In 1979, he was appointed president of Vale do Rio Doce, a multinational metals and mining corporation headquartered in Brazil, and within six years, increased the company's annual profits from $36 million to $920 million.

[1] Today, Vale S.A. is the largest producer of iron ore and nickel worldwide.

He was the father of former billionaire Eike Batista, once the richest man in the world.

He received a degree in civil engineering from the Federal University of Paraná in 1948.

In 2009, he divorced her and subsequently remarried to Inguelore Scheunemann, a dentist and former professor and rectoress at the Federal University of Pelotas, also of German origin.