Ernesto Igel (27 November 1893 – 24 January 1966) was an Austrian entrepreneur and founder of the company Empresa Brasileira de Gáz a Domilicio Ltda, the first Brazilian gas distribution network of fuel for cooking equipment (LPG). In 1938, the company changed its name to Ultragaz S.A. Through Ultragaz's growth and the creation of new companies, Ernesto Igel founded

Ultra adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley P ...

, also known as Ultrapar.

Early life

Born to a family of merchants in Vienna, Austria, Igel was the eldest of five children. At 15, he got his first job at an import-export company. At 21, he was drafted to the Austrian army to fight in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. He was sent to

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

, where he served as a management assistant.

Career

After the war, Igel moved to Brazil in 1920 when he was 26 years old. He then established the company Ernesto Igel & Cia., an importer of tableware, sanitary metals, stoves and heaters for use with pipeline gas. During his trips to Europe, Igel got to work with the then-new gas bottling technology for domestic use. On 30 August 1937 Igel founded Empresa Brasileira de Gáz a Domicílio Ltda. The following year, in September 1938, the company's IPO set the start of Ultragaz S.A. After that, the company extended its operations and began to conduct business throughout Brazil.

Personal life

Igel married Margaret Hartman, also Austrian, with whom he had two children, Pery and Daisy Igel. The businessman headed the administration of their companies until 1959, when he named his son,

Pery Igel Pery Igel (November 27, 1921 – September 24, 1998) was a Brazilian businessman. Igel was Ultra's second president, succeeding his father and company's founder, Ernesto Igel. Biography Igel was the administrator and second president of Ultra. H ...

, as the new head of Ultragaz.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Igel, Ernesto 1893 births 1966 deaths Businesspeople from Vienna 20th-century Brazilian businesspeople Austrian expatriates in Brazil Igel family