Julio Mario Santo Domingo

Julio Mario Santo Domingo was born on October 16, 1923, in Panama City, Panama, to Mario Santo Domingo and Beatriz Pumarejo de Vengoechea, the youngest of their four children; his older siblings were Beatriz Alicia, Cecilia, and Luis Felipe. His father was a banker, described as austere and disciplined, who made a fortune buying companies weakened during the Great Depression; his mother, from a rich and influential family, was first cousin of Alfonso López Pumarejo who was twice President of Colombia. He grew up in Barranquilla and later attended the exclusive Gimnasio Moderno in Bogotá, D.C., ultimately culminating his secondary studies at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts; he later attended University of Virginia before transferring to Georgetown University, but did not finish his degree.

He first married to Edyala Braga Brandão do Monte, a Brazilian socialite, daughter of Brazilian ambassador in Paris and former wife of Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas' brother. Together they had one son, Julio Mario Santo Domingo Braga (1958–2009), but the marriage did not last long and they divorced shortly after. Julio Mario Jr. married Vera Rechulski, a Brazilian socialite and they had 2 children – Tatiana Santo Domingo (born November 24, 1983) and Julio Mario Santo Domingo III (born May 2, 1985).

He remarried on February 15, 1975, to Colombian socialite Beatrice Dávila Rocha. Together they had two sons, Alejandro Santo Domingo Dávila (b. 1977), who has continued on in the family business, and Andrés Santo Domingo Dávila (b. 1978), the co-founder and president of Kemado Records. In 2008, Andrés married socialite Lauren Davis (founder of the online fashion retailer Moda Operandi).

Santo Domingo owned homes in New York City, in Paris, Bogotá, Cartagena and Barú, a Colombian island near Cartagena.