Associates Breakfast With Eike Batista, Chairman and CEO of EBX Group
February 9, 2012
Santa Monica
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| Abundant natural resources, transparent markets and supportive government policies have led to tremendous opportunities in Brazil, according to Eike Batista, the nation's most prominent entrepreneur. |
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Eike Batista hopes his success story will inspire a new generation of Brazilian entrepreneurs and eventually transform the country, both socially and economically. "We don't need to only have the best soccer players in the world," he said recently. "Why not have the best entrepreneurs in the world?"
Recently named one of the 50 most influential people on the planet by Bloomberg Businessweek, the billionaire Batista feels a responsibility to help fellow Brazilians improve their quality of life. He helps fund a police program to eradicate drug gangs from the slums, and he has pledged millions more toward the 2016 Summer Olympics that will put the country in the international spotlight.
At this private breakfast for Milken Institute Associates, Batista gave his take on how to solve Brazil's social challenges, what's ahead for the commodities and metals market, and what is being done to improve infrastructure to handle not only Brazil's sizzling economic expansion but also the influx of visitors for the Olympics and 2014 World Cup.
Batista is also contributing to the infrastructure boom, building a $2 billion "superport" in Rio that will handle some 350 million tons of imports and exports a year, including crude from the gigantic Brazilian oil discovery that he has called a "trillion-dollar story."
Batista is chairman and CEO of the EBX Group, a holding company for a number of subsidiary firms focused on mining, energy, oil and gas, logistics and offshore exploration. EBX companies have built ports, power plants and drilling operations, as well as hospitality and entertainment projects in Rio de Janeiro. Batista, who was a world champion powerboat racer, engages regularly with his more than 550,000 Twitter followers.
This event was open only to Milken Institute Associates, and pre-registration is required. To register, join the Associates or learn more about the program, please contact Mindy Silverstein, managing director of the Associates program, at (310) 570-4634 or msilverstein@milkeninstitute.org.
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