Blairo Borges Maggi (born 29 May 1956) is a Brazilian

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

businessman, and former

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

of the state of

Mato Grosso Mato Grosso ( – ) is one of the states of Brazil, the List of Brazilian states by area, third largest by area, located in the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible ...

. Maggi owns the Amaggi Group, a large company that harvests, processes, and exports soybeans, and owns soy terminals, highways, and waterways.

Early life

Blairo Borges Maggi was born in Torres,

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...

, Brazil, the son of Andre Maggi, founder of the Amaggi Group. He graduated from Federal University of Paraná, majoring in

agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...

Career

Maggi is the world's largest soybean producer. His accusers hold him responsible for the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. His defenders say he is taking Brazil forward. In this respect he is unapologetic, telling ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' in 2003: "To me, a 40 percent increase in deforestation doesn't mean anything at all, and I don't feel the slightest guilt over what we are doing here ..We're talking about an area larger than Europe that has barely been touched, so there is nothing at all to get worried about". Maggi received the Golden Chainsaw Award in 2006 from

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of Environmental movement, environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its biod ...

for being the Brazilian who most contributed to the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest. In 2015, Maggi's net worth was estimated by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' at US$1.2 billion, based on his 16% stake in Grupo Andre Maggi.

Paradise Papers

In November 2017 an investigation conducted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism cited his name in the list of politicians named in "

Paradise Papers The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper'' Süddeutsche Z ...

" allegations.

References

, - Brazilian businesspeople Governors of Mato Grosso 1956 births Living people Brazilian farmers People from Rio Grande do Sul Members of the Federal Senate (Brazil) Cidadania politicians Liberal Party (Brazil, 2006) politicians Progressistas politicians Brazilian people of Italian descent Brazilian billionaires People named in the Paradise Papers Agriculture ministers of Brazil 20th-century farmers Brazilian Roman Catholics {{Brazil-Senator-stub