A History of Entrepreneurship

                                             Eike Batista

After spending his infancy in Brazil, at the beginning of his teenage years Batista lived in cities such as Geneva (Switzerland), Düsseldorf (Germany) and Brussels (Belgium), accompanying his family, which had moved to Europe because of his father’s professional career. In 1974, he entered a Metallurgical Engineering course at the University of Aachen, Germany. When his parents returned to Brazil, he began to sell insurance policies door-to-door in the city to ensure a personal income that allowed him to remain financially independent while overseas. According to him, the “stress” and knowledge that he acquired through this experience were of decisive importance for his training to become a businessman. Back in Brazil at the start of the 1980s, he began his entrepreneurial career in the mineral sector. Fluent in five languages – Portuguese, German, English, French and Spanish — he was the middleman between producers in the Amazon region and buyers in large Brazilian and European centres. He established Autram Aurem, a company that bought and sold gold and, within a year and half, had made US$ 6 million. In the same decade he started up Novo Planeta, the first mechanized alluvial gold mining operation in the Amazon, which was the origin of the group. At 29, he became the chief executive of TVX Gold of Canada – a company listed on the Canadian Stock Exchange, kicking off his relationship with the global capital markets. Between 1980 and 2000, Batista created US$ 20 billion in value through the setting up and operation of eight gold mines in Brazil and Canada (Amapari, Casa Berardi, Crixás, Musselwhite, New Britania, Novo Astro, Novo Planeta and Paracatu) and silver mine in Chile (La Coipa). As of 2000, he began to operate three iron ore mines in Brazil (Mina 63, Tico Tico and Ipê). From 2004 to 2012, he created, structured and took public six companies: OGX (oil and gas), MPX (energy), LLX (logistic), MMX (mining), OSX (naval offshore industry) and CCX (coal mining). Since 2005, the EBX Group has raised more than US$ 26 billion through asset sales and stock offers.

 Separated, the father of two sons, Thor and Olin, Batista chose Rio de Janeiro in which to live. He likes to run and to swim. He is in love with speed, cars and boats. At the beginning of the 1990s, he was Brazilian, American and World champion in the Super Powerboat Offshore category. In 2006, he completed a journey of 220 nautical miles between Santos and Rio de Janeiro in 3h01m47s, breaking the previous record on board his Spirit of Brazil powerboat. Within the group, he likes to say “the waiting line is as fast as a Porsche,” referring to the speed of business activities.

 In 2011, he published his book "O X da Questão" (The Heart of the Matter) in which he narrates his history as an entrepreneur – from selling insurance door-to-door in Germany through to the going public of the five companies – and presents the concepts and ideas that guide the EBX Group’s businesses.

 Batista, the businessman, thinks about and executes his projects based on the Vision 360º entrepreneurial model he created. This is a multidisciplinary view that orients all of the group’s businesses. Simplified, there are nine areas or nine types of engineering: engineering of people, finances, legal, political, logistical, environmental and social, communication, health and safety as well as the engineering of engineering. According to Batista, it is of fundamental importance that none of these variables are lost sight of when it comes time to develop a project.

Batista’s digital life is up-to-date. He has a personal website containing articles, videos and information about his companies, along with an account on Twitter – his “electronic pen.” His profile on this micro-blog, which was created in 2010, has more than 915,000 followers. He has already organized two meetings with some of his Twitter followers.