Brazilian beer magnate donates $16.5 million to UI
CHAMPAIGN – It isn't Carnaval, but things are looking pretty Brazilian at the University of Illinois this week.
Jorge Paulo Lemann, who took a Brazilian beer and soft drink maker through a merger with Europe's biggest beer company and then Anheuser-Busch, has committed $16.5 million to the Urbana campus.
And he didn't even go here.
A former tennis champion and banker, Lemann is the third-weathiest man in Brazil. He gave the campus $14 million to create the Lemann Institute for Brazilian Studies at Illinois, which kicks off this week. It's the largest gift ever from a non-alumnus. He also has provided the campus with $2.5 million for endowed chairs, said UI spokeswoman Robin Kaler.
In 1971, Lemann and three partners founded Banco Garantia, an investment-banking firm, which became one of Brazil's most prestigious investment banks.
Lemann is a partner of GP Investimentos, a private equity firm. Lemann and partners bought control of a Brazilian brewery that later became AmBev. That firm merged with Interbrew of Belgium to become InBev. Last year, InBev merged with Anheuser-Busch.
Werner Baer, the UI's Jorge Lemann Professor of Economics, said Tuesday that the campus is celebrating Brazilian history and culture this week, including a performance by the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. today at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
"We were lucky that the Sao Paulo Symphony was already making a tour of the U.S.," said Baer, a close friend of Lemann's since both attended Harvard in the late 1950s.
Six internationally known experts on Brazil will take part in a discussion Thursday on "Brazil's Rising Status in the 21st Century" as part of the inauguration of the Lemann Institute for Brazilian Studies at Illinois.
The discussion, to begin at 3 p.m. in the auditorium at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, will be followed by an inauguration ceremony at 5 p.m. and a reception at 5:30 p.m. The ceremony and reception will be in the first-floor atrium of the NCSA Building, 1205 W. Clark St., U. All events are free and open to the public.
Baer said Lemann was attracted to the university by a history of serving Brazilian students.
"Over the years, the UI has brought in a lot of Brazilian students who brought back their experiences to Brazil, where they have had successful careers. One is now the director of the central bank. They've recruited more students" to the UI, Baer said.
He said his guess is that there are now about 60 Brazilian students in Urbana, along with several professors.
The institute is under the auspices of the campus' Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and International Programs and Studies.
The institute will build on the university's existing programs and initiatives related to Brazil to create one of the leading Brazilian studies programs in the nation, the UI said.
Among those expected to attend the inauguration ceremony are Chancellor Richard Herman; Joseph L. Love, the interim director of the institute; Andrew Orta, the director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies; and Lemann.
The panelists scheduled to participate in the roundtable are:
– Edmund Amann, a reader in developmental economics at the University of Manchester, England. He has been the Lemann Visiting Professor in the economics department at Illinois and is an associate adjunct visiting professor in the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at Illinois.
– Carlos R. Azzoni, the dean of the School of Economics, Administration and Accounting of the University of Sao Paulo.
– Yeda Rorato Crusius, an economist, professor and the first woman elected governor of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.
– Tasso Jereissati, a federal senator of Brazil.
– Mauricio Rands, a federal deputy from the Brazilian state of Pernambuco.
– Alexandre Tombini, deputy governor for financial system regulation and the organization of the Banco Central de Brasil. He earned a master's degree and a doctorate in economics at Illinois and an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Brasília.
Other Brazilian notables expected to participate in the inauguration events:
– Carlos Brito, chief executive officer of the world's largest brewery, Anheuser-Busch InBev.
– Marcos Holanda, the director general of the Institute for Research and Economic Strategy of Ceara.
– Joao Castro Neves, zone president for InBev. Neves holds a degree in engineering from Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro and earned an MBA at Illinois. He was AmBev's chief financial officer and investor relations officer before being appointed zone president Latin America South in 2007.
For more information about the Lemann Institute and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, visit www.clacs.illinois.edu/brazilian/.
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