power woman dilma rousseff

7/30/2019 Power Woman Dilma Rousseff

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Power Woman Dilma Rousseff: Brazil's

Entrepreneur-In-Chief

This story appears in the September 10, 2012 issue of Forbes.

Gabriel Rinaldi/Redux for Forbes

ByAlexis GlickwithMeghan Casserly andRicardo Geromel

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseffrecently encountered a young couple in their 30s,with a brood of young children and a hopeful outlook on the future. Until recently thefather had driven a bus in Braslia, but thanks to an expansion of electricity and irrigationinfrastructure, he turned previously unusable land in the countryside into a thrivingvegetable farm, along with a side business raising chickens.

How much do you make? Rousseff asked him.

Four times what I used to earn as a bus driver, the independent farmer responded. Moremoney was coming in, and the costs of raising a family in the countryside are lower aswell. His new goal for his children: degrees in agricultural science.
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Snapshot: Dilma Rousseff

We are wagering, smiles Rousseff, sitting in her minimalist, art-filled office in thePresidential Palace in Braslia as she recalls that conversation, that people will be able tostand up on their own feet and walk by themselves.

Her wagerBrazils wageris on entrepreneurship. The past two decades have beenformidable for her country: curbing inflation (by creating the real and pegging it to theU.S. dollar), privatization (notably, the state-owned telecommunication and miningcompanies) and a commodities boom (soybean and iron ore). Twenty years ago BrazilsGDP was at $358 billion and ranked 11th in the world; today, at $2.5 trillion, its betweensixth and eighth, depending on whos counting. No other BRIC balances democracy andwidespread wealth nearly as well. Half of Brazils population now occupies the middleclasstheir output alone surpasses the entire economy of neighboring Argentina. Therehas been a shift, a change in the way we are [perceived], says Rousseff, 64, whoseposition atop this shift now makes her the third most powerful woman in the world,

according to FORBES annual rankings.

Brazil has become one of the most entrepreneurial countries in the world, with one infour adults self-employed in some manner. Small businesses create two out of three jobsin Rousseffs private sectorBrazils unemployment rate is an envious 5.8%and 49% ofentrepreneurs with companies less than 42 months old are women; the global average is37%. In bustling So Paulo alone, 1.8 million small-business owners ply their trades,wares and ideas.

Technology has been a game changer. According to Nielsen, Brazil had 82.4 millionInternet users in the first quarter of 2012 compared with 62.3 million three years earlier.

On Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter Brazilians are the second most active social networkusers behind the U.S. Technology is democratizing entrepreneurialism, says BedyYang, the founder of Brazilian Innovators, an organization helping young techentrepreneurs. There are 200 million people in Brazil and 250 million mobile devices.The Brazilian-born Yang lives in Silicon Valley and travels each month to her homelandto host monthly meetups. Three years ago you couldnt find any venture capital, saysYang, as we lurch through the clogged streets of So Paulo. Now Im seeing AccelPartners, Redpoint Ventures and Sequoia. Its the formation of a new asset class.
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Rousseff, who took office early last year, has a plan to keep the good times rolling:incentivizing the kind of entrepreneur that Yang cultivates and that her farmer friendembodies. Specifically, lower interest rates, to expand capital; investing in infrastructure;and targeted tax cuts. In others words, says Rousseff, pro-growth bonuses. This ontop of an already robust layer of incentives for entrepreneurs, including retirement

benefits and government microloans. The corner hairdresser, the popcorn salesperson,we also like to help them, says Rousseff, who es-pouses a program that advances up to$500 to these kinds of small operators.

The public supports hera June poll put her approval rating at 77%, ahead of herpredecessor and mentor, Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, at a similar point in his term. Perhapsmore critically, so does Brazils entrepreneurial community. Our government has madesubstantive reforms in recent years, Eike Batista, Brazils top entrepreneur (and theworlds seventh-richest man, with an estimated net worth of $30 billion), tells FORBES,and Dilma is building a fertile environment for investors.

I dont think I had a plan to be president, says Rousseff. Thats an understatement:Rousseffs route to Brazils entrepreneur-in-chief is as unconventional as they come.

Rousseffs father, a Communist exile from Bulgaria, made a good living in real estate andconstruction. His two daughters attended boarding school, where Dilma studied pianoand inhaled books, a habit to this day. (Next up: James Carvilles Its the Middle Class,Stupid!) I used to play volleyball, recalls Rousseff. My wrist is not that strong, but Icould block my opponent.

In 1964, when Rousseff turned 17, Brazils military overthrew the leftist government ofJoo Goulart, the fifth political coup in 20 years. Overnight civil rights gave way to

arrests, disappearances and torture. In 1967, unbeknownst to her family, Rousseff tookthe nom de guerre Estela and joined a radical faction of the Brazilian Socialist Party thatpreached revolt but settled for robberies and car-bombings.

Her first marriage lasted less than two years, but the second, to activist lawyer CarlosAraujo, a prominent member of the Brazilian Communist Party, would stick for nearlythree decades. Araujo and Rousseff joined an activist group responsible for stealing a safecontaining $2.5 million to fund political actions. Araujo has said his wife never took uparms. (He also has said he didnt know his wifes given name until her arrest.) In early1970 Rousseff was caught in a sting operation. Military officials tortured her for 22 days,sometimes using electric shocks, and she spent the next three years in prison.

By the time Rousseff was released in 1972, she was 20 pounds thinner and physicallybroken. Undaunted, she traded her radical politics for pragmatism. Rousseff pursued aneconomics degree, and with Araujo, now parents of a daughter, Paula, supported theDemocratic Labor Party, a cooperative movement composed of leftist groups (a decadeago she jumped to the ruling Workers Party). As her reputation grew, Rousseff landedstate-level positions as Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of Energy before servingas chief of staff for President Lula da Silva, whom she succeeded.


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Rousseff rarely discusses her days as a radical and torture victim, nor does she marvelmuch at her improbable journey from prisoner to president. For her time and country, shesays, its typical, the 1968 generation.

power woman dilma rousseff

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