Dilma Rousseff

Dilma Vana Rousseff (born 14 December 1947) is the 36th and current President of Brazil. She is the first woman to hold the office. Prior to that, in 2005, she was also the first woman to become Chief of Staff of Brazil, appointed by then President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant father, Rousseff was raised in an upper middle class household in Belo Horizonte. She became a socialist during her youth, and following the 1964 coup d'état joined various left-wing and Marxist urban guerrilla groups that fought against the military dictatorship. Rousseff was captured and jailed between 1970 and 1972 and reportedly tortured.

After her release, Rousseff rebuilt her life in Porto Alegre with Carlos Araújo, who would be her partner for 30 years. Both helped found the Democratic Labour Party (PDT) in Rio Grande do Sul, participating in several of the party's electoral campaigns. She became the Secretary of the Treasury of Porto Alegre in the Alceu Collares administration, and later the Secretary of Energy of Rio Grande do Sul under both Collares and Olívio Dutra administrations. In 2000, after an internal dispute in the Dutra cabinet, she left PDT and joined the Workers' Party (PT).

In 2002, Rousseff joined the committee responsible for the energy policy of presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who after winning the election invited her to become Minister of Energy. In 2005, a political crisis triggered by a corruption scandal led to the resignation of Chief of Staff José Dirceu. Rousseff took over the post, remaining in office until March 31, 2010, when she left in order to run for President. She was elected in a run-off on 31 October 2010. She is the first female elected President of Brazil, in addition to being the first economist elected for the office.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Joseph Safra

Joseph Safra (Arabic: يوسف صفرا) currently runs the Brazilian banking and investment empire, Safra Group. As the chairman of all Safra companies, among them Safra National Bank of New York and the large Banco Safra headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil, he is ranked at 68 with a net wealth of 11.4$ billion on Forbes list of billionaires.

Early Life

Joseph was born in Beirut into a wealthy Jewish banking family. The family's history in banking originated with caravan trade between Aleppo, Alexandria and Constantinople during the Ottoman Empire. The Safras decided to move to Brazil in 1952. In 1955, Joseph's 23-year-old brother, Edmond Safra, and his father, Jacob Safra, started working in Brazil by financing assets in São Paulo. But soon, Edmond Safra separated from his brothers Joseph and Moises and headed to New York where he founded the Republic National Bank of New York (which he later sold to HSBC in 1997 and donated most of his money to the Edmond Safra Foundation). Joseph Safra founded Banco Safra in the 60's, and today it is the 6th largest private bank in Brazil. He remains the chairman of the Safra Group offering banking services throughout Europe, North and South America.

Joseph Safra recently acquired the remaining shares of Safra Group companies from his brother Moises Safra. The two brothers still maintain a joint ownership of Aracruz Cellulose.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Eike Batista

Eike Fuhrken Batista da Silva (born November 3, 1956) is a Brazilian tycoon and owner of Brazilian conglomerate EBX Group. and president of the EBX Group  The company includes five companies that trade on the BOVESPA´s Novo Mercado, a special segment of the São Paulo stock market where enterprises with the highest standards of corporate governance are listed. The EBX companies listed on the BOVESPA are: OGX  (oil and gas), MPX  (energy), LLX  (logistics), MMX  (mining) and OSX  (offshore services and equipment).

Biography

Batista  is one of seven children of businessman Eliezer Batista, who was Minister of Mines and Energy in the João Goulart and Fernando Collor administrations and a former president of Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, then wholly a state enterprise, between 1961–1964 and 1979-1986. His mother, Jutta Fuhrken, was born in Germany and, from her, Batista says he learned self-esteem and discipline, attributes he considers crucial to his formation as an entrepreneur. After spending his childhood in Brazil, Batista and his family moved to Europe when he was a teenager, due to his father’s occupation. They lived in Geneva, Düsseldorf, and Brussels. In 1974, he began to study metallurgical engineering at the University of Aachen in Germany. When he was 18 years old, his parents returned to Brazil, yet Batista remained abroad and began selling insurance policies door-to-door to make his living. In interviews, he often mentions that the "stress" and the lessons learned from this experience were essential for his education.

Eike Batista returned to Brazil in the early 1980s and focused his attention on the gold  and diamonds trade. He established himself as a salesman, contacting producers in the Amazon area and buyers in large metropolitan centers in Brazil and Europe. When he was 23 years old, he started a gold trading firm, called Autram Aurem, using the Inca Sun as the company trademark and symbol. A year and a half later, the company had earned US$ 6 million.

His entrepreneurial instinct and talent led him to implement the first mechanized alluvial gold mining plant in the Amazon, marking the beginning of the EBX Group. At age 29, he became CEO of TVX Gold, a company listed on the Canadian Stock Exchange, thus initiating his relationship with global capital markets. From 1980 to 2000, he created US$ 20 billion in value with the operation of eight gold mines in Brazil and Canada and a silver mine in Chile. Between 1991 and 1996, the value of his company more than tripled.

Batista married the model Luma de Oliveira in 1991, and divorced her in 2004. They had two boys, Olin and Thor. Batista enjoys running, swimming and practices marine sports. In the 90s, he was the Brazilian, U.S. and World Champion  in the Super Offshore Powerboat class. In 2006, he covered the 220 nautical miles between Santos and Rio de Janeiro in 3h01m47s and beat the record for the course in his boat, the Spirit of Brazil. Batista maintains an active digital life, with a personal site with articles, videos and news about his companies. The digital channel that Batista has chosen as his primary means of personal communication is Twitter. His profile on Twitter has over 400,000 followers, who respond to his messages and interact with him. Batista is fluent in five languages – Portuguese, German, English, French and Spanish.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Gustavo Kuerten

Gustavo Kuerten ( born September 10, 1976) is a retired former World No. 1 tennis player from Brazil. He won the French Open three times between 1997 and 2001, and was the Tennis Masters Cup champion in 2000. After 12 years on the international tour, he retired from top-level tennis in May 2008.

Kuerten is also known as "Guga" , an affectionate nickname which is a common abbreviation of the name "Gustavo" in Portuguese-speaking countries. He is a polyglot who speaks fluent Portuguese, Spanish, English and French.

Early life

Kuerten was born in Florianópolis in southern Brazil. He comes from an ethnically German family. He began playing tennis when he was six, an early start to a life and career marked by family tragedy. His father, a former amateur tennis player, died of a heart attack in 1985 while umpiring a junior tennis match in Curitiba, when Kuerten was only eight years old. His older brother, Raphael, is currently his business manager. His youngest brother suffered prolonged oxygen deprivation and consequently irreparable brain damage during birth, and as a result suffered from mental retardation and severe physical disability until his death in 2007.

Kuerten was deeply affected by his brother's daily struggles, later donating the entire prize money from one tournament he has won every year of his professional career so far to a hometown NGO that provides assistance for people suffering from similar disabilities. He gave every trophy he won to his younger brother as a souvenir, including the three miniature replicas of the French Open men's singles trophy.

As a young player, Kuerten first learned from Carlos Alves. Alves would continue to coach Kuerten for the next 8 years. When he was 14 years old, Kuerten met Larri Passos who would be his coach for the following 15 years. Passos convinced Kuerten and his family that the youth was talented enough to make a living out of playing tennis. The two started traveling all over the world to participate in junior tournaments. Kuerten turned professional in 1995.

Professional career

As a junior player in South America, Guga always stood out winning many of the most important tournaments in the region. Curiously, many times he played in an age group above his. For example, when he was 16 instead of playing in the category 15–16 he many times played in the category 17–18.

After two years as a professional, Kuerten rose to the position of no. 2 player in Brazil, second only to Fernando Meligeni, and had his then highest point by helping the Brazil Davis Cup team defeat Austria in 1996 and reach the competition's first division, the World Group.

Following his unexpected victory in the 1997 French Open, Kuerten had a difficult year and a half, adjusting to his sudden fame and the pressure of being expected to win. 1998 was the worst year in his career that was not related to injuries (in that year, Kuerten played beneath his potential, despite not being hindered by physical problems). The pressure for him to become an "ambassador" for tennis in Brazil was made evident after his early defeat to a then unknown Marat Safin in the 1998 French Open: the entire body of Brazilian journalists that had been dispatched to Paris to cover the event immediately returned home, leaving the rest of the tournament unaccounted for in Brazil.

Like many South Americans his favorite court surface is clay. He has won three Grand Slam titles, all of them at the French Open, played on the clay courts of Roland Garros. He won these titles in 1997, 2000 and 2001. In every one of the three French Open victories he defeated Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the quarterfinal match and defeated exactly two Top 10 players on his way to the title. Kuerten became the No. 1 player in the world in 2000 using his unique serve and strong ground strokes.

Kuerten won at least one title a year between 1997 and 2004. The streak came to an end in 2005, when injuries and below-average performances kept him from winning tournaments. He was also a regular participant for Brazil in Davis Cup.

Kuerten embraces the baseline style of play, with heavily topspin ground strokes and a solid serve that enables him to wear down his opponent from the back of the court. His unique "grunt" when he strikes the ball is recognised by millions of fans around the world. He plays right-handed with a single-handed backhand using a western grip.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Ronaldinho

Ronaldo de Assis Moreira (born 21 March 1980 in Porto Alegre), commonly known as Ronaldinho or Ronaldinho Gaúcho, is a Brazilian footballer who plays for Flamengo and the Brazilian national team as an attacking midfielder or forward. He is a two-time winner of the FIFA World Player of the Year, awarded to the best player over the year. He won the award in both 2004 and 2005.

"Ronaldinho," the diminutive and term of endearment for "Ronaldo," is accompanied in Brazilian usage by the nickname "Gaúcho," in order to distinguish him from fellow footballer and countryman Ronaldo, who was known as "Ronaldinho" in Brazil beforehand. Ronaldo simply went by his first name upon his move to Europe, thereby allowing Ronaldinho to drop the "Gaúcho" and go by the name Ronaldinho abroad.

Prior to his move to Flamengo, he played for Paris Saint-Germain F.C., FC Barcelona and A.C. Milan. With the Spanish club, he won his first Champions League in 2006 and the Ballon d'Or in 2005. He became a Spanish citizen in January 2007.

He was also named in the FIFA 100, a list of the greatest footballers compiled by fellow countryman Pelé, and in the FIFPro World XI consecutively from 2004–2007.

Biography

Ronaldinho was born in the city of Porto Alegre, the state capital of Rio Grande do Sul. His mother, Dona Miguelina Elói Assis dos Santos (daughter of Enviro Assis), is a former salesperson who studied to become a nurse. His father, João de Assis Moreira, was a shipyard worker and footballer for local club Esporte Clube Cruzeiro (not to be confused with Cruzeiro). He suffered a fatal heart attack in the family swimming pool when Ronaldinho was eight. After Ronaldinho's older brother, Roberto, signed with Grêmio, the family moved to a home in the more affluent Guarujá section of Porto Alegre, which was a gift from Grêmio to convince Roberto to stay at the club. Roberto's career was ultimately cut short by injury.

Ronaldinho's football skills began to blossom at the of age 8, and he was first given the nickname Ronaldinho because he was often the youngest and the smallest player in youth club matches. He developed an interest in futsal and beach football, which later expanded to organized football. His first brush with the media came at the age of thirteen, when he scored all 23 goals in a 23–0 victory against a local team. Ronaldinho was identified as a rising star at the 1997 U-17 World Championship in Egypt, in which he scored two goals on penalty kicks.

Today, Roberto acts as Ronaldinho's manager, while his sister Deisi works as his press coordinator. Ronaldinho became a father for the first time on 25 February 2005, after Brazilian dancer Janaína Mendes gave birth to their son, who was named João after Ronaldinho's late father.

Ronaldinho's 2005 Nike advertisement, where he is given a new pair of boots and then proceeds to juggle a football and repeatedly volley it against the crossbar of a goal and recover it without the ball touching the ground, went viral on YouTube, becoming the site's first video to reach one million views.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Rivaldo

Rivaldo Vítor Borba Ferreira (born 19 April 1972 in Paulista, Pernambuco, Brazil), commonly known simply as Rivaldo, is a Brazilian professional footballer. He plays as an attacking midfielder and sometimes as a supporting striker.

He most notably played five years with Spanish club FC Barcelona, with whom he won the 1998 and 1999 Spanish La Liga championship and the 1998 Copa del Rey. Between 1993 and 2003, Rivaldo played 74 matches and scored 34 goals for the Brazil national football team and was an integral part of the 2002 FIFA World Cup winning Brazilian team.

In 1999, Rivaldo was honoured as FIFA World Player of the Year, Ballon d'Or winner and European Footballer of the Year. He was named by Pelé as one of the 125 Greatest Living Footballers at a FIFA Awards Ceremony in 2004. He is also the president of Mogi Mirim Esporte Clube in his native Brazil.

Early Life

Rivaldo had an extremely poor upbringing in the favelas of the port town of Recife. His physical appearance still marks the poverty he experienced in his childhood: malnourishment-caused bowleggedness and the loss of several teeth. Rivaldo began his professional career at the age of 16, when he signed with Paulistano, from Pernambuco, in 1989, despite the Paulistano coaches believing him too physically weak to succeed. Rivaldo's father Romildo was killed in a road accident in 1989, but Rivaldo went on to his first professional contract later that year.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Roberto Carlos

Roberto Carlos da Silva Rocha (born 10 April 1973 in Garça, São Paulo, Brazil), more commonly known simply as Roberto Carlos, is a player/manager who currently plays as a defensive midfielder for Russian Premier League club Anzhi Makhachkala, where he is also club captain. Carlos has spent most of his career as a left wingback but started his career in Brazil as a forward. He started playing for Brazil in 1992 and was a member of the Brazil national team in three World Cups, helping the team reach the final in 1998 and win the 2002 tournament. He is also known for his running speed and trademark free kicks with power and curve.

He previously played for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid for 11 years, making over 500 appearances and winning four leagues, three UEFA Champions League trophies, and two Intercontinental Cups. Roberto Carlos is also one of only fifteen players to have played more than 100 matches in the Champions League. He finished second to countryman Ronaldo in the 1997 FIFA World Player of the Year award poll and was named as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers by Pelé in March 2004.

Biography

Roberto Carlos was born in the city of Garça, São Paulo. Raised with no luxury, he had a poor childhood and used to spend his time between helping his parents in farm works, and playing with his friends after his all works were over. In 1981, Roberto Carlos with his family moved to Cordeirópolis.

On 24 June 2005, Carlos was robbed by two gunmen while doing a live radio interview. However, the thieves did not harm him, merely taking his watch and the interviewer's cellular phone.

On 2 August 2005, Carlos received dual Spanish and Brazilian citizenship. This proved important for Real Madrid, as it meant that he now counted as a European Union player, opening up one of the club's allowed three slots for non-EU players and enabling Real to sign fellow Brazilian star Robinho.

For his 38th birthday, it was reported that Anzhi Makhachkala owner, Suleyman Kerimov, bought him a Bugatti Veyron.

From : www.wikipedia.org 

Kaká

Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite (born 22 April 1982), commonly known as Kaká, is a Brazilian football attacking midfielder who currently plays for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and the Brazilian national team. Kaká started his footballing career at the age of eight, when he began playing for a local club. At the time, he also played tennis, and it was not until he moved on to São Paulo FC and signed his first professional contract with the club at the age of fifteen that he chose to focus on football.

In 2003 he joined Milan for a fee of €8.5 million. While at Milan, Kaká won the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards in 2007. After his success with Milan, Kaká joined Real Madrid for a world record fee of £56 million, smashing the previous record of Zidane, £49 million. Kaká's record was later broken by Cristiano Ronaldo when he joined Real Madrid for a fee of £80 million. In addition to his contributions on the pitch, Kaká is known for his humanitarian work. In 2004, by the time of his appointment, he became the youngest ambassador of the UN World Food Programme.

Early Life

Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite was born in Brasília to Bosco Izecson Pereira Leite (a civil engineer) and Simone dos Santos (an elementary school teacher). He had a financially secure upbringing that allowed him to focus on both school and football at the same time. His younger brother Rodrigo (best known as Digão) and cousin Eduardo Delani are also professional footballers.

When he was seven, Kaká's family moved to São Paulo. His school had arranged him in a local youth club called "Alphaville," who qualified to the final in a local tournament. There he was discovered by hometown club São Paulo FC, who offered an assignment.

At the age of 18, Kaká suffered a career-threatening and possibly paralysis-inducing spinal fracture as a result of a swimming pool accident, but remarkably made a full recovery. He attributes his recovery to God and has since tithed his income to his church.

Personal life

Kaká married his childhood sweetheart Caroline Celico on 23 December 2005 at a Rebirth in Christ church in São Paulo. Their first child, Luca Celico Leite, was born in São Paulo on 10 June 2008. On 8 December 2010, Kaká announced Celico was pregnant with their second child, a daughter. She was born late at night on 23 April 2011 and named Isabella.

Kaká was sworn in as an Italian citizen on 12 February 2007. He features prominently in Adidas advertising and also has a modeling contract with Armani, the latter preventing him from appearing in a photo collection alongside his Milan teammates that was published by Dolce & Gabbana in early 2007.

Raí, the former Brazilian and São Paulo FC captain, has always been the footballing role model of Kaká.

Kaká's best friend is fellow Brazilian Marcelo Saragosa who plays as a midfielder for the team FC Absheron in Azerbaijan. They both served as best man at each other's wedding.

Kaká is a follower of the evangelical Rebirth in Christ Church and devout evangelical Christian. Kaká became engrossed in religion at the age of 12: "I learnt that it is faith that decides whether something will happen or not." He removed his jersey to reveal an "I Belong to Jesus" t-shirt and openly engaged in prayer moments after the final whistle of Brazil's 2002 World Cup, and Milan's 2004 Scudetto and 2007 Champions League triumphs. He also had the same phrase, along with "God Is Faithful," stitched onto the tongues of his boots. During the postmatch celebration following Brazil's 4–1 win over Argentina in the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup final, he and several of his teammates wore t-shirts that read "Jesus Loves You" in various languages. While receiving the FIFA World Footballer of the year in 2007 he said when he was young he just wanted to be a professional player for SaoPaolo and play one game for the Brazil national Team but the God gave him more than he ever asked for".

Though sharing a common goal, Kaká is not currently a formal member of the organization Atletas de Cristo ("Athletes of Christ"). In goal celebrations he usually points to the sky as a gesture of thanks to God. Kaká's favourite music is gospel, and his favourite book is the Bible. Since November 2004, he has served as an Ambassador Against Hunger for the UN' World Food Programme, the youngest to do so at the time of his appointment.

On August 2010, EA Sports announceed that Kaká has been chosen for the cover of FIFA 11.

Kaká has a musical side to himself as he performed a song with his wife, Caroline, on her debut album. The song, entitled Presente de Deus, was written by Kaká himself for his wife and was resonated in the church during their wedding in 2005.

His nickname is pronounced as it is spelled, with stress on the second syllable (About this sound pronunciation, and is a common term of endearment of "Ricardo" in Brazil. In Kaká's case, it was created by his younger brother Digão calling him "Caca" due to his inability to pronounce "Ricardo" when they were young; it eventually evolved into Kaká.

From : www.wikipedia.org