CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Six internationally known experts on Brazil will take part in a discussion Oct. 15 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 (Room 1122) of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, on the Urbana campus, 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., Urbana. All events are free and open to the public.
The institute is under the auspices of the campus's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and International Programs and Studies.
Brazilian entrepreneur Jorge Paulo Lemann and his family pledged $14 million to the university in February to establish the institute. The gift is the largest ever to the university from non-alumni. 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.
Among those expected to attend the inauguration ceremony are Richard Herman, the chancellor of the Urbana campus; Joseph L. Love, the interim director of the institute; Werner Baer, an economics professor at Illinois; Andrew Orta, the director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies; and Lemann.
The panelists scheduled to participate in the roundtable:
• 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. Amann is a visiting professorial lecturer at The Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. His research centers on the study of the economies of Latin America, especially Brazil. His work focuses on themes of industrial competitiveness, technological change and export dynamism. He also is interested in regulation and competition policy.
• Carlos R. Azzoni, the dean of the School of Economics, Administration and Accounting of the University of São Paulo. He has been a professor of economics at USP since 1973 and earned his master's and doctoral degrees there. He has been a visiting professor at Cornell University, Ohio State University and Illinois. His area of research is economic inequality in general, with a focus on regional inequality. Azzoni has chaired the Regional Planning Division of the state of São Paulo Secretary of Planning office for seven years.
• Yeda Rorato Crusius is an economist, professor and the first woman elected governor of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. She earned a degree in economics from USP and a master's degree from Vanderbilt University. In 1990, she joined the Brazilian Social Democracy Party. She previously was chief-minister of the Department of Planning, Budget and Coordination for the Brazilian government. She also was a federal representative of Rio Grande do Sul for three terms. Crusius is the only woman to have chaired the Joint Budget Committee of the Brazilian Congress and the first woman to chair the Finance and Taxation Committee. She has been mentioned as a possible candidate for president of Brazil in 2010. She has worked as a news analyst and columnist for several newspapers, radio stations and television stations in Brazil.
• Tasso Jereissati is a federal senator of Brazil; his term runs through 2011. He is a member of the Economic Affairs Committee and the Committee on the Constitution, Justice, and Citizenship. He was governor the state of Ceará (from 1987 to 1991 and from 1995 to 2002). Jereissati was elected head of the Party of Brazilian Social Democracy in 2005. Jereissati owns distributorships for soft drinks, a shopping center and television stations. Jereissati earned a bachelor's degree in business from Fundação Getlio Vargas, São Paulo. He has lectured at the University of California at Berkeley, Stanford University and Harvard University.
• Mauricio Rands is in his second term as a federal deputy from the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. He is an influential member of the Worker's Party, the party of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In 2008, Rands was elected leader of the Worker's Party in the Chamber of Deputies. A lawyer and professor, he specializes in labor law and has been a member of the law faculty at the Federal University of Pernambuco. In 2002, he was elected a member of the Federal Council of the OAB, the lawyer's association of Brazil. Rands earned a degree in law from the Federal University of Pernambuco, and a degree in labor and industrial relations from the Universita di Bari in Italy. He has a master's degree in public policy and a doctorate in political science from Oxford University. Rands is the author of "Labor Relations and New Unionism in Contemporary Brazil."
• Alexandre Tombini is deputy governor for financial system regulation and the organization of the Banco Central de Brasil, a position he has held since April 2006. In that role, he also is a member of the Banco Central board of directors. Tombini was the executive director of special studies with the Banco Central and also has been a senior adviser to Brazil's former International Monetary Fund representative in Washington, D.C.
Earlier in his career, Tombini held other senior positions in banking and international trade, working for the Banco Central, the Brazilian government and at the University of Brasília. His nomination to his current post required the approval of the Senate and also enables him to participate on the bank's monetary policy committee. Tombini 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. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brito holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and a master's in business administration from Stanford University. He previously worked for Shell Oil and Daimler Benz before joining the Brazilian beer and soft drinks company Brahma in 1989. Brahma later merged with Antarctica to form AmBev, the predecessor to InBev, which, in turn, acquired Anheuser-Busch.
• Marcos Holanda, who is Jereissati's aide. Holanda has been the director general of the Institute for Research and Economic Strategy of Ceará and is a professor of economics at the Universidade Federal do Ceará.
• João Castro Neves, zone president, Latin America North, for InBev. He has been with InBev since 1996. 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.
• Alexandre Vidal Porto, who is serving his second term at the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C., as Minister-Counselor for Cultural, Educational and Administrative Affairs. Born in São Paulo, he graduated from Instituto Rio-Branco, the Brazilian diplomatic academy. He also holds a law degree from the University of Fortaleza and a master's of law degree from Harvard Law School. As a diplomat, Porto has been assigned to the Mission of Brazil to the United Nations in New York and to the Brazilian embassies in Santiago, Washington, D.C., and Mexico City. His first novel was published in 2005; his second is to be published in 2010.
Lemann was born in Brazil in 1939 to Swiss immigrants. He earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1961. In 1971, he 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 with interests in communications, railways, real estate, amusement, and Internet and technology ventures. Lemann and partners bought control of a Brazilian brewery that became AmBev, the dominant brewing company in South America. The company merged with Interbrew of Belgium.
For more information about the Lemann institute and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, visit www.clacs.illinois.edu/brazilian/.
[ Email | Share ]