António de Sommer Champalimaud (19 March 1918 in

Lapa Lapa may refer to: People * Bruno Lapa (born 1997), a Brazilian football player * Fernanda Lapa (1943–2020), a Portuguese actress * Serhiy Lapa (born 1992), a Ukrainian football player Places * Lapa, Paraná, a town near Curitiba, in the sta ...

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

– 8 May 2004 in Lapa, Lisbon) was a Portuguese

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

and

industrialist A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

. He was the wealthiest man in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, gaining his fortune through

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

, iron ore mining and

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

industries, which were nationalized after the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

of 1974. After living in exile in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

for seven years, he returned to Portugal and rebuilt his companies.

Biography

Born in 1918, the eldest child and son of Carlos Montez Champalimaud (

Peso da Régua :''Regua leads here. For American major general, see Eldon Regua'' Peso da Régua (), commonly known as Régua, is a city and municipality in northern Portugal, in the district of Vila Real (district), Vila Real. The population in 2011 was 17,131 ( ...

, Godim, 13 November 1877 –

Cascais Cascais () is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera, Estoril Coast. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km2. Cascais is an important tourism in Port ...

, 4 May 1937), a military doctor, Lord of the ancestral home of Quinta do Cotto in the Douro region (great-great-grandson in female line of

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

Paul Joseph Champalimaud, seigneur de Nussane, who came to Portugal and here married Clara Maria de Sousa Lira e Castro), and wife (m. Lisbon, 2 June 1917) Ana de Araújo de Sommer (Lisbon, 23 April 1885 – ?) (great-granddaughter in male line of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Franz Joseph Freiherr von

Sommer Sommer is a surname, from the German, Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian languages word for the season "summer". Notable people with this name include: A–L * Alfred Sommer (born 1943), American academic * Alice Herz-Sommer (1903–2014), Czech-born ...

and wife Klara Werlein von

Ascheberg Ascheberg () is a municipality in the district of Coesfeld in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The neighbouring cities, towns and municipalities of Ascheberg are (clockwise, starting in the North) the city Münster, the town Drenst ...

, who came to Portugal during the

Liberal Wars The Liberal Wars (), also known as the Portuguese Civil War () and the War of the Two Brothers () was a civil war in Portugal that lasted from May 1828 to May 1834, fought between liberal progressive constitutionalists (led by former King P ...

). He attended the La Guardia Jesuit High School before enrolling at the Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa to study

Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

. António never finished his college education, for at 19, after his father's death, he took over the family's construction company. Later, at the age of 28 he took over his uncle's ( Henrique de Araújo de Sommer, one of Portugal most important industrialists, who had died without issue, as did two of his brothers, two of his sisters and his niece) cement business. In Cascais,

Estoril Estoril () is a town in the civil parish of Cascais e Estoril of the Portuguese Municipality of Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera. It is a popular tourist destination, with hotels, beaches, and the Casino Estoril. It has been home to numero ...

, at the Igreja de Santo António, on 16 December 1941 he married Dona Maria Cristina da Silva José de Mello (

Lapa, Lisbon Lapa is a former parish (''freguesia'') in the municipality of Lisbon, Portugal. It has a total area of 0.72 km2 and total population of 8,671 inhabitants (2001); density: 12,026.4 inhabitants/km2. At the administrative reorganization of Lisbon ...

, 6 March 1920 – Lisbon, Prazeres, 25 August 2006), daughter of the major industrialist Dom Manuel Augusto José de Mello (of the Counts do

Cartaxo Cartaxo () is a concelho, municipality in the district of Santarém (district), Santarém in continental Portugal. The population in 2011 was 24,462, in an area of 158.17 km2. The urbanized centre of Cartaxo had a population of 9,507 in 2001. ...

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

s and

Marquess A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wid ...

es of Sabugosa, Counts of São Lourenço and Alferes-Majors of the Realm), and Amélia de Resende Dias de Oliveira da Silva. They had seven children together. Maria Cristina was an heir to the Grupo CUF, a company that was a conglomerate with interests in

chemical A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...

textiles Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

, insurances,

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other Watercraft, floating vessels. In modern times, it normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation th ...

and repairing,

shipping Freight transport, also referred to as freight forwarding, is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ...

and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

industries. They were divorced by 1957, after which he started competing with his ex-brother-in-law in the banking and insurance markets. His ex-wife married secondly in Lisbon, São Mamede, on 29 March 1980 Amaro de Azevedo Gomes (Cascais,

São Domingos de Rana São Domingos de Rana () is a Freguesia, civil parish () of the Portugal, Portuguese concelho, municipality of Cascais, part of the Greater Lisbon subregion. The population in 2011 was 57,502, in an area of 20.36 km2. The parish includes the l ...

, 22 June 1917 – Lisbon, São Mamede, 1 January 2008), without issue. He bequeathed 500 million euros to establish the

Champalimaud Foundation The Champalimaud Foundation MHM () is a private biomedical research foundation. It was created according to the will of the late entrepreneur António de Sommer Champalimaud, in 2004. The complete name of the foundation honors the mother and f ...

in order to support

biomedicine Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine)

. The foundation also administers a yearly 1 million euro prize for outstanding research related to

vision Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to: Perception Optical perception * Visual perception, the sense of sight * Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight * Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain und ...

, an appropriate prize, as late in life António lost his

eyesight Visual perception is the ability to detect light and use it to form an image of the surrounding environment. Photodetection without image formation is classified as ''light sensing''. In most vertebrates, visual perception can be enabled by ph ...

Business

Champalimaud expanded the cement business he took over from his uncle

Henrique de Sommer Henrique de Araújo de Sommer (Lisbon, 29 January 1886 — Cascais, 28 March 1944) was one of Portugal's most important industrialists. He was a member of a German aristocratic family living in Portugal, since his grandfather Heinrich Baron v ...

in 1946 and expanded it in Portugal to the point of a near monopoly. He also expanded his cement industry into Africa, to the Portuguese overseas territories of

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

and

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

. In the early 1960s, he bought the ''Banco Pinto & Sotto Mayor'' (BPSM) and the insurance companies ''Confiança'', ''Mundial'' and ''Continental Resseguros''. In 1969 he fled to Mexico to avoid an arrest warrant related to an inheritance case over shares of the ''Empresa de Cimentos de Leiria'', his uncle's old company. The warrant was revoked in 1973, after which Champalimaud returned to Portugal. In 1975, a year after the

, his companies were nationalized by the new government. Champalimaud first fled to France and ultimately to Brazil. Without his fortune, he restarted building his wealth, first establishing a cement company in Brazil, and later by also operating commercial farms. In 1992, Champalimaud returned to Portugal and started to buy back his old companies. In a series of transactions, Champalimaud sold the Champalimaud Group to the

Banco Santander Central Hispano Banco Santander S.A. trading as Santander Group ( , , ), is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Santander, with operative offices in Madrid. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in most global financial centres ...

, BSCH, Spain's largest bank .

References

*
Champalimaud Foundation
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Champalimaud, Antonio Champalimaud, Antonio de Sommer Champalimaud, Antonio de Sommer Portuguese bankers Portuguese people of French descent Portuguese people of German descent Portuguese businesspeople Champalimaud, Antonio de Sommer Portuguese nobility Portuguese philanthropists 20th-century Portuguese businesspeople 21st-century Portuguese businesspeople 20th-century philanthropists Members of the Board of Directors of the Banco Santander

Biography

Business

See also

References