Carlos Fuente Jr.
Third-generation head of Arturo Fuente, who proved that premium wrapper could be grown in the Dominican Republic and created Fuente Fuente OpusX.
Carlos Fuente Jr., known as Carlito, joined the family business young and took an increasingly technical role in growing and blending. His central contribution was agricultural. In the early 1990s he planted Cuban-seed tobacco on family land in the Dominican Republic, against the prevailing view that the country's soil and climate could not produce wrapper of premium quality, and put roughly thirty-seven acres into the experiment.
The result, released in November 1995 as Fuente Fuente OpusX, was the first widely sold premium cigar with a Dominican-grown wrapper. Its commercial reception was extreme; retailers rationed sales and the band became one of the most counterfeited in the industry. More importantly, it changed what Dominican growers believed was possible, and other producers followed with their own wrapper programmes.
He continues to lead the company with his sister Cynthia Fuente Suarez following their father's death in 2016. The family also operates the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation, which runs a school and clinic near the Chateau de la Fuente farm. His work is also a reminder that the most consequential decisions in this industry are often agricultural rather than commercial, taken years before any cigar reaches a shop.