Roger Agnelli, who presided over an unprecedented decade of growth throughout the commodities boom that entrenached Brazilian mining company Vale SA as the world’s largest iron-ore producer, has died. He was 56.
Vale confirmed Agnelli’s death on Sunday, each day after he and six others – including his wife, son and daughter – died in a Sao Paulo plane crash. His single-engine turboprop came down inside a residential neighborhood around three minutes after leaving Campo de Marte airport on the way to Rio de Janeiro, according to Brazil’s civil aviation agency.
Agnelli, an economist, was president and ceo at Vale – and also the same company under its prior name Cia. Vale do Rio Doce – for a decade through 2011 throughout a period when iron ore prices spiked. He led the company to an investment-grade rating, oversaw a lot more than US$84 billion in investments and acquisitions, and distributed US$17 billion in dividends.
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Brazil lost a citizen with “extraordinary entrepreneurial vision,” who was always “committed to the introduction of the country,” Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said inside a statement.
The Harvard Business Review named Agnelli the world’s fourth-best CEO for 2012, trailing Apple Inc.’s Steve Jobs, Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos, and Samsung Electronics Co.’s Yun Jong-Yong. The magazine cited an industry-adjusted shareholder return of 1,773 per cent during his tenure at Vale along with a US$157 billion rise in the company’s market capitalization.
During Agnelli’s tenure, Vale became “the world’s top iron- ore producer,” the company’s press office said within an e-mail Sunday. He helped the miner “intensify its global expansion strategy, which led Vale to a new level in the global market.”
Agnelli also clashed using the government over demands he spend more on steelmaking and also over the number of local workers were fired when Latin America’s largest economy entered recession in 2009. He left Vale this year to found AGN Participacoes, which markets iron, copper and other ores to South American manufacturers.
Before joining Vale, Agnelli helped 20 years for Banco Bradesco SA, Brazil’s second-biggest lender by market value, having reached the positioning of executive director. He would be a board member of companies including state-controlled oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA and power utility CPFL Energia SA.
Agnelli was a “synonym of one’s,” Luiz Carlos Trabuco Cappi, CEO of Bradesco, said inside a statement. “His style, friendly in relationships and resolute in business, marked a time of deep global changes.”
Bloomberg.com
