Jorge Paulo Lemann facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jorge Paulo Lemann
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | August 26, 1939 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
|
| Citizenship | Brazilian Swiss |
| Education | Harvard University (BA) |
| Occupation |
|
| Known for | Ambev and 3G Capital |
| Spouse(s) |
Maria Quental
(m. 1966; div. 1986)Susanna Mally
(m. 2005) |
| Children | 5 |
Jorge Paulo Lemann, born on August 26, 1939, is a very successful Brazilian businessman and investor. He also used to be a tennis player! He has both Brazilian and Swiss citizenship. Lemann helped start a big investment company called 3G Capital. This company owns famous brands like Burger King, Anheuser-Busch (which makes beer), and Heinz (known for ketchup). In March 2023, he became the richest person in Brazil.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Jorge Paulo Lemann was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1939. His father, Paul Lemann, was a Swiss immigrant who started a dairy company. His mother, Anna Yvette Truebner, was Brazilian with Swiss family. When Jorge was 14, his father passed away in a bus accident.
As a child, Jorge dreamed of becoming an inventor, like Thomas Edison. He tried to build different machines, but they often didn't work. He went to the American School of Rio de Janeiro.
In 1960, he earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University. Lemann later said he didn't enjoy his first year at Harvard. He was only 17 and missed the warm weather of Brazil. He also found the studies very challenging.
Tennis Career
When he was young, Lemann was a talented tennis player. He won the Brazilian national tennis championship five times. He played for both the Swiss and Brazilian teams in the Davis Cup. He even played at Wimbledon in 1962.
Business Career
After college, from 1961 to 1962, Lemann worked as a trainee at a bank called Credit Suisse in Geneva. In 1966, a lending company he had a small share in went out of business.
In 1971, Lemann, along with his partners Carlos Alberto Sicupira and Marcel Herrmann Telles, started a Brazilian investment bank called Banco Garantia. Even though the market crashed shortly after they started, Lemann managed to build Garantia into a very respected bank. It was even called "a Brazilian version of Goldman Sachs" by Forbes magazine.
In 1998, Banco Garantia was sold to Credit Suisse First Boston. From 1990 to 2001, Lemann was on the board of directors for a beer company called Companhia Cervejaria Brahma. He also helps lead Endeavor's office in Brazil. Endeavor is a group that supports new business owners in developing countries.
Later, Lemann and his partners, through their company GP Investimentos, bought two Brazilian breweries: Brahma beer and Companhia Antarctica Paulista. These two companies then joined together to become AmBev. By 2003, AmBev was making a lot of money. By 2004, it controlled most of the beer market in Brazil and other South American countries.
In 2004, AmBev merged with a Belgian company called Interbrew. The new company was called InBev. In 2008, InBev bought the American beer company Anheuser-Busch for a huge amount of money. This made them the biggest beer company in the world, now known as Anheuser-Busch Inbev (or AB Inbev). This deal made Lemann one of the most important people in the beer industry.
Lemann has also been on the board of other companies, including Lojas Americanas S.A. He was also on the board of Gillette, where he first worked with famous investor Warren Buffett.
3G Capital and Global Brands
Jorge Paulo Lemann is a co-founder of the Brazilian investment company 3G Capital. This company owns very well-known brands around the world. These include Burger King, Anheuser-Busch, and Heinz.
In 2010, 3G Capital made a big offer to buy all the shares of Burger King. They were advised by major financial firms like Lazard and JPMorgan Chase. 3G Capital already had some experience with fast food, as they had invested in Wendy's before.
In 2013, 3G Capital, working with Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett's company), bought the H. J. Heinz Company for $28 billion. Later, in 2015, this group announced that Heinz would merge with Kraft Foods. This new company became Kraft Heinz. Lemann was on the board of Kraft Heinz until 2021, when he decided to leave to reduce his travel.
In March 2023, because the value of Ambev's shares increased, Jorge Paulo Lemann became the richest person in Brazil again.
Personal Life
Jorge Paulo Lemann has been married twice and has six children. He has three children with his first wife and three with his second wife, Susanna. He often divides his time between São Paulo, Brazil, and Rapperswil-Jona in Switzerland, where his family lives. He also spends time in St. Louis.
In 1994, when he was 54, he had a heart attack. In 1999, there was an attempt by armed people to kidnap his children on their way to school. This event led Lemann to move permanently to Switzerland with his family. Even after the incident, his children still went to school that day, and Lemann was only a little late for work.
Lemann doesn't often give interviews or appear in public. However, in Brazil, he is seen as a "business-class hero." Bloomberg described him as a mix of famous people: "part Buffett, part Sam Walton, part Roger Federer."
See also
In Spanish: Jorge Paulo Lemann para niños
