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

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

businessman, and former

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

of the state of

Mato Grosso Mato Grosso ( – lit. "Thick Bush") is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest by area, located in the Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible for 1.9% of the Brazilian GDP. Neighboring ...

. 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 São Miguel do Iguaçu, Paraná, Brazil, the son of Andre Maggi, founder of the Amaggi Group. He graduated from

Federal University of Paraná The Federal University of Paraná ( pt, Universidade Federal do Paraná, UFPR) is a public university headquartered in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. UFPR is considered to be one of the oldest universities in Brazil. UFPR ranks as 37th best univers ...

, 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'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' 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 Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

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 owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' 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 The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Inc. (ICIJ), is an independent global network of 280 investigative journalists and over 140 media organizations spanning more than 100 countries. It is based in Washington, D.C. with ...

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'' Süddeutsch ...

" allegations.

References

, - Brazilian businesspeople Governors of Mato Grosso 1956 births Living people Brazilian farmers People from Paraná (state) Members of the Federal Senate (Brazil) Cidadania politicians Liberal Party (Brazil, 2006) politicians Progressistas politicians Brazilian people of Italian descent Government ministers of Brazil Brazilian billionaires People named in the Paradise Papers Agriculture ministers of Brazil {{Brazil-politician-stub