Antônio ErmÃrio de Moraes
Ermirio Antônio de Moraes ( born June 4, 1928 in São Paulo) is Brazilian entrepreneur and industrialist. He is the grandfather of Brazilian racing driver Mario Moraes.
De Moraes studied metallurgy at the Colorado School of Mines in the United States, where he earned an engineering degree in 1949.
He is President and a Director of Grupo Votorantim, which was founded by his grandfather, the Portuguese immigrants Antônio Inácio Pereira and continued by his father José de Morais Ermirio (1900-1973) and enlarged. For Grupo Votorantim include companies, cement, cellulose, paper, aluminum, zinc, nickel, steel beams, films of polypropylene, products, specialty chemicals and orange juice manufacture. Part of the conglomerate is also a bank, over de Moraes but jokes that she had been set up solely to serve as " not having to pay the interest demanded by the financial market and defines the central bank ." The Banco Votorantim (BV) and his daughter BV Financeira currently occupy third place in the ranking of financing and operating in a market with banking and financial institutions that were founded by foreign investors or even longer time in the market. The BV was granted last three consecutive times the price of the Revista Exame as the best finance company of the country.
De Moraes has multinationalisiert its group of companies. She earned under his leadership, among other things, an aluminum plant in Canada. The associated Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio ( CBA) is the main field of entrepreneurship Ermírios, who heads personal name shops.
The newest branch of the group, which was founded four years ago Votorantim Ventures, an investment fund with $ 300 million in capital, which is pursuing a strategy diversified investments in future technologies and potential growth sectors such as biotechnology, bioinformatics, data and call center, e-commerce and Biodiversity.
In addition to his entrepreneurial activities Ermirio is at various non-governmental organizations active, including the Sociedade beneficencia Portuguesa de São Paulo, which operates a hospital in São Paulo, the Associação Cruz Verde de São Paulo ( " Green Cross " for infantile cerebral palsy ) and the Fundação Antônio Prudente. He supported democratization campaigns and initiatives for the improvement of the Brazilian health system. In 1986 he was a candidate for the office of Governor of the State of São Paulo, but was not elected.
He regularly publishes articles in Brazilian newspapers and magazines and he is a member of Academia Paulista de Letras. It has been four books, mostly on economic and social issues published.