José Orlando Padrón (1926–2017) founded Padrón Cigars in 1964 and set the quality culture the brand still runs on. Born in 1926 (the year later celebrated by Serie 1926) and raised in Cuba's Pinar del Río tobacco world, he lost the family's livelihood after the Revolution and rebuilt in Miami with almost nothing. Industry lore remembers the small hammer a friend gave him while he worked odd jobs to scrape together the capital for a tiny rolling operation. He named the company for the year it began, now echoed on 1964 Anniversary bands.
Orlando's decisive strategic move was Nicaragua. He began sourcing Estelí-region tobacco when few U.S. brands treated it as a long-term home, then shifted production there around 1970 into what became Tabacos Cubanica. Through war, fire, and political risk he refused to dilute aging standards or chase fashion vitolas. Until his death at 91 in 2017, he remained the moral center of a business that still avoids a traditional sales force and still bets on inventory time over advertising spend.
On Cigar Nexus, José Orlando is the person root of the entire Padrón graph. Link to the brand, both prestige series, the Estelí factory, and family successors Jorge and Orlando. For biography searches and "who founded Padrón," this node is the canonical answer.