Thursday, Mar. 29, 2012
Eike Batista
Age: 55
Occupation: Tycoon, civic leader
Like Mexico's Carlos Slim, Batista is a self-made billionaire, but he's more than that. Fluent in five languages, Batista made his $30 billion fortune via mining and the shrewd investments of his Brazilian holding company EBX. Along the way he became one of the most important cheerleaders of the Brazilian boom — and the pivotal ascent of emerging economies like the BRICs. He's rare among Latin America's notoriously uncivic-minded superrich in that he makes a point of giving back to his nation, especially his adopted city of Rio de Janeiro, which he helped to snare the 2016 Olympics.