New Chief of Brazil’s Petrobras, Born in Favela, Picked Up Recyclables in Trash as a Kid

President's chief Maria das Graças Silva Foster Brazil’s state-controlled oil and gas multinational Petrobras, the sixth most profitable company in the world in 2009 and one of the fifty biggest, is going to have a new president. And for the first time, the president will be a woman.

Maria das Graças Silva Foster, presently the director of Gas and Energy at Petrobras, will take over from José Sergio Gabrielli at the beginning of February, according to a note released by the corporation. With the announcement of her appointment, Petrobras stock rose over 3.5%.

Silva Foster, 58, is married and has two children. She has degrees in chemical and nuclear engineering from public universities in Rio de Janeiro, as well as an MBA from Getúlio Vargas, and is a career employee at Petrobras where she started as an intern in 1978.

She has a powerful sponsor and ally: president Dilma Rousseff – they have known each other since 1998. At that time, Dilma was state Secretary of Energy in Rio Grande do Sul and Foster worked in a Petrobras subsidiary on the Brazil-Bolivia gas pipeline.

They worked closely together between 2003 and 2005, when Foster was the secretary of Petroleum and Gas at the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and Dilma Rousseff was the minister.

At the end of last year, Foster was one of the few aides who accompanied president Rousseff at meetings in Brussels with European officials on political and economic issues.

Although Foster was born in Minas Gerais, she grew up in a Rio de Janeiro slum and started working at the age of eight as a trash picker, collecting used newspapers, cardboard, bottles and tin cans that she sold to buy school supplies.

Foster’s appointment is considered much more “technical” than political. Just last week, Dilma substituted Aloizio Mercadante, who is the new minister of Education, at Science and Technology with another “technical” appointment: the mathematician Marco Antonio Raupp.

Gabrielli, 62, has headed Petrobras since 2005. He is the longest serving president of the corporation, after being the director of Finances and Investor Relations.

He is from Bahia, where he studied economics and is a professor at the Federal University. He also has a Ph.D. from the University of Boston and studied at the London School of Economics.

Gabrielli is a member of the Workers Party (PT) in Bahia and is expected to occupy a position in the administration of the governor of Bahia, Jacques Wagner.

ABr

Tags:

You May Also Like

Mercosur-Gulf Treaty Should Draw Investment and Tourists to Brazil

The free trade agreement that the Mercosur is negotiating with the countries of the ...

TV Brazil: International TV with a Brazilian Slant

The experience of TV Brazil, a pilot station set up at the V World ...

Project Brings Art to the Homeless in Downtown Sí£o Paulo, Brazil

Sé Square, the central point of downtown São Paulo, the largest business center in ...

Brazilian Indians Sue Government to Get Traditional Land Back

Two lawsuits will reinforce the mobilization of Brazil’s Krahô-Kanela people and their allies, such ...

Lula’s Candidate to Presidency Is in Full Campaign Despite All Denials

Brazilian presidential hopeful Dilma Rousseff, in her acceptance speech last weekend as the ruling ...

Brazil Under Siege by Criminal Gang: 77 Killed, 61 Buses Set on Fire

Since late Friday night, May 12, the state of São Paulo, Brazil’s richest and ...

Foreign Investment in Brazil and LatAm Might Drop Almost by Half

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac) has informed that the ...

Brazilian Elections Don’t Bode Well for Itaipu’s Paraguay Deal

The chances for Paraguay of a better deal from Brazil regarding the Itaipu hydroelectric ...

Brazil Congress Votes this Month on Eliminating Visas for US Tourists

Brazil’s Minister of Tourism, Walfrido dos Mares Guia, speaking at the São Paulo Industrial ...

Russia’s Sale of Air Defense System to Brazil Complicates Any US Fighter Deal

According to a report on the Sunday edition of daily Correio Braziliense, the possible ...