Richest People History: The Richest People In The World

Tuesday, 27 March 2012

Eike Batista

Eike Batista Biography
Today, the Eike Batista biography is the story of 52 year old Rio De Janeiro based entrepreneur, the wealthiest man in Brazil, with his property alone being valued at US $7.5 billion. A renowned, self made businessman whose net worth is pegged at US$ 27 billion, Batista was recently featured in Forbes magazine as the eighth richest person in the world. He is a man known to take business risks that have eventually always paid off.

Born November 3, 1957, the son of Eliezer Batista da Silva (a well respected Brazilian government official and the then head of one of the world's largest mining companies Companhia Vale do Rio Doce - now Vale), Eike Batista now owns businesses in the oil, water and steel sectors. One of the first jobs Eike Batista took up was gold trading, after which he indulged in gold mining in the Amazon. The dense rainforests presented many dangers, and there was a time when his life was in grave danger. Fortunately, Batista fled away in his small plane with his two bodyguards and gold dust worth $200,000.

Brazil's richest and most influential businessman studied metallurgical engineering from the University of Aahen. As his stature grew, so did the number of gold mines that came under his management- from Russia to Argentina, Batista was carving a niche for himself. He also made headlines when his oil exploration findings off the coast of Brazil paid very rich dividends and made the nation one of the most promising countries as far the discovery of abundant oil is concerned.

Not many know that Eike Batista was a champion speedboat racer in his heyday, winning both national and international championships. He recently arranged for a national offshore powerboat championship in Brazil to popularize the sport, and since then, almost 26 powerful boats have participated in the championship. Batista's own boat, which is powered by a 1,100 horsepower engine, was among the ten superboats that participated in the New York Offshore Grand Prix on the Hudson River. Batista stated in one of his interviews that speed is in the blood of most Brazilians, and as a result, two of his close friends- Ayrton Senna and Nelson Piquet- were both world class Formula One Racing champions hailing from Brazil.

A college dropout, Eike Batista may well be on his way to becoming the world's richest man in due course of time. He has stated that he is looking to accumulate a net worth of approximately US$ 100 billion in the next ten years, and is keen to establish a healthy trading relationship with China.

However, life is not a bed of roses for everyone- not even Brazil's richest individual. There were allegations the billionaire was involved in gold smuggling. As a result, he was subjected to intense police investigations. Despite this phase in his life, Batista came out unscathed, as the accusations against him could never be proven.

He has come a long way in the last few years. One things is certain, the Eike Batista biography is not done yet.

Eike Batista

Eike Batista

Eike Batista

Eike Batista

Eike Batista

Eike Batista

Eike Batista

Eike Batista

Eike Batista

Eike Batista

Eike Batista

Eike Batista

Eike Batista

Re-thINC - Eike Batista at Zeitgeist Americas 2011

Lançamento da IMX de Eike Batista, com a IMG Worldwide

Eike Batista - Brazil's wealthiest man builds a super-port | Made in Germany

Monday, 26 March 2012

Lawrence Ellison

Lawrence Ellison Biography

Larry Ellison is the founder and CEO of the enterprise software company Oracle Corporation. He is also a well known American billionaire and philanthropist.

Lawrence Joseph Ellison, better known as Larry Ellison, was born in New York City on August 17, 1944 to a young unwed Jewish mother. In order to provide her son with a better upbringing, Ellison's mother gave him to Lillian Spellman Ellison and Louis Ellison, her aunt and uncle in Chicago. They formally adopted Ellison when he was only nine months old. Ellison didn't meet or reunite with his birth mother until he was 48.

Ellison's adoptive father took the name Ellison when he entered the US from his native Crimea as a tribute to Ellis Island. He also hoped to conceal his Jewish heritage. In his early years, Ellison grew up in the middle-class neighborhood of Chicago's South Shore. Although he fondly recalls the nurturing and supportive nature of his adoptive mother, his adoptive father was often distant and cold.

Although he was labeled as an intelligent child, Larry Ellison was inattentive in his studies. After graduating from South Shore High School, Ellison attended the University of Illinois but left at the end of his second year after the death of his adoptive mother. He spent the summer living in Northern California with his friend Chuck Weiss then continued his studies at the University of Chicago. He only spent one term at the University during which time he discovered computer programming and permanently relocated to Northern California. He was 20 years old at the time.

Although his short attention span worked against him during his academic career, Ellison's drive and impatience worked perfectly in line with the needs of computer programming. He worked for a variety of companies as a computer programmer and spent his free time hiking and climbing in Yosemite. In 1967 he married Adda Quinn. The marriage lasted seven years and ended in a divorce in 1974.

During the later years of his marriage, Larry Ellison began working for Ampex Corporation as a programmer on a database project for the CIA. Ellison named the project "Oracle", a name he would later use to signify his own company. While working on the project, Ellison read "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks" by Edgar F. Codd which inspired him to front the initial $2000 as the start-up fee for his own database systems company named Software Development Laboratories. It switched names a few times and ended up as Oracle.

Larry Ellison wanted his Oracle database system to be compatible with the IBM System R, but IBM refused to share the code necessary to make this possible. So Ellison was forced to release his system as a singular data sharing system. The original release was called Oracle 2, despite the lack of an original Oracle or Oracle 1. During this time Ellison also married Nancy Wheeler Jenkins from whom he divorced one year later.

IBM, Ellison's initial rival, was the primary database system for companies but failed to initiate a system for smaller companies and microcomputers. Ellison, along with other entrepreneurs took advantage of the void and flooded the market with their systems. Oracle, Sybase, and eventually Microsoft took over the market.

Just before the rise of Oracle, Larry Ellison met and married his third wife, Barbara Boothe, with whom he had two children. They divorced in 1986 after three years of marriage.

As Oracle rose to power along with other database systems, its primary competitor, Sybase, was taken over by PowerSoft and lost some of its hold on the market. Although the original Sybase software was sold to Microsoft and turned into the well known "SQL Server", this merger allowed Oracle to recover from a financial fall and lead the open market in database systems.

For a short time Larry Ellison served as director of Apple Computer when Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997. He resigned the position in 2002, sighting his inability to attend formal meetings, and one year later married his fourth wife, Melanie Craft. Steve Jobs served as the official photographer at the wedding.

Lawrence Ellison has five children, two with his third wife and three with Melanie Craft.

Lawrence Ellison