Sebastián Piñera

Sebastián Piñera
President-elect of Chile
Assuming office March 11, 2010
Succeeding	Michelle Bachelet
Senator of Chile
In office March 11, 1990 – March 11, 1998
Succeeded by	Carlos Bombal Otaegui
President of Coalition for Change
In office May 26, 2001 – March 10, 2004
Preceded by	Alberto Cardemil Herrera
Succeeded by	Sergio Díez Urzúa
Personal details
Born	(1949-12-01) December 1, 1949 Santiago, Chile
Political party	Coalition for Change
Spouse	Cecilia Morel Montes
Children	Magdalena Cecilia Sebastián Cristóbal
Residence(s)	Santiago, Chile
Alma mater	Pontifical Catholic University of Chile Harvard University
Profession	Investor Businessperson
Website	Official website

Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique (Spanish pronunciation: [miˈɣel ˈxwan seβasˈtjan piˈɲeɾa eʧeˈnike]; born December 1, 1949) is the current President-elect of Chile. He was the winner of the second round of the presidential election that took place on Sunday, January 17, 2010, and will take office on Thursday March 11, 2010. He is a well known economist, investor, politician and former Senator. He is a member of the center-right National Renewal (RN) party, a constituent of the Coalition for Change, ex-Alliance for Chile coalition.

Personal life

Piñera was born in Santiago to Magdalena Echenique Rozas (of Basque descent) and José Piñera Carvallo, an engineer of Asturian descent who worked for CORFO and was Chile's ambassador to Belgium and to the United Nations. He is the fourth child, with three brothers and two sisters: Guadalupe, José Piñera (a former Minister of Labour under Augusto Pinochet), Pablo, Sebastián, Miguel Piñera (a well-known Chilean performer), and Magdalena. He is married to Cecilia Morel Montes and has four children: Magdalena, Cecilia, Sebastián and Cristóbal.

Education

One year after his birth, the Piñera Echenique family moved abroad to Belgium and later to New York City, where his father was the Chilean ambassador to the United Nations. Piñera returned to Chile in 1955 and was enrolled in the Colegio del Verbo Divino ("Divine Word High School"), from which he was graduated in 1967.

Piñera then matriculated at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile for his undergraduate degree in economics, from which he was graduated in 1971 with one of the highest grade point averages in the history of the university. Upon graduation, he was awarded the Raúl Iver Oxley Prize, given to the overall best student of each class.

Piñera continued on to Harvard University on a partial Fulbright Program for his postgraduate studies in economics. During his time at Harvard, Piñera and a classmate co-authored an article entitled, "The Old South's Stake in the Inter-Regional Movement of Slaves" for the Journal of Economic History. He also worked as a teaching fellow during 1975 and 1976. After three years at Harvard, Piñera was graduated with both a master's and a doctorate in economics. His thesis was entitled, "The Economics of Education in Developing Countries."

Piñera returned to his country in 1976.

Teaching career

Once graduated, Piñera was an educator from 1971 until 1988. He was Professor of Economy at University of Chile, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and Adolfo Ibáñez University. In 1971 he was professor of Economic Political Theory in the School of Economics at University of Chile. In 1972 he was a professor at the Valparaiso Business School.

Businesses

Piñera owns 100% of Chilevisión, a terrestrial television channel broadcasting nationwide; 27% of LAN Airlines (LAN), 13% of Colo-Colo, a football (soccer) club; and holds significant stock positions in companies such as Quiñenco, Enersis, and Soquimich.

Piñera has built an estimated fortune of US$1 billion as of March 2009, according to Forbes magazine. His wealth is attributed in great part to his involvement in the introduction of credit cards to Chile in the late 1970s and his subsequent investments, mainly in LAN Airlines stock. Piñera acquired shares of the formerly state-owned company from Scandinavian Airlines in 1994, as part of a joint venture with the Cueto family.

In 1982, an arrest warrant was issued against Piñera. He was accused of violating the Banking Law during his time as general manager of the Bank of Talca. Piñera spent 24 days in hiding, while his lawyers appealed the order. A writ of habeas corpus was first rejected by the Appeals Court, but then approved by the Supreme Court, acquitting Piñera.

In July 2007, Piñera was fined approximately US$680,000 by Chile's securities regulator (SVS) for not withdrawing a purchase order after he received privileged information (an infraction very similar to insider trading) of LAN Airlines stock in mid-2006. Piñera denied any wrongdoing and asserted that the whole process was part of a political attack to damage his image. He did not appeal, stating that the court process could take years and interfere with his intention to run again for president in late 2009. Later that month, he resigned from the boards of LAN and Quintec.

Political career

Piñera declared he voted No in the 1988 plebiscite on Augusto Pinochet. However, in 1989 he headed the presidential campaign of Hernán Büchi, a former finance minister of the Pinochet government. During the same election process, Piñera was elected as Senator for East Santiago (1990–1998) and soon after, joined the center-right National Renewal (RN) party. During his term as Senator he was a member of the Senate Finance Committee.

In 1992 Piñera's attempt to become his party's candidate for the following year's presidential election would end dramatically after he was involved in a scandal known as Piñeragate, wherein a wiretapped conversation between himself and a friend was revealed during a political television show he attended. In the conversation—made public by the television station's owner, Ricardo Claro—he conspired to have his rival for the party's nomination, Evelyn Matthei, cornered during the show by a journalist close to Piñera. The tape was then revealed to have been illegally recorded by a member of the military and given to Matthei, who then gave it to Claro. Matthei stepped down from the presidential race as well.

Piñera was president of his party from 2001 to 2004. He tried to run for senator in 2001, but resigned his campaign after the presidential candidate of his alliance -and member of the allied party, the Independent Democrat Union (UDI)-, Joaquín Lavín made it clear he would not support candidates from Piñera's party, insisting on supporting retired Admiral Jorge Arancibia instead.

On May 14, 2005, in a surprise move Piñera announced his candidacy for the 2005 presidential election (RN was supposed to support UDI's Lavín.) He has described his political philosophy as Christian humanism. In the first round of the election, on December 11, he obtained 25.4% of the vote, which placed him in second place. Since no candidate achieved an absolute majority, a runoff election was held on January 15, 2006, between himself and Michelle Bachelet of the governing coalition. Bachelet won the presidency with over 53% of the vote.

Presidential elections 2009–2010

Main article: Chilean presidential election, 2009–2010

Piñera ran for president of Chile in the 2009-2010 election. Since August of 2009, he led in opinion polls, competing with Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, Marco Enríquez-Ominami and Jorge Arrate; all of whom are left-of-center candidates. In the election of December 13, 2009, Piñera placed first in the results by obtaining 44.05% of the votes, while Frei placed second by obtaining 29.6% of the votes. Since neither candidate received more than half of the total votes, Chileans returned to the polls for a final run-off election on Sunday, January 17, 2010.

On January 18, 2010, the third and final preliminary results were announced by the Deputy Interior Ministry. These showing accounted for 99.77% of the total ballot boxes. Of the votes, Piñera received 51.61% and Frei received 48.39%. Eduardo Frei conceded after the first preliminary results, making Sebastián Piñera the new President-elect of Chile. Further preliminary results will be made available by the Electoral Service on January 25, 2010. Official and final results sanctioned by the Election Qualifying Court will be published on the Official Gazette on February 1, 2010.

Piñera's invested an estimated $13.6 millions USD on his presidential campaign, which included items such as a campaign anthem and "Thank You" banners. Piñera's banners and billboards have carried statements throughout the country such as "Delinquents, your party is over," and "Small businesses, Big opportunities". Amongst his promises are increasing education rates and improving international relations with the neighboring country of Peru.

Piñera's victory means a shift towards the center-right, breaking the two decade hold by center-leftist politics and becoming the first right-wing elected leader in 52 years.

Transition

Piñera will become the first billionaire to be sworn into the Chilean presidency. He has vowed to sell his shares in corporations before being sworn in on March 11, 2010, in order to avoid conflicts of interest. Piñera has placed $400 million in blind trusts. Three days after his election, Piñera announced plans to sell his 26.3 percent stake in LAN airines and called an extraordinary shareholders' meeting for his main holding company, Axxion, to take place on February 5, 2010. Pinera's expected sale created a surge in trade of Axxion and LAN shares, causing three brief suspensions (January 19-20, 22, 2010) in the Santiago Stock Exchange in order to ease trade. Axxion shares more then tripled before falling 39% on Friday, January 22, 2010. This outraged Chile's leftwing-dominated media and outgoing government. Finance Minister Andres Velasco urged Pinera to get the sale "sorted out quickly." The value of Piñera's interest in Axxion was estimated at 700 million dollars USD, of his 1.2 billion dollar USD fortune at the beginning of that week. Piñera has stated he would name his cabinet by the second week of February, 2010.

External links

• Official website
• Template:Es icon Biographical notes, in Spanish