award. With the sponsorship of Thomas Watson, then-chairman of IBM, Pearson traveled to and studied in Central America for one year.
In 1968, he earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and spent the next four years with the State Department (USAID) in Brazil working on capital-market development. In 1971, Pearson married a Brazilian and established residences in Rio de Janiero and Sao Paulo. They have two children. He is fluent in Portuguese. From 1971 to 1976 he worked as executive vice president of a Brazilian financial conglomerate, Nacional Brasiliero, in Rio de Janeiro.
In 1976, he joined and served as chairman of Midland Montague Ltda. do Brasil, and Midland Bank of London's Brazil operations, during which time the bank held the third largest foreign bank presence in Brazil. He also represented the merchant bank, Samuel Montague of London, was president of the local investment bank, Midland Bamerindus, and led a joint-venture leasing company involving Midland Bamerindus Bank and General Motors. In 1993, he formed International Venture Partners, a venture-capital partnership in Brazil and one of the first-venture capital firms in that country.
In 1991, Pearson purchased Kurfiss Real Estate, and in 2006 the company became the exclusive affiliate for Sotheby's International Realty, covering Bucks County, Philadelphia, the Main Line and Chestnut Hill as well as serving clients throughout the five counties of southeastern Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley and select markets in New Jersey. In that time the company has participated in approximately 10,000 transactions.
