Belmiro de Azevedo

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Belmiro Mendes de Azevedo (born February 17, 1938) is a Portuguese entrepreneur, ranked by Forbes as the 605th richest person in the world (2008), as well as the second richest in Portugal with an estimated wealth of $2.0 billion dollars. He owns Sonae SGPS, one of the largest business groups in Portugal, which also operates in Spain, Greece, Germany, Italy and Brazil

Sonae is a Portuguese leader in real estate and retailing and also has investments in telecommunications, tourism, venture capital and the media. In 2006, Sonae launched an unsuccessful hostile bid to control Portugal Telecom, the number one Portuguese telecommunications operator.

Belmiro de Azevedo, a carpenter and a tailor's son, has a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Porto and an MBA from Harvard University. He is married to Margarida Teixeira and father of three children: Paulo, Nuno and Cláudia.

Belmiro de Azevedo's shares were acquired to the estate of late banker Afonso Pinto de Magalhães who, through his bank Banco Pinto de Magalhães, fully owned Sonae. Magalhães put Belmiro de Azevedo in charge of Sonae during the turbulent years following the 1974 Carnation Revolution that culminated in the seizure of the company by the Government. It was the success in keeping the company running during these years, plus the also successful reclaiming of the company ownership, that led the deceased banker's family to cede the control of Sonae to Belmiro de Azevedo, but not before a protracted legal battle between him and the banker's sons, whom Belmiro de Azevedo accused of incompetence and cockiness[1].